There is something about lemon and lavender that works really well together.  The tanginess of the lemon cuts in nicely with the floral flavors of the lavender smoothing them out to a subtly pleasant flavor that pairs rather well with the butteriness of the shortbread.  I also happened to have several sprigs of fresh lavender in my garden that were just begging to be creatively utilized.

I clobbered this recipe together a few weeks ago, and I took my first batch of these lemon lavender shortbreads to the beach with me.  Needless to say, they were quite a hit.  Even my Mother, who will turn her nose up at the very idea of adding the slightest of floral notes to anything edible, didn’t have any complaints, despite the lack of chocolate.  Another one of her subliminal dietary rules – anything sweet, that doesn’t have chocolate in it, is not worth the calories.  It probably helped that she had snapped one up and was out the door with it before I could warn her about the lavender.

Recipe makes about 28 cookies.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Flour
• 2/3 cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) cold Butter
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 2 tbsp Vanilla Extract
• zest from 1 Lemon
• 1 tbsp dried Lavender or 6 sprigs of fresh Lavender

Directions:

1. Combine all of the ingredients together in a food processor until they come together into a dough.
2. Wrap the dough in plastic.
3. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight. If you are leaving your dough overnight, make sure that the dough is properly sealed to keep it from drying out.
4. 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 325 F (~163 C).
5. Roll out the dough, and use a cookie cutter to cut out the shortbread.
6. Place the cookies on greased or parchment lined baking sheets.  Poke with fork (optional).
7. Bake for ~18 minutes.

♥