One of the few things the squirrels and chipmunks leave alone in my yard are the herbs. They might dig around them, but they don’t eat them or pull them up. That means a bumper crop of lavender. I love the clean fresh smell of lavender, but come on; there are only so many pillows you can stuff. So I thought, why not cook with it? At this point I could give you a pretty long list of things that do not taste better with lavender in them, but rather than print that sort of embarrassing list, I’ll tell you something that worked: Lavender Shortbread. I’m not kidding, it’s really good. One of my friends called it my grownup attempt at marijuana brownies- now that’s just plain mean!
I make a shortbread that uses cornstarch for part of the flour. I like the texture it gives, crumbly, but not falling apart. The word short in shortbread is the old English word for crumbly texture in cooking. At least that’s what an old cookbook I have states, and it sounds reasonable to me. Really, the good part of shortbread is the butter. Traditionally shortbread is just 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, and 3 parts flour. It’s hard to go wrong with that ingredient list.Last night was the final night of the class I was teaching at Cheekwood and I could hardly go empty handed. Lavender Shortbread seemed like just the thing for my knitters and so I whipped up a batch. It came out of the oven just in time for me to dash out the door, so it was still warm and smelled just delightful. The shortbread had to travel in the pie pan and it was too hot to just put in the car. Yikes! What to do? Then I saw the box my cowboy boots came in, it was a perfect fit, just like my boots! It may not have been the classiest packaging I’ve ever come up with, but not one bite was left when class was over. If you don’t have containers of dried lavender hanging around, and aren’t feeling like seeking it out in a store, don’t worry; this shortbread is just as scrumptious without it.
Ingredients
2/3 c confectioners sugar
3/4 c softened butter (1 ½ sticks)
3/4 c cornstarch
1 ¾ c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp dried lavender flowers or 1 tsp vanilla
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Put sugar, cornstarch, flower, salt and lavender in a food processor and give it a couple of pulses to combine. Cut butter into several pieces and add to the food processor. Process until a soft dough forms. Press into a pie pan or any 8 x 8 pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a little golden around the edge. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then cut into wedges or squares. Share with friends.
