Behold!
The Rosemary Lemon Shortbread Cookie
You’ll need:
2 cups flour
1tsp sea salt
1 cup of unsalted butter (room temperature)
2/3 cup of sugar
zest of one lemon — Please find something nice to do with the rest of this lemon, there’s nothing half so glum looking as a lemon without it’s skin.
1/2 cup of finely chopped walnuts –If you want to pulverize them, that’s fine too.
3tbs finely chopped fresh rosemary — I love cooking and baking with fresh rosemary, it’s somewhat like cooking or baking with a tiny spruce tree and we all know how I dearly love spruce trees…
To do:
Whisk flour and salt together in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and lemon zest and mix again. Add the flour mixture, nuts and rosemary and mix until combined.
Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and shape the two discs, wrap in waxed paper (What’s the American term for this stuff??? It’s on the tip of my tongue…) and chill for an hour or so. The cooler this dough is, the easier it is to handle. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick and use a cookie cutter to cut various shapes from the dough.
Put these cookie cuttings on a cookie sheet and bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes or until their little bottoms begin to brown. Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring these gems to a wire rack for complete cooling.
Jillian Notes:
1. When it comes to shortbread, DO NOT skimp on the butter. There will be regrets.
2. Frankly, I like my shortbread thicker than a 1/4 inch so I roll to 3/4 of an inch thick before cutting.
3. If you play it straight when it comes to cookies, a simple round shortbread cut out will suffice but I like eating star cookies. I get to chomp off the arms of the star, one by one, and then at the end it’s rather satisfying to pop the star heart in my mouth. It’s the sweetest way to torture a cookie.
4. Lastly, have you ever eaten a frozen shortbread cookie? Well it’s delightful and refreshing, as cookies go and since it’s summer, it might be one of the best ways to eat these little beauties.
While I whack away at business this morning I’m taking two of these dandy little cookies with a glass of flowering tea. I’m so refined, I’m like a brick of gold.
Bottoms up, sweet bluebirds!
And happy first day of summer to you of the Northern hemisphere!
Pop into a frock, put some flowers in your hair
and love the light!
xx
PLUME
PS And WHERE oh WHERE will you watch the sunset from this evening?
