Dried flower shortbread cookies

Once a month my local library holds an herbal class that is taught by my friend who is a Master Herbalist. She humbly yet confidently leads the class through discussions of medicinal herbs and their uses. She holds walks during the summer around our beautiful mountains where she teaches and identifies every local plant and its use. She’s very hands-on in her approach. She believes that the best approach to treatment is through the power of intuition. Something along the line of muscle testing. Sometimes we don’t always know what our bodies need, but our bodies know exactly what our bodies need.

The ability to break the barrier of fear and find truth is always a relevant skill. Sometimes the hardest obstacle in healing oneself is to trust the natural process that Mother Nature has previously established.

This month, in celebration of Spring, she held a garden tea party in the basement of the old library. She brought an old, antiquated tea pot to serve her hot, florally liquid in. She also had a small, electric burner so she could heat and brew the tea on site. In a rustic, wooden milk crate she had mason jars filled with her aromatic herbs and spices. Heads of pungently-sweet dried chamomile, intoxicating stalks of lavender, faintly pink peony leaves, and woodsy, earthy dried bits of rose hips lined the table. It was an aesthetic and aromatic display of beauty and flower-nostalgia.

In support of my friend’s garden tea party, I brought dried flower tea cookies. They were incredibly easy, delicious and more importantly, they were pretty!

I’ve never made shortbread cookies in this fashion before and I was very pleasantly surprised by how easily the recipe came together, how few ingredients, and yet how buttery, crispy, and subtly sweet that these turned out! They just may become my go-to cookie to celebrate my favorite season!

Recipe:

!/2 cup butter

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

25-30 small pansy heads or other tiny, edible flowers

Cream together butter and sugar. Add in flour and salt and combine until well mixed. Roll into a log shape (make sure its as smooth as possible) and wrap with plastic wrap. Set in fridge to firm for one hour. On a clean surface set log on counter and prepare to cut into discs. Using clean twine, string, or floss cut the log into 1/2 inch discs and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake 350 degrees 10-12 minutes.

Once cookies are baked and still warm, place dried flower heads on each cookie and dust with powdered sugar or drizzle with icing.