Lavender Cookies

Last Friday I had the opportunity to go to my local Farmer's Market, from which I bought a bunch of lavender. I put it in a vase at home and it looks so lovely on my little dining room table:

However, I wanted to do something else with the lavender. A few years ago, a good friend of mine made COOKIES with lavender in them and I remember them being good so I decided to venture out and make my own. It was also a good excuse to get out my pretty cake stand =)

I found this recipe from the blog Forgiving Martha via Pinterest and decided to try it out. It's a wonderful recipe that turned out super yummy the second time =)- I found the original had a few hiccups for me, so I revised a couple of things below. The recipe is pretty much the same except, as I said before, a few very minor changes. The first time I made these, I burned them because 20-25 minutes is way too much for these cookies.

In the end, they turned out very light and just the right amount of sweet with a minty, flowery taste to them...

Anyway, whip up a bunch of these and grab a nice cup of lemon mint tea and a copy of Anne of Green Gables and you'll have a very nice afternoon!

 

Lavender Shortbread Cookies

adapted from Barefoot Contessa  and a guest post from Leah from Forgiving Martha
3 sticks (3/4 lb.) salted or unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 heaping Tablespoon fresh or dried culinary lavender*
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (I just used chocolate chips)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until just combined. Do not cream butter and sugar, as you don’t want to add air to this dough. Add the vanilla extract and mix. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix until the dough just comes together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour, divide in half and shape into two flat disks. Wrap each disk separately in plastic and chill for 30 minutes. 
3. Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll out the dough 1/4-3/8-inch thick (I did them a little more than 1/4"). Choose your favorite cookie cutter and cut out cookies placing them on an ungreased baking sheet lined with either parchment or a silicone mat (I did neither but they still turned out fine). Sprinkle cookies with sugar and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are just golden. Cool to room temperature. 
4. When the cookies are cool, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 
5. Place 3 ounces of the finely chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over a saucepan of simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, remove it from the heat. Add the remaining chocolate and stir with a wooden spoon until it has completely melted and is smooth and glossy. Taking one cookie at a time, dip one end of each cookie in the melted chocolate and place it on a parchment lined baking sheet. Once all the cookies have been dipped, place the baking sheets in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes, or until the chocolate has hardened. 
6. Shortbread cookies keep in an airtight container for about a week but are best served same day! 

*I used fresh and they turned out great, but you can use dried purchased from Amazon or Williams Sonoma.