These lavender sugar cookies are buttery, fragrant, and crisp, with a slight chew thanks to a touch of light corn syrup. The cookies are great plain, however, I love them glazed! I dipped these cookies in Earl Grey glaze made with ground Earl Grey tea leaves. A simple lemon glaze would also be gorgeous.
Please note that unglazed cookies are more crisp the day after baking. Glazed cookies stay chewier because of the extra moisture.
Jump to:
- 📋Ingredients
- 🤨Is All Lavender Edible?
- 🙋♀️What Do Lavender Sugar Cookies Taste Like?
- 💜Lavender Sugar
- 🧐Why Do You Use Clear Corn Syrup In This Recipe?
- 🤓Why Do You Chill The Dough And Freeze The Cookies Before Baking?
- 🥣Making The Earl Grey Glaze
- 👩🍳How To Dip The Cookies In The Glaze To Get A Smooth Finish
- 🖨Recipe
📋Ingredients
- Dried lavender buds
- Sugar
- Butter
- Egg
- Milk
- Light corn syrup
- Vanilla
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Earl Grey tea leaves
- Powdered sugar
🤨Is All Lavender Edible?
The answer is yes and no. Classified as part of the mint family, some varieties of lavender are grown for decorative purposes only. You can buy dried lavender buds specifically for culinary use.
🙋♀️What Do Lavender Sugar Cookies Taste Like?
Used in excess, lavender can make baked goods taste “soapy”. In the right proportion, lavender flavor in baked goods should be herbaceous, almost like a mix of other pungent fresh herbs like rosemary and mint.
If you’re new to baking with lavender, or don’t love the flavor, reduce the amount of lavender called for in this recipe to 1 or 2 teaspoons, or omit it completely.
💜Lavender Sugar
I like to make a batch of lavender sugar to keep on hand in my pantry.
🧐Why Do You Use Clear Corn Syrup In This Recipe?
- In The Lavender Sugar Cookies—the cookies will seem super chewy for the first little while out of the oven. As they sit they will firm up and become crisp. A touch of corn syrup in the dough helps retain a slight bit of chewiness. If you don’t want chewy cookies, feel free to omit the syrup.
- In The Earl Grey Glaze—over the years I’ve discovered that a touch of clear corn syrup in a simple powdered sugar glaze helps the glaze retain structure and harden better on cookies. You can omit the corn syrup, however, you may not get the same shiny, smooth, and sturdy results.
🤓Why Do You Chill The Dough And Freeze The Cookies Before Baking?
Cold dough takes longer to expand in a hot oven. Chilling the cookie dough for an hour before you roll it, and then freezing the cut out lavender sugar cookies for 20 minutes before you bake them, ensures the cookies don’t spread too much and hold their cut out shape better.
🥣Making The Earl Grey Glaze
I used a blend of Earl Grey tea with dried blue cornflowers for this recipe, however, you could really use any tea blend you prefer. To make perfect glaze for lavender sugar cookies:
- Make sure you sift your powdered sugar.
- Grind your tea leaves as fine as you can. No one wants huge bits of dried tea leaf in their mouth!
- Add the milk by the half teaspoon and stir well between each addition. I used 5 teaspoons of milk to make the glaze seen in these photos. After I add the milk I always wait a bit for the milk to absorb so I can fully see how thick the glaze is. Do this until your glaze is thick, but can still drip, similar to honey.
👩🍳How To Dip The Cookies In The Glaze To Get A Smooth Finish
Pour the Earl Grey glaze in batches onto a small plate. Hold one of the lavender sugar cookies upside down by the edges and lay it on top of the glaze. Lift the cookie straight up before it sinks down to its edges and let the glaze drip straight down back onto the plate. Once the drips have slowed down, quickly flip the cookie right side up, and lay it on a rack for the glaze to harden. Pop any air bubbles with a toothpick before the glaze sets. Let the cookies sit for one hour, and up to overnight, for the glaze to harden.
💃More Sweet Recipes
Did you make these lavender sugar cookies? Please rate the recipe and tell me how it went in the comments below. Also, stay in touch with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to see more delicious food and recipes!
