It’s lavender season in Pennsylvania. Two summers ago I visited two local lavender farms – Warwick Furnace Farm in Glenmoore and Mt Airy Lavender in Coatesville. Some photos from those visits have been popping up in my memories and this inspired me to make a sweet treat with lavender.
I decided on a shortbread and read a variety of different recipes. I landed on one from New York Times Cooking as I like how it suggested a base that could be adapted to suit many different flavor combinations (nine more were included). This recipe follows the very simple principle of a one to one butter-to-flour ratio – one stick of butter for one cup of flour. Add to that some sugar, salt, dried lavender and lemon zest and you have a wonderful shortbread.
With so few ingredients, it’s important that they are of good quality. While you could use any unsalted butter, I recommend using a good European-style butter (or as we call it in our house ‘good butter’). It is a cultured butter that has been churned longer to a higher butterfat content of 82%. I always have Ireland’s Kerry Gold on hand, but there are many varieties from both Europe and the United States.
We had our friends, Megan R and Ted F, for dinner to celebrate their upcoming wedding and served this with Lemon-Buttermilk Sherbet as part of dessert. We all really enjoyed it and I encouraged Megan and Ted to take shortbread some home. They were being good and resisted. This meant I had some to share with my brother’s family the following day when we went to see our niece, Atlee, play lacrosse nearby. I sent them back to Connecticut with a treat bag which I wasn’t sure if it would make it home. I was very pleased when Geoff called later that evening to say that this shortbread just might be the best thing I had ever baked (and he’s eaten a lot of my baked treats!). I could hear my sister-in-law, Annie, in the background echoing his sentiments. Needless to say, this made my day! I hope you will give it a try.
Perhaps you have some special culinary lavender in your spice cabinet? Mine came from Mt Airy Lavender. If not, you can find it online. You can read more about these two lavender farms in Chester County, Pennsylvania plus check out recipes for Honey-Lavender-Lemon Chicken and Lavender-Vodka Spritzer.
| Lavender-Lemon Shortbread | | Print |
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon dried culinary lavender
- Zest from 1 medium lemon (~2 teaspoons)
- 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch chunks (see Notes)
- Heat oven to 325°F.
- Pulse together flour, sugar, salt and lavender in a food processor until lavender is in smaller pieces (about 1 minute).
- Zest lemon over the food processor (to capture the oil from the lemon) and pulse to combine.
- Add butter and pulse to fine crumbs. Pulse a few more times until some of the crumbs start to come together, but don’t overprocess; the dough should be somewhat crumbly but will hold together when you press some between your fingers. (Alternatively, you can also mix the dough in a bowl using two knives or a pastry cutter.)
- Press dough into an even layer in an ungreased 8- or 9-inch-square baking pan. Prick dough all over with a fork.
- Bake until golden brown, about 35 to 40 minutes for the 9-inch square pan or 45 to 50 minutes for the 8-inch square pan.
- Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool. Let cool for about 10 minutes and cut into squares or bars (while still warm). It’s fine if it cools before cutting, it’s just a bit easier to cut when warm.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days.
* You can also prepare this in a 9-inch round pie pan – bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cut into wedges while still warm.
Source: Variation on recipe from New York Times Cooking
Curiosity for this flavor and texture profile is peaked! Yum!
Spenser – Thank you! It’s a great combo.
A variation on this is a stable in our household! I think the only difference is that I use confectioner’s sugar and I leave out the salt – I find it doesn’t play well with lavender. Thanks for the reminder – time to make a batch!
David – I am not at all surprised that you make a lavender shortbread! Interesting about the salt. It’s not much but someone said they really liked the saltiness of the shortbread (I almost thought I’d used salted butter!).