Botanical Week + Lemon Verbena Shortbread
Fun with flavors and and a bright, sunny, ultra-simple cookie.
I hope everyone had a great week and a happy Halloween! This week I joined Sarah and Nirali to judge the Chicago Tribune’s annual holiday cookie contest. Stay tuned to get the recipes for the winning cookies!
Spoiler alert: If you haven't watched this week’s Great British Baking Show, stop reading now!
Great British Baking Show Episode 6: Botanical Week
What is a botanical? It's really anything plant-related, right? (Yes, I looked it up!) However, on the Baking Show it seems to mean herbs, spices, and other flavorings other than fruit, vegetables, nuts, chocolate, grains, etc.
Hot Takes
I loved that the challenges were broadly written but still specific. For the signature, they had to feature spice in a yeasted bun. The bakers had so much flexibility within those parameters.
Floral flavors are tough: too much and it's soapy, too little and you don't taste it. There's a smaller margin of error than with many other flavors.
Blueberries: Speaking as someone who has used blueberries in The Tent, most blueberries don't taste like anything. Perfect, in-season blueberries are great fresh, and wild blueberries pack a punch. But most other times blueberries have zero flavor. And cooked blueberries rarely taste special.
I'm so glad Cristy rallied at the end. The pressure in the tent is tough. It's a mental challenge, and when something goes awry, you have to keep your head in the game.
Favorite Bakes
Tasha's mulled wine buns sounded amazing, and Cristy's pecan cinnamon maple buns looked rich and decadent. Saku's cinnamon and cardamom buns are near to my heart, and not too far off from my Andersonville Babka.
Josh's rhubarb, raspberry, and hibiscus showstopper sounded tangy, creamy, and dreamy. I'd go for that one first.
Lemon and thyme drizzle cake! Lemon drizzle is one of the best cakes ever, and I love the idea of adding thyme to it. (I'd even swap the thyme for some lavender! Gasp!)
For Heaven's Sake
Tasha did the most in this week's showstopper. The judges priased it, but I would have pared it back a bit.
The judges sound like they're on repeat when they describe what they want to see in a challenge: We want great textures and flavors. Not too much flavor, but not too little. We want it to look spectacular, but also taste wonderful. You can easily add too much [insert ingredient] and then it [insert problem].
The jelly flowers looked exquisite, but how do they taste? (I'm genuinely curious.)
Ugh, so sad to see Dana leave! I thought it was going to be Matty, but alas, it was Dana.
Lemon Verbena Shortbread
Instead of the spices and floral flavors that were featured in The Tent this week, I have an herb-forward botanical bake, featuring my home-grown lemon verbena. Anyone who knows me knows that I love lemon verbena. I grow it a pot every single year. In the fall, I dry the remaining leaves to use all winter long in bakes and as tea. Lemon verbena smells like lemon drop candy, and gives a lovely herbal lemon note to this recipe. You can easily find dried lemon verbena online or at specialty spice shops. These buttery, bright little cookies come together in a snap.
Makes about 18 cookies.
For the cookies
3 g (about 3/4 cup if the leaves are whole, loosely-packed) dried lemon verbena leaves
60 g (1/3 cup) sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Zest of 1 medium lemon
113 grams (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
160 grams (1 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour
For the icing
100 g powdered sugar
4 teaspoon lemon juice
Using a spice grinder, blitz the lemon verbena leaves until into a fine powder. You may see some little sticks or things in there, but don't fret.
Add the sugar, salt, and lemon zest into a bowl and rub the mixture with your fingers until it becomes fragrant. Sift in the ground lemon verbena and discard anything left in the sieve.
Add the room-temperature butter to the sugar mixture, and use a wooden spoon to stir until everything is well combined and the butter is nice and creamy (about three minutes). If you're using a stand mixer, mix with a paddle attachment on medium-low speed for about one full minute. Add all of the flour and stir to combine, but don't over mix the dough. If the dough seems very sticky, add a couple teaspoons of flour and mix. Gather the dough together into a ball, and put it onto a piece of parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Using a little bit of flour to keep your hands or rolling pin from sticking, gently pat or roll the dough into a rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. Slide the parchment and dough onto a baking sheet, and chill it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (up to 2 hours).
Preheat the oven to 350F with the rack on the top third of the oven. Using a knife or a pizza wheel, cut the dough into rectangles that measure about 1 inch wide by 2 inches long. (If you have scraps of dough, gently knead them together and re-roll. The cookies might not be as tender, but they'll be just as delicious.) Next, prick each shortbread with a fork and transfer them to a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving 1/2 inch between each cookie. Bake the shortbreads at 350F for 17-20 minutes, until just light golden brown on the edges. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes on the baking pan, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the icing, stir together powdered sugar and lemon juice. The icing should flow very thickly and holds its shape. To test, you can drizzle a line onto a plate. If it holds its shape, then you're good. If it flows into a puddle, then add teaspoon of powdered sugar, stir, and test again. I like to put the icing in a piping bag or zip-top bag and casually pipe stripes over the cookies. Let the frosting dry for at least 2 hours.
These cookies will last for about 3 days, covered. Shortbread is best fresh!
I made a batch of these on Halloween to celebrate Boo-tanical week.
Happy Baking,
Martin