Lavender Cookies

The Leftovers Project - Lavender Cookies

Have you ever cooked with lavender? We have long loved the scent in candles, sachets, massage oil, bath products, or eye pillows for headaches. But once we tried a bite of our friend’s lavender cookies, we knew we needed this recipe!

These cookies are amazingly buttery, light, crunchy, and addicting. The lavender and lemon zest together are a lovely combination. Bet you can’t eat just one!

The Leftovers Project - Lavender Cookies

The Leftovers Project - Lavender Cookies

The Leftovers Project - Lavender Cookies

The Leftovers Project - Lavender Cookies

Lavender Cookies (printable version here)

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon very finely chopped dried lavender
  • 2 tablespoons very finely chopped walnuts (use a food processor)
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 1½ sticks of unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoons of honey
  • ½ cup powdered sugar

Directions

Combine flour, salt, baking powder, lavender, walnut powder, and lemon rind in a medium bowl. Using a mixer, cream the butter, honey, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients to it and mix until combined. Spoon dough onto a large piece of parchment or wax paper and roll in the paper to form a log about 18 inches long. The dough will be sticky, so you might need to refrigerate for awhile and roll it again. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

After the dough has hardened, preheat oven to 350˚. Slice the log of dough into ½-inch cookies and arrange on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until they are barely light golden brown on the edges. They should keep, covered, for at least a few days.

Fave-Find Friday: Sonoma Edition

Last weekend we escaped to Sonoma County and celebrated Joe’s birthday. Would you like to see a few photos?

We stayed at the Old Crocker Inn, which was up a long windy road and tucked away in the hills near Cloverdale. It was quiet, peaceful, beautiful, and home to at least a few friendly deer(s?). Each morning we had a breakfast time slot where we would plan out our day and gaze out the windows at the luscious greenery.

The Leftovers Project - The Old Crocker Inn

We fell in love with Healdsburg all over again, stopping on our way up and on our way down. Have you heard of the new(ish) restaurant/shop Shed? It was beautiful—a real hipster’s delight—and they give a 10% discount to farmers, which we loved! We definitely want to come back for brunch.

The Leftovers Project - SHED Healdsburg

We made sure to include a stop at Unti Vineyards, a winery we visited a few years ago and loved. The sky was blue, the wines were delicious, and we were pretty much in heaven as we snacked on our picnic.

The Leftovers Project - Unti Vineyards

The Leftovers Project - Unti Vineyards, Healdsburg

In Healdsburg we shopped at a few antique and consignment shops. Fun and quirky!

The Leftovers Project - Healdsburg Vintage

The Leftovers Project - Healdsburg Vintage

Saturday was Joe’s actual birthday, so we splurged on a boat rental at Lake Sonoma!

The Leftovers Project - Joe's Birthday

That was great fun, until about 3/4 of the way through the rental, the motor gave out. After a brief anxiety-ridden realization that we had no cell phone reception and couldn’t see anyone, suddenly a knight in shining armor (or, in this case, in a yellow kayak) paddled over to save us. He called the rental place for us, and they sent out a rescue boat. We got some extra time on the water and a free ride back! On top of that, they felt so bad about the problem that they didn’t charge us anything. Joe’s verdict: totally worth it.

The Leftovers Project - Lake Sonoma

Isn’t that a spectacular view!

On Sunday we worked our way back to Berkeley. We stopped at Porter Creek Vineyards, the oldest biodynamic winery in Sonoma County. More blue skies and more delicious wines!

The Leftovers Project - Porter Creek Vineyards

Overall, it was a low-key and lovely weekend. We ate and drank and watched movies in our cozy room and sang “Happy Birthday” and blew out candles and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Here’s a few links to help you whittle away this weekend:

Be a better baker.

Touching empathy cards (love all her stuff).

Why can’t we read anymore? Besides the fact that it’s finals period for Megan…

Taste the rainbow.

Happy Friday, friends. What are you cooking this weekend?

The Leftovers Project - Sonoma getaway