1 1/2 cup butter (3 sticks)*
1 ; room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp lavender florets, chopped
1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
2 1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
Directions
GARNISH Lavender powdered sugar**
*No substitutes.
**To make lavender powdered sugar, put a few lavender flowers in a
sealed, pint jar of powdered sugar for a day before using sugar.
Preheat oven to 325 F. Cover two baking sheets with parchment or
brown paper.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter,
sugar, lavender and mint; mix until light and fluffy, about 3
minutes. Add flour, cornstarch and salt; beat until combined. Divide
dough in half. Flatten into squares and wrap in plastic. Chill until
firm.
On a floured board, roll or pat out each square to a thickness of
3/8". Cut the dough into 1 1/2" squares or rounds. Transfer to baking
sheets, spacing cookies about 1" apart. Prick each cookie several
times with the tines of a fork.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes until pale golden (do not brown). Cool
slightly, then transfer to a rack. Sprinkle with lavender powdered
sugar. Store in tin cookie boxes or sealed containers.
Yield: About 4 dozen.
Shepherd writes: "A lovely rich shortbread with a hint of sweet
lavender fragrance and flavor. Perfect to serve with tea in the
afternoon."
From 1994 "Shepherd's Garden Seeds Catalog," pg. 61.
Servings: 48 servings
Lavender Shortbread Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads
The History of Recipes
We can read the history of `recipes` way back into the far past, at least as far as pharonic Egypt, and quite possibly further than that. In practice though, generally, these early cookbooks were just simple pictorial recipes for preparing food.
In fact, the oldest recipe found, according to academics is a series of ancient tablets in Sumerian describing the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making drinkers feel wonderful and blissful. Later on, in Roman times around 25BC a roman called Apicius assembled a collection of documents describing recipes enjoyed by wealthy roman citizens. In his publication, Apicius recounts how the meals were separated into hors d`oeuvres, entrees and dessert, a style of dining still practiced today. This early Roman chef informs us how the Roman cooks used many spices, including a few that will be familiar to modern chefs such as thyme, fennel and asafoetida. Later on, we have two interesting books which were published in the fourteenth century - a cookery book called `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary titled `Curye on Inglish`. Don`t be fooled by the titles though, these books have no connection with the curry that is popular today, but instead accounts of the types of meals on the tables of the rich and powerful of the period. Later on in the 1400s, knights returning from the crusades brought back many foods and spices from the Middle-East, including coriander, parsley, and basil. These new culinary innovations caused an outbreak in publications on food, many of which are kept safe in private cookery archives. For the next few years, the upper-class families of Europe competed with each other to serve up the most extravagent meals, and as a result the best cooks and their recipes were much in demand. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the 1800s that fine cookery and recipe collections reached a high level of popularity. Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Farmer in the US, devoted their lives to collating, testing, and publishing popular recipes of the day. By the advent of the twentieth century, cooking books are in high demand, as a result of increased literacy, more leisure time and having more disposable income. The introduction of the TV brings us cooking programs and the demand for the accompanying recipe books. Which pretty much brings us to the present day and the invention of the internet, permitting us all to access thousands of recipes like the ones you can find on this web site. |
We hope you enjoy this Lavender Shortbread recipe.
