About These Lavender Earl Grey Cookies
These lavender Earl Grey cookies are chewy, buttery sugar cookies infused with the floral flavors of both Earl Grey tea and dried lavender petals. The recipe comes from my friend Amy (the blogger extraordinaire behind Constellation Inspiration—I mean, seriously, have you seen her Instagram account?!) and her cookbook, Blooms and Baking.
Blooms and Baking is all about incorporating edible and aromatic flowers to cakes, cookies, candies, and more. I was super excited about the concept, because I am no stranger to incorporating florals to my bakes whenever I can (see: this Cherry Blossom Cake, and these Spring Flower Sugar Cookies). Amy takes it to the next level though, sharing beautiful recipes like a Chocolate Lilac Layer Cake, Rose Petal Shortbread, and Jasmine and Blueberry Ice Cream Choux Puffs in her book. Flipping through it all, I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to bake first!
But in the end, I settled for these lavender Earl Grey cookies. I thought they would be the perfect recipe to add to Hummingbird High’s collection of Drop Cookie recipes!
What Do Lavender Earl Grey Cookies Taste Like?
Amy’s lavender earl grey cookies really called out to me because they reminded me of an elevated snickerdoodle cookie. What’s an elevated snickerdoodle cookie? In my own cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I talk about how my best snickerdoodle recipe can be customized with other flavors and spices beyond cinnamon. In fact, I included variations for raspberry sumac (made with freeze-dried raspberries and sumac—check it out on my friend Molly’s blog!), black sesame sugar (made with ground up black sesame seeds), and matcha snickerdoodles. You can see a similar concept in my recipes for these Tangy Meyer Lemon Sugar Cookies and these Raspberry Lemon Snickerdoodles.
These lavender Earl Grey cookies are very, VERY similar in spirit. However, instead of incorporating the tea into the sugar topping, Amy instructs you to add both Earl Grey tea and ground-up lavender to the cookie dough. Both the Earl Grey tea and lavender give the chewy, buttery sugar cookies their signature floral, aromatic flavors. And before baking the cookies, she also has you sprinkle each with a generous amount of sugar, giving the cookies a “snickerdoodle-esque” appearance and texture.
But doesn’t lavender taste like soap?
There are some haters out there who think that lavender flavored baked goods taste like soap. And you know what, I’ll acknowledge that yes, when done wrong, lavender baked goods CAN taste like soap. But that’s usually because the recipe and/or baker has gone overboard and used too much lavender!
Luckily, Amy’s recipe only uses a minimal amount of lavender—a scant ½ teaspoon. Just enough for flavor and aroma, but not enough for soapy flavor. Rest assured that these cookies taste mostly like Earl Grey tea, butter, and sugar.
Why You Should Make The Recipe
Aside from being delicious, there are other reasons why you should try this cookie recipe:
These lavender Earl Grey cookies are a fun, new take on a classic cookie recipe.
I’ll be honest with you guys; as much as I love the chewy, buttery texture of simple sugar cookies, I’m always looking for ways to switch up their flavors. This is why I love Amy’s recipe SO much. The addition of both lavender and Earl Grey tea just brings so much new flavor to such a classic recipe.
Although the cookie flavors sound fancy, the recipe still uses accessible ingredients.
Most folks already have Earl Grey tea in their cupboard. And even if you’re not a tea drinking household, Earl Grey tea is still easily sourced and readily available in most major grocery stores.
That being said, lavender can be tricky to source. Be sure to check out my tips below on how to source culinary lavender, or eliminate it from the recipe completely.
The recipe comes together quickly.
Despite being on the fancier side of things, these cookies still come together quickly. In fact, making the dough for these cookies only took me 10 minutes or so, with another 5 minutes to shape the dough into cookies themselves.
The most time-consuming part of the recipe came from prepping the tea and lavender—but with the right tools, it should take no time at all (more on that below).
The cookies store well.
The best part? Like any good flavored sugar cookie, the lavender and Earl Grey flavors deepen and become stronger with time. Although the cookies were plenty delicious on the day they were made, they tasted extra aromatic and buttery the next day!
