LAVENDER SHORTBREAD COOKIES"Fragrant, delicate and delicious, these shortbread cookies are great to have around for snacking, for serving with ice cream or for enjoying at tea time, which is what they do at Tea Follies, a very popular tea salon in the 9th arrondissement of Paris."
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1 tbsp. dried lavender flowers (or chopped fresh rosemary leaves)*
Pinch of salt
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with cooking parchment.
In a large bowl, combine the flour and sugar. Then, using a fork, slowly incorporate the butter, egg, lavender and salt, working the mixture into a soft dough. Transfer it to a floured work surface and knead into a ball.
Roll the cookie dough to a 1/4-inch thickness; then cut it into about 36 (2 1/2-inch diameter) cookies. Transfer the rounds to the prepared baking sheets.
Bake until evenly brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a baking rack to cool.
*If you don't have access to dried lavender flowers (look for them at shops that sell herbs de Provence), fresh chopped rosemary leaves are a very worthy substitute.
Makes about 36 cookies
Source:
The Food Lover's Guide to Paris: Fourth Edition by Patricia Wells