Lavender Shortbread

I decided to try a second recipe from the dessert section. I've got lots of lavender and saw this recipe for lavender shortbread I wanted to try. I've never made my own shortbread before and I was really surprised at how easy it was. Shortbread is really only 3 ingredients: butter, flour, and sugar. It really doesn't get any easier than that.

The recipe suggested using a "heavy duty electric mixer" in other words, one of those KitchenAid mixers you see everyone using and you probably own one yourself. Well it may surprise you that at the time I didn't own one though I've always considered getting one. I'm sure I could have made it just fine without one but it gave me a reason to go looking for one. :) First I looked on Amazon and made mental notes of the prices and then did a Google search to see what others were selling for. Dang those things are expensive. I then decided to try searching for a refurbished one and one of the first results was from kitchencollection.com I found a stainless steel 5 qt. pro model for only $199 which is quite a bit lower than the regular price plus they had free shipping. Can't beat that so I ordered it and got it last week. This lavender shortbread was the first thing I made with it.

I didn't realize there was so much butter in shortbread but it explains why I like shortbread. The recipe says it's best to use the lavender buds, just before they bloom but most of mine were a little past that stage but I used them anyway. I tried to pick off the best buds and not use any that were starting to get dried out. They puffed up a little bit during the baking so I should have spread them out a little bit further apart. Other than that, I thought they turned out pretty great and will definitely make shortbread again.