Why? It’s similar to how cookie dough tastes better when it’s chilled before baking. Time gives the flour more time to absorb flavors from the butter, sugar, lavender, and tea in this recipe.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Now that I’ve convinced you to try this lavender Earl Grey cookie recipe, here’s the shopping list for the recipe:
Shopping List for Lavender Earl Grey Cookies Recipe
- all-purpose flour
- Earl Grey tea (from tea bags or loose leaf tea)
- culinary-grade lavender
- baking powder
- baking soda
- kosher salt
- granulated sugar
- unsalted butter
- large eggs
- pure vanilla extract
And let’s talk about some of its key ingredients:
Earl Grey Tea
This lavender Earl Grey cookie recipe uses 1 Tablespoon finely ground Earl Grey tea to make the cookies.
These cookies are primarily flavored with Earl Grey tea. Check out the section below for links to my favorite Earl Grey tea brands! But first, let’s learn more about Earl Grey tea.
What is Earl Grey tea?
Earl Grey is a black tea blend that is flavored with bergamot orange oil. Bergamot oranges are a special type of orange with a very fragrant, flavorful peel. This peel is commonly used in flavors and perfumes. Unfortunately, beyond the peel, bergamot orange fruit isn’t great for food, flavor, or fragrance. It’s best to stick with eating regular orange varieties.
Earl Grey tea is especially popular in England, where the tea is frequently served with milk and sugar, or even just plain lemon. It is named for Charles Grey, a British Prime Minister in the 1830s, and is said to have originated from the London tea house Jacksons of Picadilly.
Does Earl Grey tea have caffeine?
Yes! Earl Grey tea has about the same amount of caffeine as black tea (which can have really variable caffeine levels). Why? Like I said above, Earl Grey is mostly just black tea that is flavored with bergamot orange peel or essence.
Is Earl Grey tea good for you?
Yes! In general, drinking black tea has many benefits. Studies have shown that tea can help with digestion and weight loss. Some teas even have specific calming benefits that help keep up energy levels and help prevent anxiety and depression. This Wikipedia article is a good summary of tea’s health benefits.
Can I use another tea instead of Earl Grey?
Yes! In theory, you can swap out the Earl Grey tea in this recipe for your favorite black tea instead. However, I recommend thinking about whether or not that tea will match with lavender’s floral flavors. In general, Earl Grey and lavender is a pretty common flavor pairing—another tea might not taste as good with the lavender!
Lavender
This lavender Earl Grey cookie recipe uses ½ teaspoon culinary-grade lavender to make the cookies.
In addition to Earl Grey tea, Amy adds just a hint of lavender for flavor to these cookies. Her recipe uses dried lavender petals.
Can you eat lavender?
Yes! Many bakers and professional pastry chefs use lavender as a flavor in cakes, confections, and more. But you’ll need to be mindful of the type of lavender you use. Lavender is also used in many beauty products and household cleaning supplies like soap. Make sure to source culinary lavender.
Where to buy dried lavender
Lavender is available in most organic grocery stores and food co-ops. You can also buy culinary lavender in farmers’ markets (pro-tip: if you live in the Portland, Oregon area, the Portland Farmers Market has a stand that is specifically dedicated to selling lavender of all varieties). However, in a pinch, you can buy culinary lavender online. If buying online, look for a brand that specifically uses language like “for baking”, “for tea”, “organic”, and/or “culinary grade”.
What’s the difference between culinary lavender versus lavender in beauty and household products?
It’s important to look for those terms because culinary lavender is subject to food and safety regulations. Non-culinary lavender, on the other hand, is NOT. That means that the lavender used for making beauty and household products might be treated with chemicals and preservatives that aren’t suitable for eating and are potentially harmful or poisonous to our bodies! Let’s avoid that, please.
Can I skip the lavender in this lavender Earl Grey cookie recipe?
Yes, but with reservations. Although I don’t recommend doing it because you’ll change the flavors of Amy’s original recipe, in a pinch, you can skip the lavender. Your cookies will still taste like Earl Grey, but without the subtle, aromatic flavor from the lavender.
