Lavender Lemon Sugar Cookies.

Sweet, dainty, lavender lemon sugar cookies for your Tuesday (summer) baking. Lightly sweetened buttery shortbread cookies hinted with lavender and lemon. Decorate simply with edible flowers for the easiest and prettiest, buttery summer cookie. Easy to make, so pretty, and delicious!

It’s not a secret that I love making things not only taste delicious, but look delicious, and hopefully even pretty too. It’s not always the easiest task, but I try and try again until I feel like I’ve been able to capture just how delicious a recipe is. Trust me, it can be hard. But these cookies?

I didn’t even have to try. I just created, styled, and baked. Sure I spent time on them, but you guys? These cookies are always going to turn out pretty…and yes, I promise you that they taste delicious too. These cookies are not just all about their looks, and I couldn’t be more excited to share them.

And even better? You’d think these cookies would take a lot of time and effort but in reality? They’re actually so easy…and they’re almost impossible to mess up.

Simple, simple.

So delicious.

Pretty, dainty, and summery.

Just a few of my favorites things.

Here is the story.

I’ve wanted to make edible flower cookies for the longest time. It all started last summer, around mid to late August. I was working on planning the wedding cakes for my brother Brendan’s upcoming September wedding. Lyn’s, my now sister-in-law, had asked if I would make their wedding cakes. I hesitated, but I just couldn’t say no. One of the ideas that Lyn’s had was to make one of my layer cakes. This blackberry lavender naked cake to be exact. But she asked if I could decorate it with dried edible flowers.

I loved the idea so much, but I never got around to drying the flowers and ended up just using fresh. It was all fine, and still pretty, but from that point on, I really wanted to bake cookies with that idea in mind. I knew if I put fresh flowers on a cookie, the flowers would obviously dry up as the cookies baked. I’ve seen it done before but have never gotten around to testing a recipe myself.

Until now. With all of our lavender growing in the garden (it smells incredible and is one of my favorite herbs/flowers we are growing), I made it my goal this summer to finally bake these cookies that I’ve been dreaming up for the past year. This past week I finally went for it.

And you know what? I was expecting to have to do a lot of testing and spend way too much time on these, but I got them right on the very first try. Everything from the cookie, to the flavors, and the decorations.

I was shocked and excited.

I guess sometimes dreaming does pay off.

I love these cookies!

To make these lavender lemon sugar cookies…

You really only need some lavender, a few pantry staples, and some edible flowers…if you’d like.

Now, first things first. You do not have to use edible flowers as I’ve done. The flowers on top of the cookies are really just decoration. It’s the lavender and the lemon that flavor these cookies and make them so delicious. So while I love the finished look the edible flowers give, you don’t have to use them.

Start off by making the lavender sugar. It’s simply dried lavender, lemon zest, and sugar. The trick is grinding the lavender in the food processor to start breaking it down. If you don’t have a food processor, you can grind the lavender in a coffee grinder, or use a mortar and pestle to grind it down. Or just simply use your fingertips to crush the lavender up into pieces.

Once the lavender is crushed, mix it with the sugar and lemon. Now you have lavender lemon sugar.

Next, beat the dough together. It too is simple…lots of butter, some of that lavender lemon sugar, vanilla, and flour. Easy.

Once the dough comes together, roll it out. Then cut the dough into circles.

At this point, simply brush the cookies with a beaten egg and sprinkle on the remaining lavender lemon sugar. You can now bake the cookies or decorate with flowers. If you’re decorating with flowers, it’s easy, gently press your flowers into each cookie and then bake. It’s important to note that as the cookie bakes, the flowers will shrivel up a bit and lose color. I actually found that I loved this “vintage” feel that the cookies took on.

So pretty, but not perfect, the flowers give the cookies an almost old look, I love it!

But really, how do the cookies actually taste?

Good…really good. Or delectable as I now love to say.

The cookie itself is so buttery and light. It’s sweet, but not overly so and hinted just perfectly and subtly with both lavender and lemon.

Here’s what I will say, personally, I don’t eat the edible flowers on top of the cookies…I find them to be pretty flavorless. Since the flowers dry up in the oven, they’re pretty easy to just pluck right off before eating.

Some edible flowers notes…

I order my edible flowers through Gourmet Sweet Botanicals, which deliverers via overnight shipping and has never let me down. I found the dahlias to bake up the nicest, but the pansies were pretty too, though they shriveled up the most. I also loved these little yellow sun daisies and found them to be so pretty and summery.

Oddly, I didn’t use any chamomile, but I’m sure that would be great and so pretty.

Oh, and then I also added our fresh lavender, both in the cookie and for decoration. That bakes up really nice too.

And with that, I will leave you to your cookie baking.

Another note…These will make the perfect summer afternoon snack or dessert when broken up over vanilla ice cream with fresh berries and a drizzle of honey. So many options with these cookies.

Have fun with them and enjoy!

And if you do bake these, please share the photos. I can’t wait to see what you guys create!

Looking for other summer floral-inspired recipes? Here are some favorites:

Blackberry Lavender Naked Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream

Blueberry Chamomile Galette

Blackberry Lavender White Chocolate Scones

Strawberry Chamomile Naked Cake

Lastly, if you make this these lavender lemon sugar cookies, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!