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We all enjoy the lovely lemon scents, flowers starting to bloom, the smell of spring and summer arising, and cookies! Listen, I know it's a stretch there, but what if I told you these cut out sugar cookies are the absolute perfect touch with hints of lavender, lemon and butter?
Lavender is a controversial ingredient, mainly because if used wrong, your desserts end up tasting like hand soap...and well, I don't know about you, but I don't want to bite into a sugar cookie and taste that! However these cookies I promise you taste absolutely amazing, with just enough flavor of lavender, lemon and vanilla.
These beautiful cookies are a spin-off of my popular No-Spread Vanilla Sugar Cookies recipe, but with added hints of dried lavender flowers and lemon zest. Even better, these are super easy to make right at home! These are a game changer to spice up a get-together or party. These floral citrus cookies are even great for spring or summer weddings.
Tools You'll Need
Here are some kitchen tools I like to suggest for making my sugar cookies. However, they aren't needed. These are the exact products I use every time:
Electric Mixer (Stand Mixer works best)
Light Colored Baking Sheets
Rolling Pin and Rolling Pin Adjusters
Cookie Cutters
Recipe Questions
My cookies bubbled on the tops, how can I fix them?
Some minor bubbling is normal! Take a flat, solid spatula and gently press on the tops while going in a circular motion right when they come out of the oven. Doing so will remove those air pockets.
Is it okay if I accidentally skipped the freezing before baking?
It is completely okay! Your shapes may have some minor spreading, but it will not be the end of the world. Especially if you are on a time crunch.
Why Corn Starch?
Adding cornstarch gives a more tender cookie, but also helps prevent spreading like other recipes - without sacrificing the flavor.
Can I use fresh lavender?
You definetly could, however purchasing dried has been easiest for me and what I tested tried and true for this recipe. I easily get a bag of dried lavender off of Amazon, any brand would work.
Why I Recommend Chilling
A lot of people try to go for "no chill" recipes and I understand if you are in a time crunch on why you may prefer that! In this recipe, you can skip chilling, but let me explain why it's great for the cookies.
Allowing the dough to chill for at least 3 hours but 12 preferably, will allow the ingredients to work together and eventually become one.
You'll notice after chilling and then baking, your cookies should produce a more prominent sugar and vanilla taste! it helps with the flavors! Development of your cookie dough I see as an important step to not skip. Developing your dough allows not only for your extracts/flavors to improve but also for the flour to absorb the moisture and allow everything to settle together properly
Chilling helps the texture! By creating a more evenly chewier inside.
Lemon Lavender Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
Prep Time: 25 minutes Cook Time: 8 minutes
Servings: Approximately 2 dozen (based on 3 - 3.5" cookie cutters)
Ingredients
1 cup / 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
1 cup (212g) granulated sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
3 to 3 1/2 cups (380g) all-purpose flour (the amount of flour you use may differ from your egg/butter types, and your altitude)
3 tablespoons (30g) cornstarch
1 teaspoon (8g) salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest from 1 lemon
1 tablespoon lemon extract or juice
1 1/2 teaspoons dried lavender flowers
1⁄2 teaspoon (2g) baking powder (optional, see notes)
Directions
1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt in a separate bowl and set aside.
2. Using a paddle attachment, beat your butter and sugar on high speed for 2 minutes until creamed together. The time it takes may be less or more here. The color will lighten and become a pale yellow.
3. Add your egg, vanilla, lemon extract, and lemon zest until just barely combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl and re-beat them together if necessary. Then add in the dried lavender.
4. Beat in the flour mixture to your wet ingredients a 1/2 cup - 1 cup at a time until the dough starts to form. Once all flour is combined, the texture should not be sticky (but will be soft) and should form a ball easily. If it is still sticky to the touch, add a bit more flour a tablespoon at a time. Humidity and weather can affect your flour amounts which is why I have a range of 3 to 3 1/2 cups of flour.
5. Form dough into a ball and split it into 2 equal parts. If you have the room, you can proceed to rolling your dough out now and then chill or roll out after chilling. Skip to step 7 if you aren't going to "development chill".
6. Cover will plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours up to 12 hours. This is my recommended "development chill" process to let the ingredients settle together.
7. Roll between lightly floured parchment or cling wrap at your desired thickness and chill dough in the refrigerator or freezer until just firm to the touch only if your dough has warmed up a bit. This helps make your shapes come out clean with your cookie cutters. Preheat oven to 375°F degrees and prepare your baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mats.
8. When or if your dough is firm, cut out shapes and "quick freeze" in the freezer until they are firm to the touch before baking. This should only be a few minutes depending on your freezer temperature. You may also do this in the fridge.
9. For your leftover dough, while it is workable (but still cold) and cut more shapes. If your dough becomes too soft, quick freeze for a couple minutes. Try to refrain from rolling dough more than 3-4 times as it can add air bubbles and cause spreading.
7. Remove your chilled shapes and immediately bake for 7-10 minutes and remove when the cookies turn matte, and you no longer see a sheen. The sheen is from the butter! Baking time should be around 7-8 minutes for 1/4" and 8-10 for 3/8" or 5/16". Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then flip the cookies over (top side down) onto the baking sheet and leave to continue cooling for 10 minutes. My secret for super flat cookies! Or you may also take a flat spatula and carefully press onto the tops of the cookies in a circular motion to remove any potential puffing.
8. Place on a cooling rack until completely cool to the touch before decorating.
Recipe Notes
Cookie Thickness
I like to roll my cookies at 5/16" or 3/8" which you will bake at 9 minutes, however, these also work at 1/4" at 7 minutes. Each oven is different, so be sure to know your oven and how strong it bakes!
Freezing Before Baking
Freezing the cookie dough before cutting the shapes and after for about 20 minutes helps reduce any spreading in the dough while baking. This also helps cut super clean shapes out. After taking the cutout shapes from the freezer, immediately place them in the oven.
Adding Cornstarch
Adding cornstarch gives a more tender cookie, without sacrificing flavor. You can add more if you desire to get an even more tender cookie, but that also will give you super sharp clean edges and change the texture.
Trapped Air Bubbles
If you have any bubbling in the cookies after baking, you can take a spatula and lightly run it across the cookies while pushing gently to pop them before flipping them over. If you end up having a lot of bubbles, you may have over-mixed your dough.
Optional Baking Powder
Baking powder can cause some rise but adds a more fluffy cookie. Some enjoy cookies with or without it, and in this recipe, you may choose either.
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