Monday, August 31, 2009

Lavender and Meyer Lemon Sablés (Shortbreads)



My friend Annie gave me a delightful little tin of Dean & Deluca Lavender Flowers that she brought back from her trip to America just for me. Thank you, Annie. I have been meaning to make lavender biscuits for some time so this was the perfect excuse.

These lovely Lavender and Meyer Lemon Butter Sablés (Shortbreads) has been adapted from a recipe that I found on the 'Milk and Cookies' blog. A sablé is a classic French cookie (we call cookies biscuits in Australia) originating from Normandy. Sablé is the French word for 'sand' and it refers to the sandy texture of these delicate little cookies.

The lavender and lemon have a lovely affinity with each other and the aroma while the cookies are baking is divine. The cookies are lovely and tender as they use confectioners' sugar instead of granulated sugar.


Lavender and Meyer Lemon Sablés (Shortbreads)

(makes 50 small cookies)

225g plain (all-purpose) flour

25g cornflour

1 tablespoon dried lavender

200g unsalted butter, cut into 1" (2.5cm) squares (room temperature)

100g icing (confectioner’s) sugar

2 egg yolks

pinch of salt


2-4 tsp finely grated lemon zest (to taste)

Sift the flour and cornflour and place in to the food processor. Stir in the dried lavender and lemon zest.
Add diced butter and sugar to the flour mixture. 
Pulse for a few seconds to mix. 
Add the egg yolks, one at a time, and continue to pulse the dough until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and divide into two pieces. Roll each piece out into a log. Roll in coffee sugar crystals, then wrap in parchment paper. 
Refrigerate for about 1 hour.



Preheat oven to 170°C. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper
Remove 1 log from the fridge and cut the dough into 6mm rounds, lightly kneading the dough so that the rounds stay together. 
Place on baking sheet spaced 1-ince apart and bake for 10-12 minutes until just lightly browned on the edges. 
Transfer sables onto a wire rack to cool.
Repeat with second log.

ENJOY!!!

2 comments:

  1. I love these cookies. The combination of lavender and lemon just sounds wonderful. I can't say I've had that before. Where did you get your Meyer lemons from??

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  2. Thanks Julia,
    This really is a lovely taste combination with the Meyer lemon zest and the cookies are so quick and easy to make. I love Meyer lemons (!!! must make mental note to self to plant Meyer lemon bush in my garden). I went for a country drive up to Warburton with a friend for her birthday. We stopped at a lovely little eclectic organic coffee shop on the way (at Yarra Junction). They had a box of locally grown Meyer lemons that they were going to make lemon tarts with. They kindly let me buy a few :-)

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