Lavender Lemon Sugar Cookies

This wonderful recipe is courtesy of guest blogger Cafe Primrose. Enjoy the recipe, and make sure to stop by her blog or Facebook page to say hi!

 Hello, my dearest darlings. Tonight, I have the most sophisticated tea snack you have ever seen. It would also go great  as accompaniment to an afternoon coffee event. You could even eat these fabulous French inspired cookies with a nice cup of Viennese Melange coffee…. Delicious! So buckle your seat belts! Lets get started!

Ok folks, here we have a French twist on an old and time honored American favorite. Soft baked lemon sugar cookies. Frosted in mouth watering butter cream lavender frosting, topped with a sprinkled pinch of dried lavender flowers. This, is so delicious we are declaring it one of our signature yummies here at Cafe Primrose.
This, was a really fun project for us to do. Some weeks ago, we made some incredible extracts including, lavender, and lemon. You can find the info on how to make the lemon one in another post. We are saving the lavender extract post for a rainy day, when we need to pull something out of our bums, because we spaced and have nothing to blog about. Better to pull out something nice like lavender extract for you then admit my complete and total failure as a blogger. We had such a great time, using our own home made all natural organic extracts. They worked fantastically!
So, here is the recipe:

• 4 ½ cups organic all purpose flour
• 4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 sticks organic butter, room temperature
• 1 ½ cups unprocessed organic sugar
• 3 large free range chicken eggs
• 6 teaspoons lemon extract

In a  large bowl, mash your butter after you have given it some time to soften at room temperature. Or you can opt to be a loser like me and just cheat by sticking it in the microwave for a short time because you have no patience. That works pretty well too. Add your sugar, you might want to have a mechanical beater. We used one. Set it on low to medium and beat your butter and sugar together till they are nice and fluffy and mixed. Add, your eggs one at a time, and beat them in to your mixture of butter and sugar. Add the lemon extract and mix it well.
Measure and pour all of your dry ingredients in to a medium bowl. Then slowly add your dry ingredients into the mixture of your wet ingredients. Mix them in well and you might want to do it in small increments rather than adding all the dry ingredients at once.
Once everything is mixed together, cover the bowl with saran wrap and put it in the freezer for an hour. That is a good time to make the lavender buttercream frosting to go with it.

• 5 cups confectioners sugar
• ⅓ cup unsalted organic butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon lavender extract (if you plan to add a sprinkle of dried lavender flowers cut this amount in half.)
• 6-7  tablespoons milk

Once again, if you like you can be a dork like me and cheat on the butter by sticking it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it. Beat it a little then add in the confectioners sugar, and lastly the milk and mix till it is very well mixed. The consistency should be pretty good. Though this is not an exact science and it is ok to play with it. Adding a bit of confectioners sugar on top of that already called for to give it a bit more structure and body, if it is too runny. If it is too stiff, add a small drop of milk as needed. When you have it about right, add your lavender extract and mix it well.
While you are making your frosting would be a great time to set the oven to 350 Fahrenheit, so that when those beautiful cookies come out of the oven, you can roll them into small balls and place them on a cookie sheet and pop them right into your preheated oven.
To prepare your ready dough for the oven, roll it into small balls and press down on the top just a bit to flatten it slightly. Put them onto the cookie sheet and once the sheet is full put it into the oven for about 10 minutes, though you may want to check it earlier. We found these cookies in small balls cook fairly quickly.
Once the cookies are baked let them cool for a few moments on your cookie sheet before placing them on a rack, plate, or cutting board, to finish cooling. Once they are all cool dip them into the lavender frosting and if you wish, add a small sprinkling of dried lavender flowers to the top. Please, keep one very important thing in mind when you are working with lavender. Not all lavender is created equal. Lavender, is not just used on occasion in cooking. It is even more frequently used to make things smell good. Make sure if you are cooking with lavender that you are using food grade lavender, as most lavender on the market is treated with pesticides and other chemicals. Please be careful.

I loved the taste of these cookies very much. So French country. They made my entire kitchen smell great. I can smell them all the way in the living room. Yum. I love cooking with lavender. It is a great herb for relaxation. Often after I consume lavender I find myself just being hit with waves of total relaxation. And it feels so nice. These cookies really are special. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

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