Marianne and I churned out about 450 lavender cookies between last night and today. Sleep overcame us at about 10:45 last night so we abandoned ship until this morning. One of our crew at the nursery is getting married Saturday... a smart, sweet, gorgeous, funny young lady named Jenny. She took a shine to the lavender cookies when I made them a while back and thought they would make great wedding guest favors...kind of keeping with the whole outdoor wedding, flower, herb theme.
If you're like many who've heard us mention lavender cookies, you may be saying, "yuck". The conversion comes after the first bite, The recipe came from a former co-worker and present day friend named Katie, who used to have a catering business. They are delicious...crunchy, buttery, chewy with just the lightest hint of lavender and lemon. The lavender buds are baked right in the cookies and then I brush a very thin lemon glaze on top which hardens to a glossy, opaque white; perfect for a wedding!
We packaged them by two's, in hour glass shaped cellophane bags tied with raffia and a sprig or two of dried lavender for decoration. Then we put them in a huge basket lined heavily with ivory lace. If we can keep the kids and dogs (not to mention wayward husbands) away from them for 24 hours we should be in good shape.
Here's the recipe for those of you with inquiring minds and insatiable guts:
Lavender Cookies
1 large egg
1 stick butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 T lavender buds
1 1/4 c unbleached flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1) Mix egg, butter, sugar and lavender in large mixing bowl until well mixed. (I use my KitchenAide on "stir")
2) Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in another bowl.
3) Combine dry ingredients into creamed butter mixture a little at a time. Stir until well blended. (again, KitchenAide "stir" setting)
4) Drop by teaspoon at a time onto ungreased cookie sheet. I also found for consistency you may roll each into a walnut size ball.
5) Bake at 350 for approx. 14-15 min. until lightly golden around edges.
Lemon Glaze
Mix 1 cup powdered sugar with 1 tsp lemon juice and enough water to make a slightly runny consistency. Lightly brush mixture on each cookie with a pastry brush before cookies cool. Allow glaze to set up and cookies to cool before storing.
Make approx. 30 cookies per batch (easily doubles)
**Cooking lavender is available at gourmet food shops and health food stores.**
I'll take a picture of the cookies tomorrow and post. Tina volunteered us to be the cake cutters...I've never done it before that I can remember (you know how weddings are!) but I'm sure we'll have some tales to tell when the slicing is done...I have visions of icing up to my elbows and sneaking into a closet by myself with an entire layer...as Uncle Leslie once said "we have a family of passionate women". He just didn't realize the passion was for cake!.
