I love lavender. I love the way it smells. I put it in my tea all the time so when I saw these on All Recipes I got really excited. I didn't have any fresh so I used dried. I also don't have a food processor so I put the buds in whole. It tastes fine this way. They don't get in the way when eating the shortbread either.

I didn't make my cutouts super thick so they came out nice and buttery but just the tiniest bit crisp around the edges. You can the roll the dough out to your desired thickness. They taste amazing with black Ceylon tea mixed with a small amount of lavender (put the lavender and use loose tea in a strainer or in a coffee filter).

 

I used 2 heart shaped cookie cutters, the large one worked best. The small ones looked more like blobs after they came out of the oven. I decorated a few of the edges with purple sparkle sugar.

The sugared ones didn't look that great. I think the edges got to soft from touching them more. It made the cookie lose it's heart shape. I would suggest making the cut outs and then refrigerating them before rolling the edges in sprinkles.  

Lavender Shortbread

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2/3 cups sugar

1/4 cup sifted icing sugar

2 tbs finely chopped lavender

1 tsp grated lemon zest

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

They have dried lavender on Ocado

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the lavender, and lemon zest.

Make sure to flatten the dough a little more than this

2. Preheat the oven to 165 C/325 F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, just until cookies begin to brown at the edges. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.