Gluten Free Lavender Cookies

In my flower gardens, I often plant flowers for the color next to herbs for the smell. One of my favorite plants is French Lavender for both the flowers and the heavenly aroma. However, I am not sure if I have culinary-grade lavender, as opposed to crafting lavender which may be more pungent and bitter. Plus harvesting, drying, and sifting the flowers was a bit more work than I wanted to do. So I purchased some culinary-grade lavender. Of course, then I had to decide what I wanted to do with it. So, time to make cookies!

Don’t need gluten free? Please see Lavender Cookies with White Chocolate Chips and Lavender Icing.

THE INSIDE SCOOP

Weights and Measures: When both volumetric and weight measures are provided, the volumetric measures should be considered approximations. The standard measure for a cup of sugar is 192 grams. By volume, typically this measure will be less than 1 cup.

This recipe was made using My Gluten Free Flour Mix*. Due to the varying characteristics of gluten free flours, other gluten free flour mixes are not guaranteed to work.

Since gluten free flours do not contain gluten, refrigeration time is essential to allow flours to absorb moisture and eliminate the gritty “gluten free” texture and taste. Cookies typically contain minimal moisture, therefore, gluten-free cookie batter needs to be refrigerated overnight to allow the batter time to absorb the moisture before baking.

Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly, Lavender’s green.

Be sure to use culinary-grade lavender in this recipe. Lavender is typically divided into 2 categories: culinary and crafting. Culinary-grade lavender comes from lavender that is grown specifically for culinary uses (of course). It has a sweeter flavor, and has been sifted to remove leaves, bits of stems, and other debris.

While lavender can be used whole, crushing the lavender will allow more flavor to be released. The easiest way to crush lavender is in a thoroughly clean coffee grinder. However, it can also be crushed with a mortar and pestle, or by wrapping it in waxed paper and crushing it with a meat hammer, aka meat tenderizer.

One remaining issue with lavender: Too much lavender will give the cookie a soapy taste. If your lavender is very fresh and has a very strong scent, use less. If your lavender has lost some of its strong scent, use more.

Life’s better with fresh baked cookies.

This is a very easy cookie to make. However, avoid over-stirring the cookie dough: either stir by hand or use the lowest speed of a stand mixer. A hand-held mixer will incorporate too much air, which will make for a very dry cookie. Stir gently just until ingredients are combined and cookie dough is fairly smooth.

You’re such a softie! Let butter soften to a cool room temperature. To soften quickly, place the stick of wrapped butter in a microwave and microwave on low heat until slightly softened, to a cool room temperature, and not melted. This typically takes approximately 10 seconds. Leaving the butter in the original paper helps it soften evenly.

Why is the lavender creamed with the butter and shortening? The goal is to infuse the butter and margarine with the lavender for a more even flavoring in the cookie. Can you say YUM?

Getting “Eggcited” about eggs? Be sure eggs are at room temperature. Warm eggs hold more air than cold eggs, are easier to whisk, blend into the cookie dough better, and bake more evenly. To quickly bring eggs to room temperature before cracking, place eggs in a bowl of warm (not hot) water for 10 minutes.

Crack eggs into a small bowl before adding to the batter. That way, it is easy to remove any bits of eggshell or bloody eggs.

C is for Cookie. That’s good enough for me.

Need another reason why this cookie dough should be refrigerated overnight? This cookie dough, when first combined, is too sticky to shape into a ball. Refrigeration will allow the cookie dough to become chilled and firm so that it can be rolled into balls. After the cookie dough is formed into balls, flatten the cookies SLIGHTLY so that the cookies bake with an even thickness.

Be sure to allow 3″ of space between cookies so that cookies have room to spread while baking. Bake until there is the slightest hint of browning around the edges.

These cookies are wonderful plain or with a lavender frosting. If you choose to frost the cookies, place the parchment paper on which the cookies were baked under the cooling racks to catch any frosting drips.