How to Make Lavender Earl Grey Cookies
Amy’s lavender Earl Grey cookies are incredibly easy to make at home. Here’s a breakdown of the key steps:
- Prep your ingredients by measuring everything out and grinding the Earl Grey tea and lavender if necessary. (Prep Time: 10 minutes)
Although most cookie recipes usually take 5 minutes or less to prep, this cookie recipe requires slightly more time. Why? You’ll need to grind the lavender petals (and the Earl Grey tea, if you’re using loose leaf tea—more on that in a second) before adding them to the cookies. However, there are tools to make this task go by in a breeze. Check out the Troubleshooting/FAQ section below! - Make the cookie dough. (Work Time: 10 minutes)
After you prep the ingredients, you’ll need to make the cookie dough. Amy’s lavender Earl Grey cookie recipe is pretty standard and follows the formula for making most other cookies. First, cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs and the dry ingredients. Mix until combined and then boom, done! - Portion the cookie dough and sprinkle with sugar. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
Like with any cookie recipe, I recommend investing in a cookie dough scoop to make the job go by quicker and easier. My favorite cookie dough scoop size for cookies is a 3-tablespoon scoop. However, I think Amy uses a 4-tablespoon cookie dough scoop in her original recipe. As a result, I end up with slightly more cookies than the recipe’s yield in her book. - Bake the cookies. (Bake Time: 12 minutes)
Each batch of cookies requires 12 minutes in the oven.
Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ
FAQ: Questions About Ingredients
What is the best Earl Grey tea?
Okay, the best Earl Grey tea is a pretty high bar to clear. But my favorite Earl Grey tea is this Créme de la Earl Grey tea from Townshend’s Tea Company. It has a very distinct vanilla and cream flavor that other Earl Grey teas don’t have, in addition to a sprinkling of pretty blue cornflower blossoms. These are the blue flower petals that you see on my cookies! You can also buy the cornflower blossom petals individually online from Kalustyan’s (my favorite spice store in New York City)!
Can I use loose leaf Earl Grey tea?
Yes! Although Amy’s original recipe calls for Earl Grey tea bags, I used the loose leaf Créme de la Earl Grey tea from Townshend’s Tea Company. Be sure to check out the baker’s notes—it has more specifics on how many tea bag versus how much loose leaf tea to use.
FAQ: Questions About Baking Equipment For The Recipe
Best Spice Grinder for Making Lavender Earl Grey Cookies
To make these cookies, you’ll need to grind up the lavender petals and/or Earl Grey loose leaf tea. There are a handful of tools that you can use for the task:
- A manual spice grinder. Manual spice grinders are typically operated with a crank—simply place the ingredient in the grinder, and turn the crank to grind it. This is the one I own. It’s technically exclusively for black peppercorns, but I just use it for whatever spice I want because I’m a rebel without a cause, I guess.
- An electric spice grinder. One of my secret weapons in my kitchen is this electric spice grinder by Cuisinart. It is specifically made for grinding herbs and spices, and it is an absolute BEAST. It is so much less work than a manual spice grinder—I can have things like nutmeg, tonka beans, and cinnamon sticks fully powdered in less than 5 seconds. However, it doesn’t have the best ratings on Amazon. Why? The spice grinder bowl has a tendency to get stuck. Just make sure to store the machine disassembled and it shouldn’t be a problem!
- A coffee grinder. If you don’t own a spice grinder, you can use an electric coffee bean grinder to grind the lavender petals and/or the Earl Grey loose leaf tea. Just be sure to clean it thoroughly to rid it of its coffee flavors! Be sure to check out the section below on how to clean the coffee grinder before using for this recipe.
How to clean a spice grinder
The best way to do so is to disassemble the grinder, wash it thoroughly in the dishwasher (only if possible), and then grind 1 cup of rice or so before grinding the herbs and spices of your choice.
How to grind spices without a grinder
In a pinch, a mortar and pestle will do the trick. However, this is definitely the most labor intensive route of all the options.
FAQ: Questions About Storing The Cookies
Can you freeze Earl Grey cookie dough?
Yes! You can freeze Earl Grey cookie dough just like you can freeze your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough recipe. After portioning the dough into balls, place the balls on a parchment lined sheet pan and freeze for 30 minutes, or until the dough is hard enough to handle without being sticky. Transfer to a zip-top freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
Note that the dough will be frozen WITHOUT the sugar garnish. When ready to bake, you’ll need to sprinkle the cookies with the extra sugar! There’s no need to thaw the cookie dough balls before baking. Follow the instructions for baking in the recipe, but increase the Bake Time to 14 to 16 minutes.
Can you freeze the baked Earl Grey cookies?
