lavender biscuits

These heavenly scented and delicious biscuits are really easy to make and have that proper buttery crumble cookie taste that melts in the mouth, or the mug, if you're more of a tea dunking biscuit lover.

As there are several varieties of lavender each can give a slightly different intensity of lavender loveliness.

I used the leaves and flowers from my Edelweiss lavender plant which has white flowers and an altogether lighter fragrance so these were only ever so slightly lavender, but as lavender can be very heavily scented, this worked a treat.

Perfectly lovely with a big mug of builders tea as an afternoon pick-me-up.

As Autumn leaves fall fast and the lavender starts to die off, use the basic biscuit recipe minus the lavender and instead add any variations of the following;

grated zest from 1 lemon,

50g of chopped dried blueberries/cranberries/raisins,

 25g finely chopped crystallized ginger,

A tsp of mixed spice {or ginger/cinnamon etc}

or whatever you fancy really...

Dip half the biscuit into melted chocolate for extra luxury!

This recipe was taken from The Edible Garden.

Ingredients:

150g {5oz} butter

90g {3½oz} caster sugar

225g {8oz} plain flour

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp fresh lavender leaves, chopped

1 tsp {approx.} lavender flowers removed from the spike

Makes 10 -12 biscuits.

Preheat oven to 160°C {320°F} and grease 2 baking trays.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy.

Add the flour {sifted}, egg yolk and lavender leaves {or substitute} and mix well.

Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a smooth ball. Gently roll the ball into a cylinder shape about 8-10 cm {3-4 in} in diameter. With a sharp knife, slice the cylinder into 10-12 slices and spread out onto the baking trays. Press a few lavender flowers into the top of each biscuit.

Bake in the oven for 15 - 18 minutes until the biscuits are firm and ever so slightly golden on top.

Allow to cool on the trays for about 5 minutes then carefully move to a cooling rack.

Any surplus uncooked dough can be wrapped in clingfilm and kept in the fridge for a few days.