For a thicker icing, top each cookie with 1 ½ teaspoons of icing and spread with a knife. For quick and easy icing, make the frosting slightly thinner and dip the top of the cookies into the icing. And if you prefer piping: An in-between thickness that will allow the frosting to easily flow through the piping tip. Place the cookies back on the cooling rack and let the excess icing drip onto the parchment paper under the cooling rack.

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Gluten Free Lavender Cookies

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By Connie Teunis – Serves: 38 1-ounce cookies

An amazing Lavender cookie that is crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and GLUTEN FREE! Add a white chocolate and lavender icing for a truly delicious cookie that will have you friends begging for more.

Ingredients

• For the Cookies:
• 2-4 t. Dried Culinary Lavender, crushed**
• 310 g./ 2 c. My Gluten-Free Flour Mix*
• 1 t. Baking Powder
• 1.2 t. Salt
• ½. t. Xanthan Gum
• 96 g./ ½ c. Vegetable Shortening
• 113 g./ 1 stick Unsalted Butter, softened slightly
• 240 g./ 1 ¼ c. Granulated Sugar
• 150 g./ 3 Large Eggs
• 2 t. Vanilla
• 2 t. Almond Extract
• 170 g./ 6 oz. White Chocolate Chips (opt.)
• For the White Chocolate Lavender Icing (opt.)
• 6 oz. White Chocolate Chips
• 120 g./ 1 c. Powdered Sugar
• 1 t. Packed, Crushed Culinary Lavender OR 1 t. Lavender Extract
• Pinch of Salt
• 2 ½ - 4 T. Milk, or enough to produce desired spreading consistency

Instructions

1

To Make the Cookies:

2

Crush the dried lavender flowers. This can be done in a clean coffee grinder (the easiest way), with a mortar and pestle, or by wrapping the lavender flowers in waxed paper and using the flat side of a meat hammer (aka Meat Tenderizer) to break the flowers; set aside.

3

In a small bowl, whisk together My Gluten-Free Flour Mix with the baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum; set aside.

4

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a medium-large bowl, on low speed cream the butter and shortening with the crushed lavender until smooth. Add the sugar; beat until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, and the extracts; beat until completely combined.

5

On low speed of a stand mixer, or by hand, add the flour mix; mix for approximately 2 minutes. Add the white chocolate chips and mix until combined and chips are evenly distributed throughout the batter. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

6

When Ready to Bake:

7

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

8

Measure out 1 ounce of dough for each cookie (about the size of a walnut). Roll the dough into a ball and flatten slightly. Place dough ball onto the prepared cookie sheet, spacing cookies 3” apart. Bake cookies at 400 degrees for 11 minutes or until cookies just begin to brown around the edges. Remove from oven and place baking sheets on cooling racks. Let cookies rest for 2 minutes, then transfer cookies from baking sheets to cooling racks; cool completely.

9

To Make the Icing:

10

Place the White Chocolate Chips in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on LOW power (e.g., half power or defrost) until the white chocolate chips are soft and can be stirred smooth.

11

Stir together the powdered sugar and the melted white chocolate. Add the remaining icing ingredients and beat with an electric mixer until smooth.

12

Spread, drizzle or pipe icing onto the cookies, letting the icing drip off the edges of the cookies. The tops of the cookies can also be dipped into the icing. Let icing set until firm.

13

Enjoy!

14

**Use less lavender if the lavender has a very strong smell; use more lavender if the smell has faded slightly.

*My Gluten Free Flour Mix:

70 g./ 7 T. White Rice Flour
35 g./ 3 1/2 T. Brown Rice Flour
24 g./ 2 T. Potato Starch
15 g./ 2 T. Millet
11 g./ 1 1/2 T. Tapioca Flour

This equals 155 g. per 1 cup.

To make a large batch at once, I multiplied the above amounts by 8:

560 g./ 56 T. White Rice Flour
280 g./ 28 T. Brown Rice Flour
192 g./ 16 T. Potato Starch
120 g./ 16 T. Millet Flour
88 g./ 12 T. Tapioca