Monday, July 25, 2011

Lavender Sugar Cookies






Back in June I took a trip to the Texas Hill Country to see the Lavender Festival. Sadly due to the drought and excessive heat this year the lavender fields were dry and not blooming.

Last week I was fortunate enough to travel to the Portland, Oregon area to visit a friend and got to see the most beautiful lavender fields. They were amazing. The area is so lush and I have never seen such beautiful flowers. It was a welcome escape from the horrible summer we are experiencing. The weather there was just wonderful and I enjoyed every minute. My friend is a superb cook and thought these cookies would be a good showcase for our lavender. These cookies are taken from a recipe of Penny McConnell from Penny's Pastries in Austin, Texas.

AMAZING SUGAR COOKIES

Butter Sugar Cookie Dough

1 cup butter, salted
1 cup granulated sugar (7 oz.)1 large egg
2 tablespoons whipping cream
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups (15 oz.) unbleached flour, unsifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
We added 2 teaspoons culinary lavender to these cookies.

Cookie Glaze

3 to 3-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon flavoring (almond, orange, lemon, etc.) We used lavender syrup.
1/4 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In mixing bowl with a wooden spoon or in a heavy-duty mixer, combine butter and sugar using low speed with mixer. Do not over mix. Add egg, whipping cream, vanilla and almond extract all at once to butter/sugar mixture. Mixture will probably look curdled. Mix just until combined.

In separate bowl, mix flour with baking powder. Add dry ingredients to liquid. Mix to form dough. Give dough a quick knead, then roll out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Bake on parchment-lined sheets until set and very lightly browned around edges about 12 minutes. Cool before decorating. Mix up glaze and drizzle over cooled cookies.

This dough rolls out beautifully. A good tip is to use powdered sugar instead of flour to roll out to keep the cookies from tasting too doughy.

5 comments:

Emily said...

The lavender is gorgeous! Ugh, I want to visit, too!

Lavender remind me of France, so these cookies sound very French to me. They sound delicious! They use a lot of vanilla, don't they? Do they have a strong vanilla flavor?

Anj said...

Hey Em! No, they don't have a strong vanilla taste. I use Mexican vanilla and I don't use the almond flavoring. These roll so easily and don't stick at all.

Anonymous said...

I love lavendar and these cookies reming me of quintesenntial lavendar that is grown way up north near the Canadian border in washington state, we go and I buy soaps, and lavendar to make sachets, soaps etc..Yummee they look so yummee..will try baking them with my new stove after 33 years I am jazzed to get a new stove and sink and faucet, whoppee skoopee..mjs from the couv that is vancouver washington....

Anonymous said...

I love lavendar and these cookies reming me of quintesenntial lavendar that is grown way up north near the Canadian border in washington state, we go and I buy soaps, and lavendar to make sachets, soaps etc..Yummee they look so yummee..will try baking them with my new stove after 33 years I am jazzed to get a new stove and sink and faucet, whoppee skoopee..mjs from the couv that is vancouver washington....

Trudy said...

I like the picture of the cookies, but what I really want to know is who took your new profile pic? It is fabulous. I love it!