I'm very good at impulse buys when it comes to strange, vague-ly fancy food related items. You gotta hand it to etsy for making it so easy to buy the most adorable, hipster, cutesy, nerdy things. I could easily bookmark half the webpage and just cry about all the things I couldn't buy. But this is the first time I've bought any food-item from etsy, but for dried lavender it was necessary. Amazon sells 1/2 lbs - 1lbs bags of dried lavender, which no one could possibly finish in their lifetime unless they were running a bakery or restaurant. And I don't live in France where I can just frolick through fields of lavender all day.
I initially bought the dried lavender to make lavender ice cream (eventually, when I get my ice cream maker back). Lavender flavored things sound seriously pretentious and may initially give the impression that people have gone made and enjoy the taste of soap. I first had lavender while in Ojai during a high school summer science program where I spent many mildly sleep deprived nights with some of the smartest people programming and trying to learn astronomy. So to me, lavender isn't so much about fancy soap than it is about the weird silly things we did alongside all the astronomy and science, like lavender festivals, getting a stress test from the Church of Scientology, and creating a 3-level headphone split. You get the idea- summer nostalgia and all that jazz.
If you're feeling a bit of trepidation about investing in a full-on lavender recipe, these lavender lemon sugar cookies are a good way to dip your toes in. The lemon comes off as the main flavor in these cookies, while the lavender come in as key supporting characters that make these cookies, well, better than lemon sugar cookies.
I ultimately copied the recipe for Lemon Sugar Cookies from Two Peas and Their Pod, but made some modifications to incorporate the lavender. I'll reproduce the recipe below, but I still don't have a fancy recipe widget since 90% of my posts I just follow the recipes from other people.
Dried lavender purchased from LLFarm on etsy. 1 oz. is the smallest quantity I have found online for a reasonable price, and this will still likely last you for several rounds of lavender baking/cooking. Williams Sonoma or one of those fancy food stores also sells a 1/2 oz amount, but its priced much higher than what I saw on etsy.
Lavender Lemon Sugar Cookies
Lemon Sugar Cookies from Two Peas and Their Pod. Reproduced below with * indicating modifications.
Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 TBSP dried lavender buds*
1 cup butter
1 egg
1 lemon- zest*
2 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup walnuts*
1/2 cup sugar for rolling
1/2 tsp-1 tsp dried lavender buds for rolling*
Steps:
1-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2-Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Mix and set aside.
3-In a food processor and blend together sugar and lavender until lavender is chopped up. You can add in all the sugar or just some of it depending on how large your food processor is.*
4-In a clean bowl or mixer, beat together butter, lavender, and sugar until smooth and creamy.
5-Add lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla and egg and mix till combined. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix till just combined.
7-Set aside dough. Chop up walnuts in food processor or by hand until you have fine pieces. Add to dough, leaving aside 1-2 TBSP if you want to use walnuts in your rolling mixture.*
8-Using a food processor, blend together sugar, lavender, and walnuts to create rolling mixture.*
9-Roll dough into ~1 tsp-1 TBSP balls (your preference for size) and roll into sugar-lavender-walnut mixture before placing on baking sheets, about 1-1/2 inches apart.
10-Bake for 8-10 minutes until slightly brown and edges are set. Remove, let rest on sheets for 2 mins before transferring to cooling rack.
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