Yes! I love freezing baked snickerdoodle cookies and snacking on them (while still cold from the freezer!) in the summertime. For softer cookies, thaw them overnight in the refrigerator, then for a few hours at room temperature before serving.
Best Recipe Tips
Best Ingredient Tip
- Amy’s original recipe instructs you to use Earl Grey tea from 3 tea bags. Most tea in tea bags already comes pretty finely ground; however, if you cut open your tea bags and see bigger leaves, you’ll need to finely grind the tea along with the lavender petals.
Because my favorite tea comes loose leaf, I very annoyingly texted Amy to ask what the loose leaf equivalent for this recipe would be. Together, we worked out that one tea bag had approximately 1 teaspoon finely ground tea leaves. Simply put, this recipe requires a total of 1 Tablespoon finely ground Earl Grey tea. To get that equivalent from loose leaf tea, I ended up finely grinding 4 teaspoons of my Créme de la Earl Grey tea.
Best Baking Tip
- I like to bake the cookies one pan at a time. I find that doing so makes the best cookies, ensuring that none of them have overly burnt bottoms or raw centers. However, to save time, you can bake two sheet pans at a time. Position a rack in the upper-third position of the oven, and a second one in the lower-third position of the oven. Bake a pan on each rack, swapping their positions half way through the Bake Time.
- The cookies will look puffed when you pull them out of the oven, but will fall and crack into the perfect cookies as they cool. Because of the Earl Grey tea, it can be a little hard to tell when these cookies are ready—even when done, the cookie centers will look slightly gray. That’s totally normal, I promise!
Lavender Recipes (or, what to do with your leftover lavender)
- 30th Birthday Chocolate Cake with Lavender Ruffle Frosting
- Blueberry, Peach, and Lavender Perfect Pie
- Hummingbird Bakery Lavender Cupcakes Recipe (Adapted for High Altitude)
- Lemon, Lavender, and Earl Grey Mini Cakes and Petit Fours
Earl Grey Recipes
- Chocolate and Earl Grey London Fog Layer Cake
- Earl Grey Panna Cotta
- Earl Grey Pots de Creme
- Strawberry Earl Grey Homemade Peeps
- Sweet Cream Biscuits with Plum Jam and Earl Grey Whipped Cream
More Unique Cookie Recipes
- Black Halva Snickerdoodles
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- My Best Snickerdoodle Recipe
- Raspberry Lemon Snickerdoodles
- Tangy Meyer Lemon Sugar Cookies
Get the Recipe: Lavender Earl Grey Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
For the Lavender Earl Grey Cookies
- 2 ¼ cups (9.5 ounces or 270 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon finely ground Earl Grey tea (from 3 tea bags or 4 teaspoons loose leaf tea)
- ½ teaspoon culinary-grade lavender, finely ground
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ¼ cup (8.80 ounces or 250 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (8 ounces or 227 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
For Garnish
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
Instructions
For the Lavender Earl Grey Cookies
- Prep your oven and pans. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Make the cookies. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, Earl Grey tea, lavender, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar and butter. Beat on medium-high speed until light, fluffy, and doubled in volume, 2 to 3 minutes, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl as necessary. Reduce the mixer to low and add the egg. Add the vanilla and beat until just combined. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients and beat until just combined. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl once more, and beat on low for an additional 30 seconds.
- Use a 3-tablespoon cookie dough scoop to portion the cookie dough into balls. Place the cookies at least 3 inches apart on the prepared sheet pans. Sprinkle the tops of the dough balls with the remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar for garnish before baking.
- Bake the cookies. Bake one pan at a time for 12 minutes, or until the edges have set but the centers are still gooey. The cookies will look puffed when you pull them out of the oven, but will fall and crack into the perfect cookies as they cool. Cool the cookies on the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes, or until the edges and bottoms of the cookies have set and feel firm to the touch. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.
- Serve and store. Serve warm or at room temperature. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Notes
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Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule
Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
I love this flavor combo so much! These cookies would be great with this ice cream, I bet! https://theaprilblake.com/2019/04/lavender-earl-grey-ice-cream/
that ice cream looks AMAZING! seriously, that color omg.
Wow , i just bought lavender and idk what to do with it , and earl grey is my favorite tea 😍 never thoght to mix them together
How does it taste ?!
