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Made with culinary lavender, coffee, honey, and lemon, these bakery style lavender lemon cookies combine all of the flavors of a classic lavender latte, in the form of a dark chocolate cookie!
What Inspired These Lavender Lemon Cookies?
One of my all-time favorite drinks is a lavender latte. The blen of coffee, milk, and fresh summer lavender is just…perfection.
In addition to drinking it in my coffee, I love using this fragrant purple herb in my bakes. It works nicely in cakes, muffins, chocolate bon bons, or sprinkled on top of shortbread. Lavender and lemon, or lavender and chocolate, make epecially lovely pairings.
(As a side note, I also like to keep a lavender essential oil reed diffuser in my apartment. It makes the space smell absolutely heavenly! Lavender oil is also nice to spray in your closet, or on the pillow before bedtime.)
Lavender and Lemon Cookies, and Memories of Summertime in Maine
For these lavender and lemon cookies, I’ve drawn inspiration from a latte I once enjoyed at Omi’s Coffee Shop in South Portland, Maine. Although the neighborhood café has long since closed, I still reminisce about this particular lavender drink, made with Omi’s delicious, house-made lavender syrup.
Lavender Love
This summer, lavender-based beverages seem to be having a moment. I’ve noticed lavender drinks appearing more frequently on coffee shop menus, in both hot and cold form. In fact, Joe Coffee (one of my favorite New York City coffee shops!) added a lavender Early Grey iced latte to their menu a few months ago. Joe & The Juice recently introduced a similar option.
I do wish it were easier to find lavender latte options in London. I still haven’t managed to locate one here. (If anybody happens to read this and can recommend a coffee shop with lavender lattes on the menu, please do let me know!) But if I can’t drink my favorite latte, at least I can still enjoy it in cookie form!
Bakery-Style Lavender Cookies
These lavender and lemon cookies perfectly capture the spirit of my beloved lavender latte. The recipe features a soft, chocolate-and-coffee cookie base, chunks of chopped white chocolate, and freshly grated lemon zest, plus a thick layer of lavender, honey, and dark chocolate ganache. To finish, I sprinkle my cookies with culinary-grade dried lavender flower buds.
Lavender and lemon cookies are perfect for spring or summer, but the dark chocolate also makes them decadent enough to enjoy during the cooler months, too. To freeze, simply allow the ganache to set, then layer in an airtight container between sheets of parchment.
Tips and Tricks for Making Lavender Latte Cookies
This recipe requires a bit of a time commitment, but a lot of it is downtime (chilling, freezing, infusing the lavender into the cream.) If desired, you can prepare the cookie dough up to 24 hours in advance and refrigerate it until ready to use. You can also multitask by infusing the lavender into the cream while the cookie dough chills.
When making round, bakery-style cookies like these, I prefer to use a large disc cutter to reshape the cookies after baking. (Round cookies are just so much more Instagram-able!) However, this step is completely optional. These cookies will still taste delicious even if they aren’t perfectly round!
The chocolate ganache in this recipe will not be overly thick; it should be just viscous enough to spread with a small stepped palette knife or the back of a metal spoon. Once applied to the cookies, it will take an hour or so to set. (But of course feel free to dig in before then!!)
Lavender Lemon Cookie Ingredients
When purchasing dried lavender, be sure to choose a product clearly marked as food-safe or culinary grade, or one indicating that it can be used in baking. Do not use anything not labelled as such.
Don’t skip the coffee extract! I used the Nielsen-Massey brand, but Trablit and Lorann Oils make good options as well. For a stronger coffee flavor, increase the amount to 2 teaspoons.
Choose a good-quality dark chocolate for the ganache, such as Valrhona, Callebaut, or Guittard. Chocolate chips will not work well because they contain stabilizers that make them less than ideal for ganache and other applications. For the cookie dough, you can substitute white chocolate chips for the chopped white chocolate. And for an extra dose of dark chocolate, try substituting chopped dark chocolate for the white chocolate in the dough.
Other cookie recipes you might enjoy:
Tahini Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Chocolate Caramel Cookies
Chocolate Passionfruit Cookies
Mint M&M Cookies
Rolo Cookies
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!
Lavender Lemon Cookies
- Total Time: 4 hours (including chilling time)
- Yield: 15 3-inch cookies 1x
Description
These lavender lemon cookies combine all of the flavors of a classic lavender latte, in the form of a dark chocolate cookie!
Ingredients
Cookie Dough:
115 grams unsalted butter (1/2 cup/1 stick), softened
150 grams caster sugar (3/4 cup)
50 grams light brown sugar (1/3 cup, packed)
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon coffee extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules, dissolved in 2 tablespoons hot milk
Zest of 1 lemon
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour (160 grams)
1/2 cup cocoa powder (50 grams)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
125 grams chopped white chocolate (1 cup)
Lavender Ganache:
160 milliliters whipping cream (2/3 cup), plus more for topping up
2 tablespoons dried lavender flowers, plus more to garnish
160 grams chopped dark chocolate (5.6 ounces/1 cup)
2 teaspoons honey
Instructions
Cookie Dough:
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
Whip in the egg, followed by the coffee extract, instant coffee/milk mixture, and lemon zest.
In a separate bowl, sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add dry mixture to the butter bowl, and mix on low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.
With a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir in the chopped white chocolate.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator. Chill for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
Once dough has chilled, use a melon baller or ice cream scoop to divide the dough into equal portions, about 1 1/2″ in diameter. Use your hands to roll into golf ball-sized balls.
Freeze cookie dough balls on a parchment-lined plate for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350° F / 175° C. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
Place frozen cookie dough balls on prepared tray, allowing space for the cookies to spread.
Bake in preheated oven for 13-15 minutes. If desired, use a large round metal cutter to gently reshape the cookies into perfect circles. Cool on tray for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
While cookies cool, prepare the ganache.
Lavender Ganache:
Gently warm the cream in a small saucepan (do not boil). Stir in dried lavender. Remove from heat and allow mixture to steep for 30 minutes.*
Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the cream mixture. Discard the lavender flowers.
Return infused cream to saucepan and re-weigh. If necessary, top up with extra cream. You should have 130 milliliters (approximately 1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons, but it’s best to use a scale for accuracy).
Add chopped dark chocolate to a large metal bowl and sit it over a pot of simmering water to create a bain marie, or hot water bath. (Alternately, you can melt the chocolate over a double boiler.) Gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
Meanwhile, re-warm the cream mixture until steaming. Remove from heat and stir in the honey.
Pour the cream mixture into the melted chocolate, and whisk until well-combined. Continue whisking vigorously for 3-5 minutes, or until mixture is shiny, smooth and creamy (the ganache will not be overly thick).
With a metal teaspoon, apply a spoonful of ganache to each cookie, then use the back of the spoon spread it evenly over the top.
Sprinkle with dried lavender flowers.
Allow cookies to sit, uncovered, for 1-2 hours, or until ganache is set.
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days. Lavender-lemon latte cookies can also be frozen in an airtight container between sheets of parchment.
Notes
*To save time, you can infuse the lavender into the cream while the cookie dough chills. After 30 minutes, strain and store mixture in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Prep Time: 90 minutes (including infusion time)
- Chilling Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 13-15 minutes
- Category: Biscuits and Cookies
- Method: Oven + Stovetop
- Cuisine: Desserts