How cute are these heart thumbprint Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies? This recipe is easy but the flavors really pop with the lemon zest and lemon juice in the shortbread cookie combined with a lavender-infused white chocolate ganache glaze. For the lavender flavor, you can use either some lavender essential oil or lavender culinary buds.
How to make Heart Thumbprint Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies
What you will need for these cookies are a few kitchen staples, lemon, and lavender.
Ingredients to make lemon cookies with lavender:
- Butter,
- powdered sugar,
- lemon zest,
- lemon juice,
- flour,
- salt,
- white chocolate,
- cream,
- lavender,
- blueberries (to color the ganache).
This recipe will give you cookies with really fresh flavors from lemon juice, lemon zest and a hint of lavender in the white chocolate ganache. They also have a really nice texture with the buttery shortbread and creamy, soft ganache.
Actually, you could make these cookies two ways. You can bake the shortbread cookie all the way and have a more crumbly, crunchy cookie, or, underbake them a bit and have a soft cookie which I really like.
I actually saw this recipe at Lionsbread blog and I fell in love with them so I had to make my own version. They just looked so cute with that heart in the middle. I don’t know why all thumbprint cookies don’t have cute shapes in the middle instead of a circle!
Anyway, her pink lemonade cookies are lemon and raspberry flavored with a pink heart sugar glaze which sounds and looks so lovely.
She made a DIY heart stamp out of cardboard, but I’m kinda lazy for that, so I just used a small heart cookie cutter that I have, and put some tin foil over it so it can leave a stamp in the cookie.
Lavender White Chocolate Ganache Icing
I try to use natural dyes in desserts whenever possible, so here we use blueberries to get a lovely lavender color in the lavender ganache icing. You just need a few to get the desired color.
For the lavender flavor in the ganache, you can use either an edible lavender essential oil or culinary lavender buds.
Using the lavender buds: let them infuse in the cream for as long as possible. At least 30 minutes.
Using lavender essential oil: mix 1 drop of oil with the ganache, taste, add more to taste.
Just like any shortbread thumbprint cookies, these lemon lavender cookies would go great with tea. They also make for the cutest gift.
Check out some other delicious and easy to make cookies:
- Black cocoa shortbread cookies
- Snowballs
- Chocolate and walnut cookies
- Cinnamon cookies with a lemon glaze
- Thin almond biscotti
Can thumbprint cookies be frozen?
Yes, you can freeze the cookie dough or already baked cookies.
Why do my thumbprint cookies spread?
Either your oven is not hot enough, or your cookie dough wasn’t cold enough. Be sure that your oven is preheated and that you put cookie dough balls in the freezer prior to baking.
I really hope you give these lemon lavender shortbread cookies a try and don’t be afraid to experiment with colors and flavors of the icing!
Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 225 g butter at room temperature
- 125 g powdered sugar
- zest of 2 lemons
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (half lemon)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 310 g flour
- 1 tsp salt
White chocolate lavender ganache
- 60 g double cream
- 100 g white chocolate chopped
- 3-5 tsp culinary lavender buds or 2-4 drops of lavender essential oil, depending on your taste
- additional culinary lavender buds to decorate
- adittional powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
White chocolate lavender ganache
- Start by infusing the lavender into the cream if using lavender buds, and finish making the ganache after you baked cookies.Simmer the double cream with lavender, remove from heat and set aside to infuse. Contiune making the ganache after you make cookies, so the cream gets the time needed to take on the lavender flavor.If you are using lavender essential oil instead of lavender buds, refer to the notes.
Lemon shortbreat thumbprint cookies
- Beat the butter, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract on medium-high speed for 2 minutes, or until pale and fluffy.
- Add the flour and salt. Mix for a few seconds on low speed, just until combined.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C (325 degrees F) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Take a tablespoon worth of dough and roll it into a ball. You should get about 26 balls.
- Put the balls into the freezer for 15 minutes to let them firm up and reduce the spreading.
- Place the balls on the prepared baking tray at least 4 cm apart.Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, take them out of the oven, and press your heart stamp cookie cutter (check the notes) in the middle.
- Place them back into the oven, and bake for additional 12-14 minutes, depending on the size and how soft you want them. Cookies should still be pale. When they come out of the oven, you could press them again with a heart stamp to get a better and deeper shape.
- Let the cookies cool completely, meanwhile make the ganache.
White chocolate lavender ganache
- Strain the lavender infused cream and discard the lavender.
- Weigh the infused cream and add more double cream to get to 60 g again.
- Heat the cream to simmer, and pour over the chopped white chocolate. Wait for 2 minutes, then stir until you get a shiny homogenous ganache.
- Add a few blueberries, crush and stir them into the ganache to get a violet color.
- When you get the desired color, press the ganache through a sieve to get rid of blueberry skins (optional).
- Pour the ganache to a pastry bag fitted with a small round nozzle. Or use a zip-lock bag.
Lemon lavender cookies assemble
- Dust the cookies with powdered sugar and then pipe the prepared ganache into the hearts.
- Sprinkle some lavender buds over the cookies. This will add additional flavor and texture, and they look cuter.
- Wait for the ganache to set and enjoy!
Notes
- If using lavender essential oil instead of lavender buds:
Simmer the double cream and pour it over the chopped white chocolate. Wait for 2 minutes and then stir until you get a homogeonou, shiny ganache. Mix in the essential oil drop by drop, tasting after each one. When you like the taste, mix in blueberries and set aside the ganache. - Cookie cutter stamp: for the heart stamp shape I used a small heart cookie cutter and covered it tightly with tin foil. If you don’t have that, you can make a heart from a cardboard and use that.
- If you don’t have enough cream to add to the infused cream, you can use milk instead.
- Cookies should be kept in an air-tight container.
- They are best fresh, but keep for a week.
- You can freeze the baked cookies or even unbaked cookie dough.
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