Victorian Era Lavender Cookies

Quiet Sunday afternoon suggestion: A cup of real milky English black tea, a comfy cuddle in the living room sofa, nice low tunes and ....back to the 1820´s for a minute, shall we? Let me tell you a story:

Back in early 1800´s when England underwent a few dramatic changes and stepped into what has later been noted down as Victorian Era, artistic freedom and general prosperity flourished around the country. England developed herself as a world power and thus began the happy times. Splendid afternoons that have lead to discovery of afternoon teas. And what do you do when you sip on a lovely milky rich English tea? You nibble on a few lovely crunchy English cookies.

Now this is a very subjective interpretation of a century of events and I would not probably make it to a chair of a useful European (or any other parts, after all) history teacher, yet what I know is that they must have had enormous lavender gardens back then, as they invented the most fragrant, buttery, crunchy sweet addictive cookies ever! Here they are (mine are only a day old, but still):

VICTORIAN ERA LAVENDER COOKIES:

• 125 g butter
• 2 dl plain (nasty) white sugar
• 1 generous tbsp dried lavender petals
• 2 1/2 dl white flour
• 1oo g roughly chopped almonds
• pinch salt

Firstly, mix the lavender petals with the sugar. Then add the rest of ingredients and form a dough. Divide into 50 little balls, round them well and then flatten with your palms. Dont worry about the shape, as the rustic medieval rough design is our goal.

Meantime, preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius and once ready, bake these lovely ones for about 10 - 12 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool. The cookies should be quite hard and crunchy (that s why you dip them in the afternoon tea...)

Warning: Do not get perky and start widely taking off the tray the second you baked them, cause this is what happens:

... nicely let them cool for at least 10 minutes.

adorable. The best thing about them is the smell left in the kitchen. I ll be sooooo making these again.

Bon apetit - bow ... and off this goes to Rachna of Soul Food, who is hosting this month´s JFI edition. The theme is edible flowers and she has some wonderful flower pictures over at her blog....