Salted White Chocolate Lavender Cookies
Cookies might just be my favorite thing to make.
I’ve said many times that baking is my de-stressor, but that is especially true for baking cookies. There’s just something so therapeutic about measuring out ingredients and scooping cookie dough. It’s almost a mindless task. Once you understand the way the ingredients in a cookie react with one another, and what different ratios do, it’s super easy to come up with recipes.
For instance, I wanted these cookies to be nice and chewy, so I used half butter and half shortening, added in a bit of cornstarch, and threw in an extra egg yolk—all things that contribute soft chewiness. I also wanted them to be nice and round, so I popped them in the freezer while the oven preheated (this reduces spread in the oven). If you wanted thinner, crisper cookies, you could skip the chilling, use all butter, replace the cornstarch with flour, and cook them longer. It all seems sorta complicated at first, but it starts making sense pretty quickly š
I’m in love with these cookies. I had been envisioning them in my head for a while, and I think they turned out even better than I had hoped! I love the texture of the chewy cookie with the randomly-sized chunks of white chocolate, and the subtle flavoring of lavender throughout. I used a giant hunk of white chocolate that I bought at Whole Foods and chopped by hand, but you could also use the chunks that are sold in bags, or even the chips if you really wanted to.
The key to dispersing the lavender throughout the cookies is to pulverize it with the sugar in a food processor. It chops the little buds so you don’t get any chunks in your bites, and it perfumes the sugar beautifully. It’s the same technique I use for my Salted Honey Lavender Shortbread.
I know I just gave you guys a lavender recipe last week, but lavender is like my Spring pumpkin. I just can’t get enough of it. Actually, you’re lucky there hasn’t been more of it around, but I was seriously considering adding it to my Strawberry Shortcakes. In the end I kept that classic, but I can’t pretend I’m not still thinking about some sort of lavender-y shortcake (maybe with blueberries?).
But, bottom line, these cookies are freakin’ tasty. You will love them (I think! I did!). Eat them with tea or coffee. Make an ice cream sandwich with them (might I suggest my Honey Poppyseed Frozen Yogurt). Dip them in milk. Do whatever! They’re salty-sweet perfection—the best kind š
PrintSalted White Chocolate Lavender Cookies
Yield: 20-22 cookies
Ingredients:
- 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tsp lavender
- 8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 6 tbsp vegetable shortening
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
- 6 oz. white chocolate chunks (about 1 and 1/2 cups)
- sea salt, for sprinkling
Directions:
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- In a food processor, process the sugar and lavender for about 10-20 seconds until the lavender is chopped into pretty tiny pieces, and sugar starts billowing like smoke up pout of the top of the processor.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, shortening, and lavender sugar at medium-high speed for 3 minutes. Add in the egg and egg yolk and beat for 3 more minutes until fluffy. Add in the flour mixture and the chocolate and beat on low until combined.
- Using a large (3 tablespoon-sized) cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto silicone baking mat (or parchment paper)-lined baking sheets an inch or two apart. Place the tray in the freezer.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. When the oven has finished preheating, take the dough out of the freezer and bake for 12 minutes. It should look a little underdone when you take it out. Immediately sprinkle each cookie with a small pinch of sea salt (and extra lavender, if you want).
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheets before moving to a wire baking rack to cool completely.
these sound like lovely cookies!
Thank you! They are so delicious, and, according to my boyfriend's co-workers, smell very soothing, haha!
is this the exact recipe you used?
I like my cookies chewy like you do and wanted to make the amount of butter, shortening and eggs used in the recipe is how you did it!
Hi Christine, the recipes that I post are always the recipes used to create the food in the photos š
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Hi Rachael. These look great! Did you use dried or fresh lavender?
I use dried, but using fresh shouldn’t make too much of a difference š
Holy YUM! These are awesome, thanks!
I’m gonna try to substitute Earth Balance shortening or butter-flavor shortening next time…but otherwise YUM!
Sounds like a great idea!
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These are DELICIOUS. Also fun and easy to make! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Ash!
I’d love to make these – about how many does a batch make? Thank you!
Oh my gosh I’m an idiot… just saw ‘yields 20-22 cookies’…. sorry, please disregard my question above!
