Shortcrust Cookies with Herbs

Oops, it’s the first advent! How did that happen? We’re getting the box of Christmas stuff out of the basement and I’m looking for a quick recipe for the first batch of cookies. There was something in the November e&t? That’s right, I found the heather sand cookies with rosemary interesting. Now that the lavender has to give way to the red-green as well, I catch a few more sprigs and make 2 versions - one with rosemary and one with lavender.

• 200g butter
• 180g sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla powder
• 1 tsp. fleur de sel
• 1 egg
• 320g flour

make the dough. First I stir the butter until fluffy, which as always does not go well and then add the sugar, salt, vanilla. After a while the egg follows. Now the mass is already even and I add the flour and knead with my hand quickly the shortbread.

Now I divide the dough into two pieces of equal size and knead in one half.

• 1 sprig of rosemary, finely chopped

and into the other half

• 2 teaspoons of lavender flowers, a little mortared.

Off in the cling film and for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, I roast a celeriac, but that’s another story.

Now comes to use

• 50g sugar
• zest of one lemon, grated

Both are mixed into each other. I roll the dough pieces with my hands into 40cm rolls each, which are then about 3cm diameter. It must go fast, otherwise the dough becomes too soft again. I roll the rolls in the lemon sugar and put them in the fridge for 3 more hours.

Then I cut the rolls into 1cm wide pieces (this is best done with a long, narrow fillet knife) and bake them at 180° convection on the 2nd rack from the bottom. The first tray in 15 minutes, the second a little shorter, because the cookies are now already not so cold.

Result - great cookies for the first Advent. With the lavender I could have been more courageous, he does not come through as clearly as the rosemary. We don’t eat all 60 cookies, of course, but put them in a tin box where I’m sure they’ll get even better, as they always do when you store shortbread cookies.

A good start to the cookie baking season, which will culminate next weekend in Berlin!

small and tick shortcrust cookies, lavender, rosemary