Lavender Earl Grey Cookies
Lavender is one of my favorite flavors; about a month ago I bought a bunch of culinary lavender and lavender sugar, and I was looking for creative new ways to use it. Lavender earl grey cookies definitely caught my eye -- it combines two of my favorite things together. And it did not disappoint! It's been a looong time since I've made cookies, so I was worried about how this would turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised! For reference, I used this recipe: https://www.hummingbirdhigh.com/2020/04/lavender-earl-grey-cookies.html.
Active Time: 30 min
Total Time: 1 hr
Ingredients
> butter (2 sticks)
> sugar (1 cup)
> lavender sugar (2 tbsp + 2 tbsp for dusting)
> egg (1, beaten)
> vanilla extract (2 tsp)
> AP flour (2 1/4 cups)
> Earl Grey tea (1 tbsp, finely ground)
> baking powder (1/2 tsp)
> baking soda (1/4 tsp)
> salt (1/2 tsp)
Instructions
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (AP flour, Earl Grey tea, baking powder, baking soda, salt).
2. Using a stand mixer or a hand-mixer, cream the butter, sugar, and 2 tbsp of the lavender sugar. If using a stand mixer, beat on medium-high speed until light, fluffy, and roughly doubled in volume, about several minutes. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides as needed.
3. Reduce the speed to low add the egg and vanilla extract, and beat until just combined.
4. With the speed on low, gradually add the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat until just combined.
5. Using a cookie dough scoop, portion and shape the dough into 2-tbsp balls. Place the cookies at least 3 inches apart on prepared sheet pans. Sprinkle the tops of the balls with remaining 2 tbsp of lavender sugar.
6. Bake the cookies one pan at a time at 350 F for about 12 minutes, or until the edges have set but the center is still slightly gooey. Cool the cookies on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes, or until the edges and bottoms have set and cool to the touch.
7. Serve or store and enjoy!
Notes/Tips:
> As always with cookies / creaming butter, make sure your butter is ROOM TEMPERATURE. It'll be so much easier to work with + cream. It also helps to cut the butter into small cubes before creaming it -- it'll make the initial process much easier.
> 1 tbsp of Earl Grey roughly translates to 3 teabags worth; the one that I bought was already ground so I didn't have to grind it further but you may need to use a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle if you're using loose-leaf tea.
> Optionally, you can put the cookie dough in the fridge for a bit before baking it. This will help develop the flavors, and also make it a little easier to work with. If you do, make sure to increase the baking time slightly (maybe ~14-15m instead of ~12m). You could also bake more than one pan at a time, but again you may need to increase the time slightly.
> For some extra pazzaz, optionally garnish with some dried culinary lavender sprigs.
> You could also directly use culinary lavender, finely ground, added to the dry ingredients. That's what the original recipe that I referenced called for. However, I didn't have a spice grinder and using a mortar and pestle just wasn't getting it fine enough, so I just went with lavender sugar. Around 1/2 to 1 tsp of lavender should be about right.
> It is easy to overbake these cookies -- the center should be somewhat gooey when you pull it out of the oven. And it can be a bit hard to tell if the cookies are done -- because of the earl grey, the center will end up being slightly grey, even if it's fully cooked through.