🖨Recipe
Lavender Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- measuring cups and spoons or digital kitchen scale
- mortar and pestle or small capacity food processor
- stand mixer with both whisk and paddle attachments
- small-medium mixing bowl
- Fork
- rubber spatula or wooden spoon
- plastic wrap
- baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- small tray or dinner plate
- 2-inch (5-cm) round cookie cutter or other cookie cutters (see notes)
- small offset spatula optional
- spoon
Ingredients
For The Lavender Sugar Cookies
- 1 tablespoon dried lavender buds, culinary grade
- 1 ¼ cup sugar
- ¾ cup butter, room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup, also called clear corn syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
For The Earl Grey Glaze
- 1 teaspoon dried Earl Grey tea leaves
- 1 cup powdered sugar, also called icing or confectioners sugar
- 2 teaspoons light corn syrup, also called clear corn syrup
- ½ teaspoon vanilla, clear if you have it
- 4 to 5 teaspoons milk
Instructions
Make The Cookie Dough
- Using a mortar and pestle, grind the dried lavender buds with 1 tablespoon of the measured sugar to a fine powder.
- Combine the butter, lavender sugar, as well as the remaining sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, cream the butter on medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes, or until pale and fluffy.
- While the butter is mixing, use a fork to whisk the egg, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla together in a small bowl. Stop the mixer and use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg mixture, and continue to mix on high speed until well combined, about 1 minute.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl then add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Switch to the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until everything combines to a soft dough, about 1 minute.
- Lay a piece of plastic wrap out on a work surface. Dump the dough onto the middle of the plastic then shape it into a 7 to 8-inch (18 to 20-cm) disc, about 1-inch (2 ½-cm) thick, with your hands. Wrap the dough gently but tightly in the plastic and place it in the fridge to chill for one hour.
After The Cookie Dough Has Chilled
- Line a plate (or a small baking sheet that will fit in your freezer) with parchment paper. Unwrap the chilled dough and cut it in half. Re-wrap one half and return it to the fridge. Place the other half of dough on a work surface that's been lightly dusted with flour. Let the dough sit at room temperature for 3 to 5 minutes to soften slightly then use a rolling pin to roll it to approximately ¼-inch (6-mm) thick. Cut the dough into circles using a 2-inch (5-cm) round cookie cutter, or other cookie cutter of your choice (see notes).
- Place the cookie cutouts on the prepared plate or baking sheet. Reform the dough into a disc, re-roll it with the rolling pin, and cut again. Place the cookie cutouts in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Bake The Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line a standard baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer 12 of the frozen cutouts to the sheet. Bake the cookies for 9 to 11 minutes, or until they are very pale gold around the edges. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the baking sheet and place them directly on the wire rack to cool completely. Repeat the baking process until all of cookies from the freezer are baked.
Make The Earl Grey Glaze
- Grind the dried Earl Grey tea leaves to a fine powder with a mortar and pestle. Add the ground tea leaves to a small-medium mixing bowl. Use a fine mesh sieve to sift in the powdered sugar. Stir in the corn syrup, vanilla, and ½ teaspoon of milk. Continue to add milk by the ½ teaspoon, stirring well between each addition, until the glaze is quite thick, but will still drip, similar to the consistency of honey.
Glaze The Cookies
- Pour some of the glaze onto a small plate. Cover the bowl of glaze with plastic wrap to prevent hardening. Hold a cookie upside down by the edges and lay it on top of the glaze. Lift the cookie straight up before it sinks down to its edges then let the glaze drip straight down back onto the plate. Once the drips have slowed down, quickly flip the cookie right side up, and lay it on a wire rack for the glaze to harden. Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles before the glaze sets. Let the cookies sit one hour, and up to overnight for the glaze to harden.
Notes
- If you don’t have a mortar and pestle to grind the lavender buds and sugar, combine the lavender and all of the sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to a fine powder.
- You can use any shape cookie cutter you like, however, note that the baking time of the cookies may change.
- If you don’t want to bake all of your cookies right away, transfer the frozen cut outs to a container with a lid and store in the freezer for up to one month.
- Using clear vanilla extract for the glaze will keep it looking white. You can also use a drop or two of white food coloring.
[email protected] says
These sound and look fabulous. When I bake with tea I usually grind up the tea extra extra fine with a spice grinder and then add it directly into the cookies or icing instead of steeping it. It's worked really well in shortbreads in the past
[email protected] says
What a beautiful blog you have..I have the paste..I have never seen the powder..(On my list:)
[email protected] says
Ooh, good tip Clockwork Lemon!! I will definitely try that soon – I'm brainstorming a new ice cream recipe 🙂
[email protected] says
Thank you Monique 🙂 I have used the paste as well – I actually found it at Winners one day. I think the Paderno store may carry it as we'll. Thank you for looking!!
