Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Siulin's Kitchen has finally achieved 50 posts!!! It's been 8 months since I started my blog and I am so proud of myself that I am still writing my blog regularly. To make this 50th post special, I have created a poll on facebook whether i should make:

A) Chinese Ginger Milk

B) Cinnamon Roll

C) Lavender Shortbread Cookies 

Lavender shortbread cookies ended up with the most votes! Here's the story of how I become interested in making this lavender shortbread cookies......... 

Back in last November, I went to New York to visit a friend in a random weekend. We visited the Brooklyn Food Market. We were lucky that time because apparently the market does not open all year. But if it is open, it is a must go!! The food there is unique and tasty. 

I never liked a coconut cream pie since I hate coconut. But this little thing has changed my perception on coconut. This is the best coconut cream pie I have ever had.

 Pull pork bun. It's alright.. but it is always good to have it at a carnival.

Apple cinnamon donut. Oh Well! I rushed there and one right the way once I heard the word Cinnamon!

Cutie Movember Cookies... This is where I got my lavender shortbread cookies and how me and my friend fell in love with it.

Asia dog. A place that sold Asian fusion hot dogs, pretty cool.

 That's my burger with kimchi in it!! YUM!!

That's pretty much what we had from the food market, I would really want to revisit probably some time this year again! So now.... let's get back to the recipes!

This is by far my favorite shortbread cookies. The aroma with the combination of butter and lavender has filled up my kitchen. This distinctive scent has brought back all my memories from the trip. This is just amazing!! I cannot use any words to describe this shortbread cookies. If you have dried lavender or you know the source to buy them, I highly recommend you to try this out.

I got my dried lavender in Montreal... this is for cuisine.

Lavender Shortbread Cookies

(Yield:  12 cookies)

Recipes adopted from an edible mosaic

Lavender Sugar:

¼ cup + 2 tbsp castor sugar (fine sugar, not icing sugar)

¾  tbsp dried lavender

Cookies:

¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

Red and blue liquid food coloring (optional)

Lavender Sugar:

Process the dried lavender and sugar in a food processor until they have a fine texture (they should have the texture of superfine/castor sugar).

Since I do not have a food processor, I used my kitchen scissors to cut them up, and used the bottom end of my make up brush (I have cleaned it in advance) to crush them into powders.

Color your sugar into purple (Optional):

This is only for the sugar on the top of the cookies.

1) Scoop out 2 tbsp of lavender sugars into a small bowl. Add in red and blue food coloring and mix them well.

2) Spread the sugar on a baking pan lined with parchment paper.

3) Dry the sugar in the 325 F preheated oven for 3-4 minutes.

4) Sieve the sugar.

To make the cookies:

1) Preheat the oven to 325F. 

2) In a large bowl, cream together the butter (reserve 1-2 tbsp for step 6) and ¼ cup lavender sugar.

3) In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, and salt. 

4) Use a wooden spoon to stir the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture gradually.

5) Roll the dough into balls and place them 2 inches apart on the baking pan lined with parchment paper. 

6) Grease the bottom of a drinking class with butter, then dip it in the purple (or no dye) lavender sugar. Slightly flatten each ball of dough with the buttered and sugared glass. Do not re-dip it with butter as it will moist and stick the sugars together, but you can dip in more sugars as needed.

7) Bake in oven for 17 minutes. 

Best served with a cup of hot tea :)