And can i make halve of the recipe ?!
hi! i have a section describing what the earl grey cookies taste like above; do a search for “What Do Lavender Earl Grey Cookies Taste Like?”
you can half the recipe, but it might be tricky because it only uses 1 egg and it’s hard to halve eggs. i suggest just making the dough, bake as many cookies as you can eat right now, then freezing the rest of the cookie dough for baking later. instructions for how to do so are also available in the post; do a search for “Can you freeze Earl Grey cookie dough?”
To halve an egg for baking, light beat it to blend it. Weigh it in grams on a food scale, and measure out half of the liquid by weight. Discard the other half.
Hi, I’m about to start making these amazing looking cookies, loving the earl grey lavender combo! Reading through the recipe, I’m a bit confused by : “Place the coated cookies” and then followed by ” Sprinkle the tops of the dough balls with the remaining 2 tablespoons before baking”. When I make the dough balls do I roll them into the sugar and then again sprinkle them with another 2 TBS of sugar?
Thanks in advance for your comeback!
Ahh, I’m so sorry about that! You sprinkle the dough balls with the sugar AFTER placing them on the sheet pan. I’ve updated the recipe to make it less confusing!
Perfect, thanks for responding so fast! By the way, I love your book, bought it yesterday!
Made these last night bc for some reason, I had culinary lavender in the pantry. These are delicious! I have some butterfly pea flowers that I’m now thinking of adding to the tea/spice mix to give the cookies some natural blue flecks. I wonder if the pea flowers would dye the cookies blue?
Ooooh. I’ve never worked with pea flowers before, but I really LOVE that idea. I don’t know if it would dye them completely blue, but I’ll bet the flowers would give them some picturesque flecks similar to how the Earl Grey tea gives them their appearance!
Oh I might have to give it a try!
I am a very safe baker, aka, the fanciest thing I’ve ever baked was a lemon blueberry cake for my mom’s birthday and I was stressed about it every step of the way! I decided to bake these cookies because 1) I was bored, 2) I happened to have all of the ingredients, and 3) I was tired of baking banana bread variations.
Ironically, it turns out while I did have all of the ingredients, I didn’t have enough of the Earl Grey tea!! I only had one teabag, and while panic-searching my pantry for more tea, I ended up finding a pouch of vanilla-flavored black teabags.
I used 2 of those teabags plus my 1 Earl Grey and chose to skip out on the vanilla extract. Obviously, my over-thinking brain was screaming “something’s gonna go wrong, you can’t just substitute things like that!”
The cookies turned out AMAZING. I’ve never made cookies with tea, or flowers, or both, and I was terrified they were going to be too tea-y or flowery but they weren’t!! I was in pleasant shock, honestly. They were a hit with my mom and siblings and I’m definitely going to make these a staple in my baking index. Now I’ve got an itch to bake something with the dried rose petals I have hiding in my spice drawer!
Thanks for the recipe, Michelle!!!
Thanks again for all the love and for this ultra detailed blog post. Can’t wait to hang out once this is all over <3
What flour would you use to make these gluten free?
I’m sadly not an expert on gluten-free baking, but maybe an easy 1:1 gluten free flour like this one from Bob’s Red Mill: https://www.bobsredmill.com/shop/flours-and-meals/gluten-free-1-to-1-baking-flour.html? I can’t guarantee results though since I haven’t tried the substitution for myself, but it works well in other recipes!
This one is better. Same texture as regular flour. you will just have to add xanthum gum.
https://www.bobsredmill.com/shop/gluten-free/gluten-free-all-purpose-baking-flour.html
https://www.bobsredmill.com/shop/gluten-free/gluten-free-all-purpose-baking-flour.html
I love using lavender in baking. These sound really elegant!
These are SO good – I couldn’t resist and ended up eating 4 of them immediately. The lavender amount was just right!
With just two of us at home, I made a 1/2 batch and used a 1 TB cookie scoop. Since they were smaller, I baked for only 9 mins though I think I could have used an extra minute. It made about 20 cookies.
And of course, they are just SO PRETTY. I wish I had made this earlier they would have been perfect for Mother’s Day. ❤️
Amazing! My new favorite cookies. I followed the recipe to a t. They were quick and easy to make. The earl grey flavor blended so beautifully with the lavender. Will be making these again and again. Thanks so much for sharing this!