Haha, no problem, Whitney š
Any particular lavender used? Is there a certain kind preferred for baking?
Just make sure it is culinary lavender as the food grade herb is handled differently š
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Hello,
Thank you for this lovely recipe,the taste and smell were already forming in my head!
However, when I tried making them the first trial batch spread too much and became flat greasy sheets of ācookiesā.
So I decided to chill the dough for 24 hours before baking, this time the cookies spread again but not as flat as the ones before.
I admit I did play around with the recipe a little, like I used 3/4 cup of butter, instead of butter and coconut oil, I also exchanged 1/4 cup of the sugar with brown sugar, and I added some gel food coloring.
What do you think went wrong?
I personally think its the white sugar, coz MOST cookie recipes call for both brown and white sugars, with brown having a higher ration.
By the way, they tasted very good, i made half the batch with white chocolate chips, the other half with chopped macadamia nuts.
Thank you!
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Well this was the biggest flop ever, followed every thing to the “T” and the dough was crumbly and had to squeeze it hard to get it to stick together. should have known that they would be junk after cooking. Garbage they went.
Hi there,
I’m sorry your cookies didn’t come out like you expected! Unfortunately, I’d need a bit more information to find out what exactly went wrong. One possibility could be not mixing the dough long enough prior to adding in the flour. This is super important step! The dough should be mixed for that full 6 minutes prior to the flour mixture being added. It also sounds like perhaps your forgot one of the wet ingredients, or added too much dry, as the dough for this is very very moist (which is why it requires sitting in the freezer before baking). It’s important to spoon your flour into the measuring cup as opposed to the scooping it with the cup.
Hope one of these suggestions works!
Rachael
In reply to the person who claimed these cookies were junk and put them in the garbage, you may āthinkā you followed the recipe to a T, but I assure you, you have made a mistake. Itās ok, happens to everyone. But I made these today after reading through the recipe and all the reviews first and these were definitely NOT dry or crumbly! Perhaps you left out the extra egg yolk or didnāt cream the butter and shortening long enough. But I know how to bake. And these were so delightful! Moist on the inside and light golden brown with a bit of crunch on the bottom. I like infusing the lavender flavor into the sugar. And 2 tsp seemed just right for a subtle flavor. Thank you for the recipe! I recently bought a tin of culinary grade dried lavender buds and was looking for a recipe to use them in.
Paulette,
Thank you so much for your comment–it definitely made me smile on this Monday morning š
I’m so glad that the recipe worked for you!
Rachel,
Kudos to you for such a gracious response to someone who left a rude comment. Iāll bet she made an error in adding too much flour. The dough was perfectly moist and not crumbly at all! Iām in culinary school and feel qualified to say… these are YUMMY! ?????
If thereās a way to add a picture here, I have one showing the moist dough
After itās mixed. Thanks for the recipe. I look forward to seeing more.
I appreciate your comments more than you know—thank you! š
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The salt makes the sweet and floral notes in this cookie sing! In my opinion, they pair perfectly with a good, dark beer. Wanted to note for other bakers that my dough came out a bit crumbly too. Iām a fairly experienced baker and read all directions and comments. Added 1/8 cup water in the final mix and achieved a nice, moist dough like the recipe describes. Not sure where I went wrong, but I canāt taste a mistake in the final result! Love this recipe.
So glad your alteration made things turn out perfectly! Baking can be weird in all different kitchens and with different ingredient brands, etc. It sounds like you did everything right!
Yum! Thank you!!! Can’t wait to try! I love lavender in the Spring also. How about a little rose water in your strawberry shortcake? We make strawberry jam every year and try a bunch of different combos, (basil, thyme, champagne…) my favorite is rose. Happy Spring!
Okay so I never ever comment on recipes. But I had to this time! These are some of the best cookies Iāve ever had, and certainly the best Iāve ever made. I bake something new for all of my familyās birthdays, and my stepmom is going to LOVE them! My batter did come out crumbly, but I followed another commenters advice and added the 1/8c of water. They came out perfect. Crispy and chewy and perfectly flavored. Thank you for posting this recipe!!!
I’m so so happy to hear that you loved them!