Honey Lavender Shortbread Cookies, An Alternative to Rosh Hashanah Honey Cake
Way back in June at the New Amsterdam Market in Manhattan's South Street Seaport, I ate the best shortbread cookie I've ever had this side of the Atlantic: perfectly buttery, crumbly, and a little bit salty, it was studded with dried lavender and sweetened with fragrant honey. I fell in love at first bite, and knew I absolutely had to have the recipe.
After some investigating, I figured out that it came from the Milk & Cookies Bakery in the West Village. I emailed the pastry chef and owner Tina Casaceli, who was incredibly gracious and happy to share the recipe.
The formula is surprisingly simple. How could such an easy combination of basic ingredients yield such unexpectedly spectacular results? I thought for sure that my homemade cookies would fall short of Casaceli's professional ones, but they didn't. My shortbread was every bit as addictive as I remembered. With Rosh Hashanah ahead, try these honey-filled cookies as an untraditional alternative to honey cake.
Honey Lavender Shortbread
- makes 30 cookies -
adapted from Milk & Cookies Bakery
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon dried or fresh lavender
6 ounces unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
Procedure
1. Combine flour, salt, baking powder, and lavender in a medium bowl.
2. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, honey, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
3. Spoon dough out onto a large rectangle of parchment paper and roll in the paper to form a log. Transfer dough to refrigerator and chill until firm, about 1 to 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the log of dough into 1/2-inch slices. Place the slices on sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart, and bake 8 minutes, or until light golden brown.
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7 Comments:
hm, so what's a good place to get small amounts of lavender in nyc?
sarahlucy at 2:37PM on 09/25/08
You can get dried at Penzey's spices at the Grand Central Market.
jpolk at 2:56PM on 09/25/08
I make a honey lemon lavendar biscotti which is so fragrant. The house smells incredible.
JerzeeTomato at 3:09PM on 09/25/08
JerzeeTomato, do you have a recipe for the biscotti? It sounds fabulous!
salty_sticky at 11:54AM on 09/26/08
@JerzeeTomato, yes, please do post that recipe!
Tactful_Cactus at 12:24PM on 09/26/08
sarahlucy, you should still be able to get fresh lavender from the greenmarkets, although probably not for too much longer. i've bought it from keith's farm, i think, they have a stall on wednesdays at union square.
bittman had a good column about cooking with lavender a few weeks back, if you need to use up the rest of the bunch. i wish i had an electric mixer so i could made these cookies!
boltchloer at 4:01PM on 09/26/08
I just baked up a batch of these... it took considerably longer than 8 minutes (more like 15), but they are delicious! The lavender/honey combo is so unique and it has a nice crispy exterior/chewy interior. I ate a couple while they were still cooling so I think they'll be even better when completely cooled and more crispy. Thanks for tracking this recipe down!
chompalot at 6:37PM on 09/28/08