My lovely best friend Hannah gifted me some local organic lavender sugar. It is incredibly aromatic – as soon as the jar opens, you are overcome with the fresh scent of lavender. However, it has a surprisingly subtle flavor when eaten.
I made soft sugar cookies, replacing some of the sugar in the dough with lavender sugar, but found that wasn’t enough to impart the flavor of lavender. I ended up also rolling the dough in lavender sugar before baking, which gave the cookies a delicate lavender flavor and also tiny flecks of lavender on top. There is also lemon zest in the dough, which is a nice compliment to the lavender without overpowering it.
If you don’t have lavender sugar, you can replace it with regular sugar and add 1 T crushed lavender flowers in the dough instead. You can also try making homemade lavender sugar.
Also, if you don’t want to use so much lavender sugar, you could probably use regular sugar in the dough and simply roll the dough in the lavender sugar.
Lavender Lemon Sugar Cookies
- 1/2 C butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1/4 C lavender sugar
- 1 T lemon zest
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 t vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 C flour
- 1 t baking powder
- 1/2 t salt
- 5 T lavender sugar
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats.
In a large bowl, cream together room temperature butter, sugar, lavender sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until thoroughly combined. Mix in vanilla.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, beating at a low speed until everything is just combined.
Place remaining lavender sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in lavender sugar, evenly coating the dough. Place a few inches apart on prepared cookie sheets and bake 6-9 minutes, until edges are slightly firm and cookies are very lightly browned on bottom.
TaleTellerin
May 9, 2010 at 6:39 am (15 years ago)These look and sound divine! I can really imagine the lemon so well with the lavender. Yum.
Stephanie
May 9, 2010 at 8:57 pm (15 years ago)Thanks! The flavors were great together.
Angela
May 9, 2010 at 11:00 am (15 years ago)I have some lavender sugar that needs to get used up, this sounds like the perfect way to do so!
Stephanie
May 9, 2010 at 11:06 am (15 years ago)Definitely! Let me know how you like them!
Sowilo
May 9, 2010 at 4:28 pm (15 years ago)These look great! One question, the ingredient list says baking powder, but the instructions say baking soda. Which is it?
Stephanie
May 9, 2010 at 7:26 pm (15 years ago)Good catch! I don’t know how that happened, except I was typing this up late at night. It’s baking powder, sorry for the confusion!
C and C Dish
May 9, 2010 at 5:45 pm (15 years ago)What a wonderful sounding cookie…these look great, great idea!
Stephanie
May 9, 2010 at 8:57 pm (15 years ago)Thanks!
lauriebot
May 9, 2010 at 7:54 pm (15 years ago)I just procured an obscene amount of lavender and have been looking for tasty recipe ideas… think this might be a winner!
Also, I absolutely love your blog; such a great idea! Can’t wait to see what’s next!
-Lauriebot
Stephanie
May 9, 2010 at 8:58 pm (15 years ago)Try it and tell me what you think!
Jason Phelps
May 11, 2010 at 4:54 am (15 years ago)I saw this recipe and immediately thought of warm cookies and a chilled dessert wine on a nice fall day. Reading food blogs is evil!
I have some lavendar growing again this year and will definitely be trying out this recipe as soon as I harvest.
I pulled together a late harvest wine pairing to flex some pairing creativity on my own blog at http://ancientfirewineblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/late-harvest-wine-with-lavender-sugar.html.
Thank You
Jason
Stephanie
May 11, 2010 at 2:16 pm (15 years ago)Thanks Jason! I love dessert wines. I’ll have to try this next time I make the cookies!
Katty
May 11, 2010 at 8:26 am (15 years ago)I can’t wait to try these. And if you’re a lavender lady like me, I have a lavender mint gelato you might want to try. I was waiting for my own mint to grow before I make it and blog it, but would be happy to send you the recipe if you’d like. 🙂 Simply beautiful!
Stephanie
May 11, 2010 at 2:19 pm (15 years ago)That sounds wonderful Katty! I have a ton of mint growing in the yard outside my classroom. I would love the recipe.
Katty
May 13, 2010 at 2:17 pm (15 years ago)Here’s a link to the recipe I used. 🙂
http://www.chow.com/recipes/26963-fresh-mint-ice-cream-with-lavender?tag=main_body;recipe-26963
Linn @ Swedish home cooking
May 11, 2010 at 12:36 pm (15 years ago)Oh, beautiful. I love the smell of lavender, I can image how delicious it must be in a cookie! Mmm.
Sarah
December 30, 2010 at 8:24 am (14 years ago)These look amazing! I am in love. I love all things lavender and I especially love it in foods. I went ahead an posted a link to your wonderful website on my blog! thanks for sharing!!