Each year, during the Carolina Farm Stewardship's Annual Upstate Farm Tour, the kids set up a lemonade stand and sell sweets made from ingredients grown in our garden. Typically, I bake lavender shortbread cookies—but this year, the lavender wasn't blooming in time for the tour. Instead, I harvested some rosemary from the front garden, minced it until it was nearly powder—honestly, I just don't like the texture of chunks of rosemary—and baked lemon rosemary cookies.
A friend gave me the recipe, which I modified a bit—I'm also not a fan of grated lemon peel. I just dislike the texture of it, so I omitted the lemon peel.
I'm crossing my fingers that next year we'll have our own lemons to use to flavor the cookies, too.
Lemon Rosemary Shortbread Cookies.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced well
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add lemon juice and vanilla, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, rosemary and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Mix thoroughly.
Divide dough and roll into two, approximately 12-inch logs. Wrap each roll in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for about 30 minutes to chill. Remove from freezer and cut logs into 1/4-inch slices. Place sliced dough on ungreased baking sheets, with cookies spaced about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes, until edges turn golden brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans.
Note: these cookies, while delicious, are fragile and tend to crumble or crack, so take your time! It's worth it, I promise. Makes approximately 8 dozen cookies.
Stay tuned...tomorrow I'll post the recipe for the strawberry muffins—perfect for a weekend breakfast!
Happy weekend!
XOXO ~
Julie
(Shared with From the Farm, The Backyard Farming Connection, Wildcrafting Wednesday, and Little House in the Suburbs blog hops.)