Rosie @ Blueberry Kitchen says
Your cookies look gorgeous! They sound like they taste pretty good too!
[email protected] says
Thanks Rosie! We ate them all in one night 🙂
Ayngelina says
Lavender and Earl Grey are such a classic combination, these look delicious.
Bernice M Hill says
Great update!!! That glaze just looks perfect on those sweet cookies. Who says sugar cookies are just for Christmas? I could eat these year round (with a lavender Earl Grey latte of course!)
Julia says
What beautiful cookies! I’ve never baked with lavender and don’t know why not. I bet they are delicious.
Kristen says
Oh these sound delightful. Lavender is one of my favourite things to bake with, so I will definitely give these a try – love the pairing with the earl grey.
Heidi Fink says
I am definitely making these! I LOVE both lavender and Earl Grey, and here you have combined them into the same cookie 🙂 Thanks for the recipe and the inspiration.
[email protected] says
Kelly, I’m very upset. I’m very upset that I didn’t think of this combination first. I love lavender and I’ve been making a lavender shortbread for years now, but you’ve really outdone yourself by adding an Earl Grey glaze. The two flavours are so different, yet so complimentary! Beautiful work, and I’m very, VERY happy to have this recipe in my life. Cheers!
Sharon says
How gorgeous do these look?! I’m imagining myself curled up with a London Fog, a plate of these beauties and a good book.
NANCY @Instanomss says
You had me at earl grey glaze!!
Nicoletta De Angelis Nardelli says
Such beautiful cookies! Lavender sugar cookies would have been already perfect, then you added the Earl Grey glaze and these have now become a must-make!
Cynthia @ Cynful Kitchen says
Yum! These are gorgeous cookies. I can only imagine how fragrant they would be with the lavender. Could we steep the tea if we only have tea bags? (Or do we cut the tea bags open and proceed?) I happen to have lavender on hand. Will give it a try!
Terri says
These look and sound so delicious! What a creative combo- Earl Grey tea is the best!
Sabrina says
What a brilliant combination and like Sean said, you’ve outdone yourself! The glaze is delicious and totally takes these cookies to the next level. So good, thanks!
kaylee says
i made these yesterday in little moon shapes for halloween and they’re soooo good!! they taste EXPENSIVE🌝💵
Kelly says
Ooooh how fun! Love this so much!
Jared W. says
What an elegant cookie! Thank you for taking the time to add high-quality notes (like why you added corn syrup). Little details like that build confidence in trying a stranger’s recipe and also my own confidence in executing it properly. Excellent recipe!
I’m vegan so I had to make some substitutions. I replaced the butter with Earth Balance butter, the egg with 1/4 cup of Silk brand soy yogurt, and the milk with almond milk.
I prepared my dough and glaze and let them sit overnight in the fridge. When I awoke, I went to taste the glaze but was disappointed that the tea didn’t steep like cold brew would have. It looked very similar to your pictures, with the flecks floating in it. The presentation was quite beautiful, but I personally didn’t prefer the mouth texture.
I studied another Earl Grey Glaze recipe over at https://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/earl-grey-glaze. I didn’t want to make a buttercream, so I simply extracted her concentrated London Fog technique. I microwaved 1/3 cup of milk, steeped a tea bag in it for 15 minutes (stirring frequently), then proceeded to make icing the way you instructed (adding the London Fog in 1/2 teaspoon at a time, roughly 10 times).
The cookies aren’t sickeningly sweet like most desserts Americans get. They were also quite crisp immediately after cooling, as mentioned in your notes. The glaze really is the perfect complement to the cookie, making it chewier overnight, providing the sweetness to round out the flavor, and producing a subtle “crackle” as a gorgeous finish.
The lavender was quite bold in these cookies. I can certainly understand that preference, but (as you also mentioned in your notes) I might reduce it the next time I make these. I’d like to taste more of the tea, but it’s hard for it to be tasted in such a thin layer. I will try steeping 2 tea bags next time I make this. I want it to be a very strong concentrate, perhaps too flavorful without its sugar counterpart.
I look forward to making these again and checking out more of your other recipes! Brava!
Kelly says
Thanks so much Jared! Your attention to detail speaks to my Virgo soul. lol Thanks for making them and letting me know how they turned out for you!