Maureen Abood’s Lavender and Orange Blossom Cookies Recipe (2024)

I love Graybeh and having been born in the Middle-East they're a part of my family's heritage. However, "THEY SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO GET BROWN." Their benchmark is a soft, snow white cookie.

You can use ghee to avoid having to clarify your own butter. I use ghee from non pasteurized milk, it taste better and is the real thing. The best ghee is made from milk from early spring when the cows come out and start munching on new grasses like alfalfa and clover. I like to think of these grasses as the real fast food, just because it takes light to travel from the Sun to Earth only eight minutes. Take that Micky D!

I measured out a gram of dried lavendar, and when ground to a powder using a mortar and pestle, it made a quantity of several tablespoons. Better to use the 2 tsp quantity than a full gram, maybe.

I liked the instructions for clarified butter. I left out lavender and used vanilla. Easy to make and cookies were crunchy but too sweet for my taste. I'll make again but will use less sugar.

Add the flour slowly—I added what the recipe required and the dough became almost impossible to shape. I ended up adding in more butter, which helped, but also caused the cookies to lose their shape in the oven. Nevertheless, they tasted amazing!

Is orange extract a suitable substitute for the orange blossom water?

These are delicious. But they didn’t turn out like the graybeh I grew up with, which had a softer, more melt-in-your-mouth texture. These were hard. Delicious, but hard. Will try with less flour next time. I used a mortar and pestle to grind the lavender but used only what came through a fine sieve, so much less than the two teaspoons (probably about half). It was the perfect amount.

Made with ghee to skip a step and mixed by hand as my small kitchen keeps appliances to a minimum.Good flavor, but a bit too sweet as others have said, and at 1 cup of flour, the dough had trouble staying together and wouldn’t take any more. The advice to add slowly is to be heeded.

I second Inez’s seriouseats suggestion for the clarified butter. And in regard to not getting it fluffy, room temp varies so erring on the colder side helped me. I put a bowl of ice under my mixer bowl (the kitchenaid that lifts) while using the whisk attachment and whipped on high for abt 15 min, 6 min was def not enough with my warm kitchen temp. Cookies came out beautifully but I may chill the dough next time to ensure less spread. Also added more flour to account for high humidity.

This is delicious and super easy and quick to make... I agree with the person below who says don't bake it till it is brown. This will definitely be something I will make regularly.

I have recently discovered that Costco sells ghee, which is the Indian name for clarified butter. Saves a step!

Make butter in a microwave- melt, discard foam, pour the top layer

Has anybody used Trader Joe's clarified butter successfully? No matter how long l beat it (with a stand mixer and wire whisk), it never became fluffy. Next time I'll try making my own ghee. My cookie dough was very soft and the cookies were flat and shapeless.

The taste is really nice, but mine ended up flat! Does one use baking powder or not? Or did this happen because my dough wasn't dry enough? I used vanilla because I didn't have orange blossom water, so one tastes lavender and butter more than anything, which I really like. I'll try the citrus flavoring next time, but first I need to know what I can do better next time so they are soft and fluffy instead of flat and hard. Any help would be appreciated.

I found this a couple of years ago. Very helpful since I make a lot of baklava. This method will help with recipe too! http://www.epicurious.com/archive/blogs/editor/2014/11/the-easiest-way-t...

Wow, so delicate and delicious. I sifted in the ground lavender blossoms with a tea strainer. Used four drops of orange oil in place of orange blossom water, resulted in a sweet-citrus note. Don't be afraid to err on the side of too-stiff dough. I think my diamonds spread into wide leaf-shapes because the dough was too soft, probably. Plenty sweet without the powdered sugar after baking.

I have lavender extract instead of dried lavender? How much should I use?

Add the flour slowly—I added what the recipe required and the dough became almost impossible to shape. I ended up adding in more butter, which helped, but also caused the cookies to lose their shape in the oven. Nevertheless, they tasted amazing!