Category: Cookies

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Homemade Vanilla Extract

I love using homemade vanilla extract when I cook. The flavor and aroma of homemade vanilla is incredible.

I’ll take homemade vanilla over chocolate any day of the week.

Vanilla

A vanilla bean is actually a fruit from an orchid. And it’s the second most expensive spice after saffron.

This recipe only takes 2 ingredients. It just can’t get any easier than this.

I try to always use organic beans.

Jars

Since you get to choose, choose jars that you like. I don’t know about you but I have a collection of jars of all shapes and sizes. I liked these.

Use some cool looking jars that you really like.

I had 5 beans left, so I divided them evenly. I’ll just let it sit longer than I usually do before I begin to use it.

I generally like to use 4 beans per bottle. But I’ve used 2 to 3 before too.

Add your vanilla beans.

You can use bottom shelf vodka for this, but use the highest proof you can get. I think this was 80 proof. I would have preferred 90, but…

Make sure you fill to cover your beans. Then put in a dark place and let it sit for at least 6 weeks.

Cover your beans with high proof vodka.

This is my current bottle. You can pull your beans when it gets to the flavor you like. But I leave them because I don’t think you can ever have too much vanilla.

Finished vanilla.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Ingredients

  • 2-4 Vanilla Beans
  • 1 1/2 to 2 cups (about a pint) of vodka

Instructions

  • Add beans to a glass jar
  • Fill the jar with vodka, enough to cover the beans
  • Sit in a dark place for at least 6 weeks.

I think the longer it sits the better it is.

Try using your new vanilla extract in a batch of lavender cookies from last week

I really hope you’ll give it a try. If you do, let me know how it turns out. If you have a different recipe, feel free to share in the comments below.

I hope you all had a fabulous Valentine’s Day.

Next week I’ll show you how to make a corn dollie. A fun craft for you and your kids or grandkids.

Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

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Easy Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Talking about lavender a few weeks back made me want to try something new. I buy dried lavender by the pound and just got my order in a few weeks ago as well. Something I’ve always wanted to try but hadn’t yet was cooking with dried lavender flowers.

The one thing that I’ve seen regularly when looking for lavender recipes, is cookies.

I had to give it a try. I read over many different recipes (a lot of which I had saved already, I’ve wanted to make these for a long time).

And, this is what I finally came up with.

These cookies use butter, sugar, honey, vanilla, flour, salt and lavender flowers. Pretty easy really.
Mix together the butter sugar, honey and vanilla.
Cream the butter mixture together
Mix your dry ingredients.
Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and combine well.
Roll your dough into a log using wax paper. You can shape it to a square or rectangular shape if you like.
Then place the log in the freezer for about 30 minutes or in the refrigerator for more than an hour until good and stiff.
Using a very sharp knife cut the dough in about 1/4 inch slices.
Put the cookies on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet about 1-2 inches apart. These are a lot further apart than that, but this was my first batch and i didn’t know how they would act yet.
Bake at 325 degrees for about 15 – 20 minutes. Cook until lightly golden brown. Be careful not to overcook or once they cool completely they will become really crunchy.

Now if you want to dip them in coffee, this might not be a perfect idea.
I glazed most of these cookies.
Make a nice cup of lavender and lemon balm tea and sit back and enjoy your cookies. It’s an awesome pairing.

Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1.5 Tablespoons raw local honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup flour
  • small pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon dried lavender flowers

Instructions

  1. Cream together the butter, sugar, honey and vanilla.
  2. Combine the flour, salt and lavender flowers and mix well.
  3. Pour the flour mixture into the creamed mixture until well combined.
  4. Roll out onto a sheet of wax paper and roll into an approximately 1″ to 1.5″ log.
  5. If you want, flatten into a more square or rectangle shape.
  6. Put in the freezer for about 20-30 min or in the refrigerator for an hour or more. You want the dough to be firm.
  7. Cut the dough in about 1/4″ slices. You could probably roll it out and cut it into shapes if you wanted to.
  8. Put on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet at about 1-2″ apart.
  9. Cook in a preheated oven at 325 deg. for 15-20 min. Then cook until they turn a light golden brown.
  10. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

I actually made a small amount of lavender tea and then used that to make a glaze.

Glaze

Mix together 3 – 4 Tablespoons of powdered sugar with 3 teaspoons of lavender tea. You can adjust that as necessary for the thickness you prefer.

You could use a mixer to cream the butter-sugar mixture and then to mix in the flour. This recipe is really small enough, it was easy enough to use a short wooden spoon.

These things were really awesome. An amazing test for anything like this that I make is if my husband likes them. He’s a chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies and milk kind of guy.

And…he really liked them!!! For me that makes this a recipe card recipe that will stay on the side of my fridge for later use.

I hope you’ll give this a try or make your own version of it. If you do, please come back and let me know how it turned out.

I plan on making some different versions of this one in the future. One with lemon and one with slivered or chopped almonds. If you get there first, I hope you’ll come back and let me know what you did and how it turned out. I really want to hear how it worked.

Until next time — Health, Wealth & Blessings!!! ~Tracey