Lavender Shortbread

Have you ever tried using lavender in cooking?   Whilst lavender is more commonly used in beauty products, or for scenting drawers, it is absolutely delicious when used in biscuits, or as an an infusion.   I've been experimenting with various recipes, and this shortbread is not only easy, but really delicious.   Inhaling the scent of the lavender when you open the oven door must be like standing a field in Provence on a hot sunny day....  For best results, make the biscuits very thin, so they snap crisply when eaten.

Lavender Shortbread Biscuits

Lavender Shortbread

5oz/150g plain flour

3 level tbsps rice flour – if no rice flour, substitute plain flour

2oz/50g caster sugar

4oz/100g butter at just above room temperature

handful of lavender - pick the flowers off individually

Preheat oven to 170deg C/325 deg F.    Line a large baking sheet with parchment.   Mix together all the ingredients, including the lavender to make a dryish dough, which you knead a little before rolling (this stretches the gluten and makes the biscuit stick together better).  

Roll out the dough between two pieces of greaseproof parchment, about .5cm thick, or thinner if possible.   Cut out the shapes and transfer using a fish slice to the baking sheet.   Bake until golden – the butter in the mixture will brown while your back is turned, so check it frequently after 10-15 minutes.   When they are done, lift them carefully onto a rack and then dredge them with caster sugar.  

This quantity of ingredients made a whole tray of rounds.