Lavender cookies.

(In Portuguese)

Second part of the trilogy: lavender cookies.

Recipe adapted from here.

1 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers

100g butter

1 large egg yolk

6 tablespoons (60g) sugar

1 1/2 cup (225g) all purpose flour

1/2 cup (60g) corn starch

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

8 tablespoons cold water, or as needed

(Cup measure: 240ml)

I started melting the butter in a small pan with the dried lavender flowers. After melting, I turned off the heat, lidded the pan and let it steep for 5 minutes so that the butter would acquire the lavender flavor. 

Then I passed the butter through a sieve to a shallow dish and placed it in the freeer just until it came to a cream consistency.

I threw out half the flowers and kept the other half in the bowl where I prepared the batter.

I added the butter and the yolk, which I passed through a sieve as well. (This is to make sure that the cookies won't taste like egg. Who taught me that was a friend, daughter of a cake maker).

I mixed it all with the sugar until I got a uniform cream. Next I added the dry ingredients, already sifted, and kneaded with my hands. I got a crumble.

[I think what happened was the following: Laila, the lady who wrote the original recipe, probably uses 200ml cups instead of 240ml cups like I do. Since I didn't pay attention to that, the amount of dry ingredients I used was higher than it should be. Because of that, I needed to add cold water to form the batter. It worked.]

Well, so I added cold water, one tablespoon at a time, until I was able to shape the batter as a ball. I flattened it to form a disc and let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge, covered in plastic.

I rolled out half the batter at a time, until it reached approximately 4mm thickness, and used a 5cm star shaped cutter.

I baked them in preheated oven at 180oC for about 15 minutes, in parchment paper lined sheets.

Yields: 90 cookies.