Lavender Cookies

Heart-shaped lavender cookies with a sweet honey-lemon glaze, sprinkled with culinary dried lavender flowers. The best lavender sugar cookie recipe for afternoon tea parties, Mother’s Day celebrations, and more.

Why Make These Lavender Cookies?

As spring approaches, I find myself in the mood to celebrate all things lavender. Lavender iced coffee is one of my favorite seasonal beverages (it’s surprisingly difficult to find, but I make own at home) and I love a fragrant spring simmer pot with plenty of dried lavender. I also enjoy baking lavender lemon cookies (inspired by my favorite drink, of course) and these lavender sugar cookies. Featuring a rolled sugar cookie base and a sweet, simple glaze, they’re almost too lovely to eat.

Serve lavender sugar cookies at Mother’s Day celebrations, garden parties, afternoon tea parties, bridal and baby showers, weddings, and other seasonal events.  As written, this lavender cookie recipe yields about 20 2 1/2-inch heart cookies, but it’s easily doubled or tripled if baking for a crowd.

Lavender Cookie Recipe Ingredients

To make these lavender cookies, you’ll need kitchen staples like all purpose flour, baking powder, unsalted butter, and granulated sugar, plus some specialty ingredients. These include:

• Culinary Dried Lavender – The key component in making lavender-flavored cookies! For tips on choosing and using culinary dried lavender, see my notes below.
• Vanilla Bean Paste – I’ve flavored the cookie dough with vanilla bean paste. You can also use the scrapings of a vanilla pod.
• Lemon – To make the honey-lemon glaze, you’ll need the juice and zest of a fresh lemon. I recommend a Microplane for zesting, rather than a box grater.
  
• Honey – Honey sweetens and thickens the homemade glaze.

Choosing and Using Culinary Dried Lavender

To flavor these lavender sugar cookies, I’ve added culinary dried lavender to the dough, and sprinkled more on the top of each cookie to decorate. When purchasing dried lavender flowers, look for a product clearly labelled as edible, food-safe, or culinary grade. Do not use dried flowers intended for potpourri or home decor.

Culinary dried lavender often comes in large quantities. If you have extra, try making my lavender simple syrup or a batch of my lavender lemon cookies. You can also use it in simmer pots, like my spring simmer pot recipe!

Tools for Making Lavender Sugar Cookies

Rolling pin and rolling mat. I prefer a wooden rolling pin, and a silicone rolling mat for easy cleanup. If you don’t have a rolling mat, you can roll the dough on a well-floured countertop.

Heart-shaped cutter. My heart cutter measures about 2 1/2-inches. You can use a slightly bigger or smaller cookie cutter, or opt for another shape like flowers or scalloped-edge rectangles. A plain round cutter will also work. Remember that the larger the cutter, the less cookies this recipe will yield.

Small stepped palette knife. I recommend a small stepped palette knife for transferring cut cookies from rolling mat to tray.

Disposable piping bag. For piping the glaze. For convenience, I prefer to use disposable piping bags. You don’t need a piping tip (simply snipping the corner of the bag works fine) but feel free to use a small round metal tip if you’d like.

Half sheet rimmed baking tray. For chilling and baking the hearts, you’ll need a half sheet rimmed baking tray, or similarly sized tray. If using smaller trays, bake one tray at a time and refrigerate the rest until ready to bake.

Lavender Cookie Tips and Tricks

Choose good-quality lavender. Choose a fragrant, high-quality, food-grade lavender. Dried flowers degrade in quality over time, so not use old lavender or your cookies will lack flavor. For help in selecting the best lavender, see my tips above.

Use a classic icing technique. Although these cookies use glaze rather than royal icing, you can apply it with a similar technique, tracing an outline and then “flooding” the middle to fill in the heart shape:

Dust with plenty of flour. The dough will feel slightly sticky to the touch. A generously floured rolling mat and floured rolling pin will prevent the dough from sticking.

Keep the dough cold. Cold dough allows the cookies to retain their shape as they bake. If your tray is too big for the fridge, stack the cut cookies between squares of parchment, then refrigerate or freeze the stacks.

Sift the confectioner’s sugar. Sifting removes hard bits and clumps of sugar, creating smooth (not lumpy) glaze.

Make-Ahead and Storage Suggestions

Store lavender sugar cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. I suggest arranging the cookies in a single layer to avoid damaging the delicate glaze.

You can make the dough, flatten into a disc, wrap in clingfilm/plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to 24 hours before baking.

To freeze: Layer un-glazed lavender cookies between sheets of parchment or wax paper. Arrange in an airtight container and freeze for up to 1 month. Thaw at room temperature. Glaze just prior to serving, or serve without glaze.

Other lavender recipes you might enjoy:

Lavender Simple Syrup
Spring Simmer Pot with Lavender and Lemon
Lavender Lemon Cookies
Lavender Iced Coffee

And if you do make these, or any of my recipes, don’t forget to tag me @bastecutfold or use the hashtag #bastecutfold on Instagram. I always love to see what you’re making!

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