Hi Michelle – These look amazing! The team here at Brew Dr. Tea (formerly Townshend’s Tea) loves seeing our Créme de la Earl Grey put to such fun use. Thanks for including us! We shared this recipe on our own Facebook page and we can’t wait to try it for ourselves.
These smell amazing so far, but after 10 minutes they still seem pretty puffed up? I reduced the butter by maybe 2 tbsp but I was short but does it make that big of a difference? Will they flatten out over time?? They look so firm already 🙁
Yeah, I think reducing the butter makes a difference! Butter helps the cookies spread.
these cookies are wonderful!! i did not have earl grey tea, but did have butterfly pea flower tea and it was fantastic. the flavours went SO well together. i also made a lemon glaze for a few of the cookies and everyone seemed to be fighting over the glazed cookies lol! i am going to make them again but make a lemon glaze for some and orange glaze (with maybe some sprinkled zest?) too! thank you for this delightful recipe! it is going to become a regular.
This is probably the best cookie i have ever made.
Halved the recipe and came out AMAZING. topped with both sea salt and sugar before baking. regretting halving the recipe now. i ground up 2 tea bags of earl gray lemon grass tea from trader joes in my mortar pestle and the flavor and texture is to die for. made 16 cookies for me.
This is probably the best cookie i have ever made.
Halved the recipe and came out AMAZING. topped with both sea salt and sugar before baking. regretting halving the recipe now. i ground up 2 tea bags of earl gray lemon grass tea from trader joes in my mortar pestle and the flavor and texture is to die for. made 16 cookies for me.
Hi. I just tried making your recipe but my dough didn’t turn out ‘hard’ like how a cookie dough should? It turned out soft – is this right? Would you be able to post pictures during each step so we can see the texture? Thanks so much!
Do you follow me on Instagram? I have a saved tutorial for Snickerdoodles on my Instagram profile, and this cookie dough looks pretty similar to that! It has a video of what the dough looks like. Try this link: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17843271509118635/
Hi! I just followed you and checked out the highlight with the Snickerdoodles. I think I may have let the butter get too soft before mixing it with the sugar? I’ll have to try again. Also, I didn’t taste much of the lavender and might have to increase the earl grey. Would you say it’s okay to increase or would it be too overpowering? It tasted more buttery but I’m not sure if that’s because the butter was really soft? Sorry for all the questions! Thanks.
Hi!
Yes, letting the butter get too soft can result in overly soft/loose dough. You can easily fix it though by chilling the dough in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours before scooping and baking! I think Amy even recommends this in her cookbook.
Also, faint-tasting lavender/earl grey could be a result of old spices/tea that have been sitting around too long and lost their aroma. I also always err on the side of less lavender because sometimes using too much makes the baked goods taste like soap. But feel free to up the quantities of each to suit your tastes!
Okay, thanks for explaining!
Made this recipe for the first time tonight . Absolutely delicious !! I didn’t sprinkle the sugar at the end because I thought it was perfect without . This recipe wowed me ! My dad even said it was good , and he’s a hard critic , haha ! Served with a cup of earl grey tea & cream 🖤
Tried it and loved it!!
These are absolutely stunning! Buttery and soft yet with a slight crunch. The aromatics while baking is absolutely lovely and these cookies are seriously so pretty! The flavor profile is 10/10. I would definitely recommend these!!
Hi Michelle!
Just wondering what kind of butter do you use in your recipe? I mean do you use room temperature butter or cold butter instead?
Thanks in advance! Can’t wait to try your AMAZING recipe ❤️❤️
Hi Celine,
The recipe states: “1 cup (8 ounces or 227 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature”.
So room temperature butter! 🙂
Made these on a whim tonight because I always have all these ingredients in my cabinet and oh my gosh, they’re my favorite cookies I’ve ever made! Even my tea and lavender hating boyfriend liked them. Definitely a keeper recipe and super easy to make. They’re be great with a really simple royal icing too.
As soon as I saw earl grey and lavender I knew I had to make this recipe. Earl grey is my favourite tea, and I always have some loose leaf tea in my cupboard. The recipe is super easy to make, and a real crowd pleaser. My family loved it (even my cousin who is not a big fan of earl grey).
I chilled my dough for half an hour before baking, definitely made the shaping easier.
So good!
Hi, I am vegan and I am looking for a substitution for the egg. What do you recommend? Can I just leave it out?
