For the record, I love chocolate chip cookies as much as the next person and love to bake them. However, they are not my idea of Christmas cookies…unles you use the new red and green swirly chocolate chips in them. Christmas cookies imply special, once-a-year effort.
And since I see nothing wrong with hijacking this thread with recipes (hey, it’s a cite, right?) Here’s the one for the Lavendar Madeleines…I’ll post the other two tomorrow…too tired tonight.
Lavender Madeleines
3/4 c. sugar
3 Tbps dried lavender flowers
3/4 c butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanill
1 c unsifted flour
powdered sugar
madeleine cookie mold
Preheat oven to 400’. In food processor, process sugar and flowers until flowers are finely ground. In a large mixing bowl beat eggs with the lavender/sugar mixture until light and fluffy…about 4 minutes. Gradually beat in the melted butter. With a wire whisk, fold in the flour. Spray madeleine mold with cooking spray. Spoon a scant Tbsp of batter into each mold (if using small molds, use a scant tsp.) Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan, cool on wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar. Store in an airtight container.
A few notes: I borrowed two sizes of molds from a friend, and liked the texture of the smaller ones better than the larger cookies. I buy my lavender at World Market…a small pouch is $1 and it makes more than one batch. Don’t worry about spreading the batter out in the mold…it spreads on its own. If you don’t have acess to a madeleine mold, you could try using a mini-tart pan…just don’t fill it full. The cookies should be fairly thin, so just a dollop in each hole would be enough, though I haven’t actually tried it that way…they won’t be as pretty, but they should taste fine! The recipe calls for unsalted butter, but I’ve used salted butter before and they tasted better…but that could just be me!