Looking for a beautiful, sweet treat for Easter, Mother's Day, a Baby Shower or "just because"? This recipe makes delicate, melt-in-your mouth shortbread cookies, with the added “wow” factor of edible flowers! Sure to impress at special occasions!
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1 stick (1/2 cup, 4 oz or 113 grams) vegan butter, cut into small cubes
- 1/4 cup organic caster sugar
- 1 tbsp plant milk of choice (I used almond milk)
- Pinch of salt
- Handful of edible flowers (always do your research on what flowers are safe to eat - see recipe notes for more information)
- Icing sugar for dusting (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300F / 149C, and line a cookie sheet with baking paper.
- Put vegan butter and sugar into a medium size bowl, and cream together, using electric beaters or whisk, until well combined and fluffy.
- Add flour and salt to the bowl, and mix until combined. Form into a ball.
- Lightly dust a clean surface and rolling pin with flour. Place shortbread dough onto the surface and roll out until about 1/3 inch (nearly 1 centimeter) thick.
- Using cookie cutter/s, cut shortbread dough into desired shapes and transfer to prepared cookie sheet.
- Collect shortbread off cuts, and then repeat Steps 4-5 until all shortbread dough has been used.
- Add plant milk to a small glass. Lightly wet a pastry brush with plant milk and wipe over the top of the shortbread cookies. Top cookies with edible flowers. Lightly pressing down so the flowers adhere to the surface of the dough (If desired, press edible flowers into 3/4 of the cookies and leave 1/4 of the cookies plain to be dusted with icing sugar after baking).
- Bake for 45 minutes or until the cookies turn a light golden brown. Allow to sit for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
- Lightly dust plain shortbread cookies with a little icing sugar.
- Store shortbread cookies in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
Edible flowers:
We used pansies (orange, yellow and blue) and cornflowers. You can use any edible flowers available for this recipe. However, please be careful! Do your recipe homework and make sure your flowers are safe for shortbread cookies. You should also avoid flowers that were grown with pesticides – in fact, it’s easy (and a great idea) to grow your own!