Chamomile Tea Shortbread Cookies

Tea time is so much more beautiful with these chamomile tea shortbread cookies. They have a light, delicate chamomile flavor and are buttery with a crisp crumb and zesty lemon bite. They are perfect for dunking into your chamomile tea or lattes, the ultimate afternoon treat.

Why you'll love this recipe:

• Our shortbread recipe is tried and true, perfect for rolling out and cutting shapes. The tea bag cookie cutters are so cute!
• The flavor is light, bright and sweet, impress your loved ones with something new and special.
• It's perfect for someone who loves the fresh earthy flavor of chamomile.
• It's elegant enough for your special moments, such as bridal showers, birthday parties, baby showers, spring holidays such as Easter or Mother's Day, or a garden or tea party.
• They have a nice, simple, optional lemon glaze, perfect for pressing on edible flowers, like pressed pansies from the garden.

Ingredients:

• butter, softened
• confectionary sugar
• granulated sugar
• corn starch 
• all-purpose flour 
• dried organic chamomile flowers
• 2 large lemons, zest and juice
• vanilla extract or our delicious homemade floral vanilla extract, why not try chamomile?

Optional icing:

• 1 cup (125 grams) icing sugar 
• 1 large lemon, zest and juice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

HOW TO MAKE THEM:

COOKIES:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F or 176 C.
• Start by making your chamomile lemon sugar where all of your flavor will come from. Do this by grinding up your granulated sugar, the juice and zest of one of your lemons, and lavender. I use a mortar and pestle, but a food processor or blender works great too. Add your powdered sugar and mix.
• Cream butter with your lavender lemon sugar until well incorporated and fluffy. 
• Sift in the flour and cornstarch and gradually mix. 
• You will need to get your hands dirty and really mix well to incorporate all of the butter into the flour. Work it with your hands until the dough becomes a ball. At this point, you can chill the dough if you're not ready to bake, but it's usually not necessary with this dough. If it's easy to handle, go ahead and continue to next step. If it's too soft, refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough about ? inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. I used an embossed rolling pin for the texture and tea bag cookie cutter for the shape.
• Bake for 12 minutes. Longer if you want them golden brown and more crisp (my personal preference) But they should be done and have a nice crumb, and still be pale at 12 minutes if your oven temperature is correct. Let cookies cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.
• Let them cool completely and make your icing.
• To make your icing, combine your icing sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until it has a smooth and runny consistency. If it needs to be thinned more, add a few drops of water or more lemon juice.
• Dip your cookies into the icing when they're completely cooled so they're hard and cool enough to handle.
• Let them dry for one hour to let icing completely harden, and enjoy!

My best tips for perfect shortbread:

We really love our shortbread here. You might have noticed our large collection of botanical shortbreads, like Rose Petal Cardamom Shortbread, Lemon Thyme Shortbread, or Orange Rosemary Herbal Shortbread. Here are our top tips for a prefect result.

1. Choose high quality butter: with so few ingredients, choosing quality butter is important. 
2. Measure ingredients properly:  I know not every home baker is going to want to weigh their ingredients. I blogged for years before even considering it! But, now that I weigh my ingredients, I never make a recipe without grams because just a little too much or too little of any one ingredient can really throw off a recipe. And if I'm going through all the trouble to bake, I want to make sure it comes out just as I expected. Here is a great kitchen scale I recommend.If you don't use a kitchen scale, spoon and level your flour for increased likelihood of accuracy.
3. Chill before baking...sometimes: This recipe has very specific ratios with less butter so that it doesn't bubble and spread, in my experience the dough usually doesn't have to be chilled before baking. However, if I've over-handled it or kept it out too long, it still will become very soft and difficult to manage while rolling or cutting shapes. If your shortbread feels too soft, no need to worry. Just pop in the fridge for 20 minutes or so, or until you're ready to bake. If the dough feels sticky or difficult to manage, pop it in the fridge to get cold again before baking or cutting shapes.
4. Bake until golden: Despite the recommended baking time, it's best to let the shortbread get slightly golden before removing it from the oven. Each oven is different, and your cookies will bake according to the oven rack location and shape/size of your cookie cutter. This ensures they are fully crisp and will continue to harden as they chill for easy handling.

You'll be an expert in no time!

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