Recipe: Lavender Shortbread Cookies
Source: The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook*
Time: 1 hr 5 min
Ease: 2
Taste: 4
Leftover Value: 7
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain!
*Note: I could not find their recipe online. Here are two similar recipes:
I have always heard good things about lavender. So many good things, that once upon a time when my Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook was new, I instantly marked the recipe for Lavender Shortbread down as a 'must make'.
What initially kept me from baking these cookies was the price of lavender. I scoured the internet, knowing I probably wasn't going to find it at the local supermarket, only to discover it was going to cost me $3.99 plus the obnoxious price of shipping and handling.
I was on the lookout for it, and finally found it at Savory Spice Shop in Princeton. If you enjoy unique and hard to find spices, this is the place to go. There must have been twenty varieties of salt. Even Hubby was lost in the different spice rubs and BBQ items they had to offer.
I didn't realize until later that I paid the same amount I would have paid had I ordered my lavender online. Of course, I didn't have to pay shipping and handling, and maybe it's just me, but I prefer to buy things in person. I want to pick from the back, inspect it, walk around with it, commit to it.
Having never tasted lavender before, I was a little confused at the smell. It didn't relate to my nose as being something that was going to give my cookie the addictive delicious quality I hoped for.
Naturally, I pressed on ignoring my nose.
While the shortbread quality of these cookies was perfect, the lavender took away from the buttery delight that is shortbread. I equated the taste of the lavender to thyme. Thyme, for some reason, is a seasoning I have never enjoyed too much. I want to like it, but I just don't have a palate for it. I know several cooks have tried to become clever and incorporate thyme into cakes and custards, but for me, it should remain in savory dishes and rubs for chickens.
These were definitely the type of cookie that I had to warn tasters of its uniqueness ahead of time. It went like this, "I brought a delicious chocolate cake, and, um, yeah, I have these cookies here. They have lavender in them, so if you want to try them...I'll just warn you that they taste more on the herbal side...like thyme."
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