No, please don’t. The cookies won’t work without an egg. You can try a commercial egg replacer like Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer. However, since I haven’t tried it myself, I can’t guarantee the results!
We followed the directions exactly and these turned out AMAZING! This is one of my fave flavor combos, but the texture of the cookies really stood out. They are very light and fluffy. My boyfriend said these will be our go to cookies now haha! Thanks for the great recipe!
These were delicious! The cookies have such a nice fluff with a bite and a slight crisp on the bottom. And the earl grey and lavender are so lovely, present but not too strong. Absolutely love and will def make again!
These are absolutely divine! I was so excited that my friend had lavender leaves. I used my mortar and pestle to grind down lavender and early grey spices. The unique combination of this recipe is exactly what I was looking for this holiday season. These cookies are going into care packages for several neighbors, and I can’t wait for the them to enjoy these tasty treats.
These were so incredibly tasty – I’ll definitely be making this recipe again! I used some old loose-leaf earl grey tea and some lavender buds I’ve had in the pantry and ground up using a mortar and pestle. The dough was very loose since I had let the butter get a little too warm, so I baked half of them and refrigerated the rest.
Can you use applesauce as an egg substitute in this recipe? Or do you have to use an egg to obtain the texture like your picture?
Unfortunately, I think you need the egg!
Hello! I have made these cookies and while they are delicious, I had an issue with them spreading. They are nice and round and the middles seem right, but the edges spread to a crisp. I was thinking maybe chilling the dough before popping them in the oven may work so I am going to try that. Do you have any ideas?
Thank you!
Yeah, definitely chill them for 20mins to 1 hour before baking next time! That happens to my cookies when the dough gets too warm.
I’m a complete sucker for anything lavender so definitely made this. Of course, I didn’t have Earl Gray tea but I definitely had black tea and Bergamot oil so I made do with what I had. These are absolutely lovely. Thank you!
I made this recipe but my cookie didn’t spread as much. I followed the measurement provided in grams (metrics) and the rest in US tsp. I’ll try to make it again US measurement and see how it turns out. Either I need to add more butter or reduce baking soda and powder?
I just made this cookies and they are AMAZING, but they never spread out flat in the oven like your pictures. I kind of just pushed down each center with a tablespoon half way through cooking to flatter them out. What did I do wrong? I was thinking my mixture may have been too dry and that I needed a larger egg but I’m not sure.
Hi! Did you use cup measures or weight measures?
These turned out beautifully. I added an extra bag of earl grey tea, but thinking I could’ve gone heavier on the lavender or tea anyway. A lot of the fragrance seems to have cooked out. This recipe was easy to follow and the cookies are quite fluffy still, although the edges are lightly brown, the inside was cooked and perfect.
These were so delicious and easy! I do have one question for next time, though. The instructions say “Sprinkle the tops of the dough balls with the remaining 2 tablespoons before baking.” I know this means sugar, but does that mean I was supposed to add all the sugar EXCEPT 2 tablespoons when I made the dough? Or are you supposed to use 250g + 2 tablespoons of sugar total? I was just a little confused by the phrasing, because I didn’t have any *remaining* sugar at that point.
Either way, I felt that the dough was already sweet enough so I sprinkled them with coarse salt instead. Turned out so good! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I could see how this is confusing! I’ll update the recipe now. But you’re supposed to use 1 ¼ cup (8.80 ounces or 250 grams) granulated sugar in the dough, and then an additional 2 Tablespoons of sugar for garnish. Hope that makes sense!
Great recipe! I made them for the first time without the lavender and they were perfect. Texture was chewy and it was basically the perfect cookie! Wonderful praise from the tasters! 🙂
Hi! I’m wondering if since Earl grey tea has some caffeine in it, is it okay for children to eat these cookies, or will it be too strong for them? Asking specially for a four year old 🙂 thanks!
Hm, it doesn’t have TOO much caffeine since the Earl Grey is pretty distributed throughout the cookie. However, I’d probably just give the 4 year old half a cookie to be safe!
These cookies were,,, dare I say, PERFECT? The only thing I added was a few drops of lavender baking oil, as I loveeee the taste of lavender and find buds on their own are never enough! I’ve been searching and experimenting with cookie textures and this recipe cracked the code, these are the softest, cakey-ist, cookie-ist cookie you could ever dream of making, I love every bite! Thanks for the amazing recipe! Ive found my go to cookie!
