Monday, April 24, 2017

Lemon Thyme Lavender Shortbread Cookies


Santa brought a package in the mail today. I know, it's almost summer and Santa is at the North Pole doing what he does when he's not delivering. However, whenever UPS comes down my street the boys go crazy, barking incessantly, until I go out to meet him. I call this Santa. I mean, when else do you get presents hand-delivered by a strange man, from someone you love?

I seriously feel like a kid at Christmas when I see him. Especially when I haven't ordered anything. Ok, so sometimes he brings packages that I might have ordered on the internet. He's still Santa to me. Shout out to UPS here for having drivers that are always friendly, even during that busy season.



So I have this small box, hand delivered, from an unknown address, with foreign writing on it. It looks cheerful enough, and looks to have some sort of possibly Russian (I will not talk politics right now) writing. Who knows? Wait, Tory told me I had a package coming a while ago. This must be it. So I open it and omigosh! 



We had talked about the rolling pins that roll patterns a long time ago. Well, she found one with chickens on it and sent it to me. It even came with a recipe (that I'm modifying a bit). How amazing is she? I know how much she has on her plate right now, and she's sending me fun kitchen gadgets that she knows I will love. This calls for a care package with cookies. Then Santa can go to her house, too. 



Beat butter and powdered sugar until combined.



Add egg, vanilla, salt, lemon thyme, lavender, and lemon zest.



Mix until combined.



Slowly add flour and knead (I used my dough hook on my mixer). It should be stiff. Mine holds together when I press it, but is crumbly if I don't.




Wrap and refrigerate dough for half an hour.



Roll it out with a regular rolling pin. The directions say 0.1 - 0.3 inch. I'm not going to measure. Since it calls for a pretty hot oven, it can't be too thick. The sides will burn, leaving the middle raw if I do. I compromised. 375 degrees and a slightly thicker cookie.

Dust the top of the dough sheet with flour. 



Roll with a patterned pin (not a necessary step, but the whole reason I'm making these today. 



Cut out the cookie shape. 



Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. They should just be turning gold on the edges. 



That leftover dough from rolling and rerolling is not to be wasted. I made two more "roller"cookies, and a molded cookie. It beats rerolling every last cookie. This impression was from the end of my new patterned pin.




My ceramic mold got a dusting of flour before I patted the last of my dough in.






Since my dough has been worked a few times, I put the whole thing back in the refrigerator for ten minutes.







My last three cookies!








They turned out pretty. The smell of lemon and lavender while baking made my mouth water.













A pretty pacakge and I'm headed to UPS. I hope Tory knows how thankful I am.









I would give credit to the creator of the original recipe, but I don't know where it came from! It is a basic shortbread anway, I just added my own touch. 
  • 230g - (2 sticks butter)
  • 170g - (about 2 C powdered sugar)
  • 1 egg 
  • 2 t vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 T lavender
  • 1 T lemon thyme leaves
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 400-440g flour; I used a small egg and used exactly 400g. If a large egg is used then as much as 440g will be needed. 400g was about 3 C. 
I can't say enough about herbs. They are so easy to grow. Especially thyme. Pots of rosemary, thyme, lemon thyme, tarragon, parsley, and sage are the bare minimums I can get by with. Fresh herbs add flavor that can't be found in a jar. Oh, and to use in scrambled eggs... another blog. 

2 comments:

  1. Yummy So happy that you enjoy the rolling pin for I loved the cookies

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really do love my new pin. It was such a nice surprise! Thnak you so much. The only that could have made that day better would have been to have you here to make them with <3

      Delete