Hello! I have Lavender infused Earl Grey tea from an organic lavender farm which is why this recipe caught my eye! Should I eyeball the amount of lavendar for the recipe by looking at what is infused in the tea? Or should I seperate it?
Basically, how large is the margin of error between it being soap tasting and not tasting it at all? Thank you so much!
I’m sorry, but this is so hard for me to answer without seeing how much is in the tea/trying the tea for myself!
This recipe looks great – I love lavender. I have an allergy to black tea (and green tea and white tea – basically anything from the shrub that the tea leaves come from), any herbal tea recommendations that might be a good substitute?
Hmmm, you could probably just leave the Earl Grey out? But you’d mostly end up with lavender flavored cookies.
Hey I was just wondering if anyone knew the approximate amount of calories in each cookie?
This is quite possibly the BEST cookies I have ever baked and ate. I made it dairy free by using vegan butter, and using just one cup of sugar, and it worked perfectly. I love that there’s no chilling time either. Thank you for this recipe!
Hi, I have all the ingredients in the house and would love to make these, but I only have a hand held electric mixer. I dont own a mixer with a paddle. Can I still make these? Any tips? Thank you!
Yes, a hand held electric mixer will work in place of a stand mixer. You probably just have to cream the butter and sugar for an extra 1 to 2 minutes longer.
I made these the other day to rave reviews (although I think that my lavender being a bit old was a problem – we all agreed that I could increase that. So until I get some more, I’ll be increasing the amount I use.) For anyone with a precision scale (don’t trust your kitchen scale at really small quantities), I used about 6.2g of tea to get 1 Tbsp dried. (I had to measure more than one batch, so there’s probably a bit of error in there, but it’s a good place to start.)
Unfortunately, I found that the texture of my cookies turned out sandy. The only thing that deviated from the recipe was that the lavender was accidentally doubled. The flavour was delicious, but the texture was not yummy.
Hi! If I want to lessen the sugar because my blood sugar is high, do I add more flour? If I remove let’s say, 1/4 cup of sugar, how do I make sure that the texture remains the same? Thank you so much! Tried this before and I loved it! It’s just that I’m pregnant now and I want to be careful but still eat these. 😂
Hi! I’m so sorry, I’ve only made the recipe as it’s written so I can’t help you. But in general, when reducing sugar in recipes, I like to send people to this article: https://food52.com/blog/15911-what-experts-know-about-reducing-sugar-in-baking-recipes
That being said, reducing sugar in recipes while keeping the texture is really, really hard. It’s likely that your cookies will be too poofy if you reduce the sugar—the sugar is what helps cookies spread and brown in the oven! They’ll still taste pretty good, but they’ll have a pretty different texture. Probably more cake or scone like.
You’re very kind to send me a link to help me out! Thank you so much!!! You’re awesome! 🤍
This is the first recipe I tried from this site and was incredibly impressed. I added an extra tea bag and subbed lavender extract paste 1:1 with the culinary lavender, since I couldn’t find at my local stores. I also omitted the sugar topping so I could freeze dough easily. These cookies were so unique and a huge hit with everyone! Perfect for bridal / baby showers, and with a cup of hot tea.
Even though I haven’t made this particular recipe, I encourage your readers to cook with lavender. It’s one of my favorites. I first used it in a mixed berry jam I made. I steeped 2 heaping tablespoonsful of dried lavender buds in 2 ounces of boiling water until it cooled to room temperature then strained and added the lavender “tea” to the jam just before it was ready to place in the jars. Wonderful little “something” that no one could identify. When I told them it was lavender, everyone was shocked. Apparently, like you said in your article, lavender is for “soap”.
Before trying it my daughter-in-law said she liked her jam to taste a little soapy!! After I gave her the “mom” look, she tried it and even asked for a jar to take home!! Love lavender!!
Bored at home on a Saturday night and decided to make these, They are INCREDIBLE!! The flavor is so light and delicate, perfect to enjoy with a cup of tea 🙂 Thanks so much for the recipe, definitely a keeper.
Instead of Earl Gray tea, I used chamomile tea with lavender. Will probably try it with rose petals next time. This recipe is fantastic! Other than the type of tea I used and the fact that I rolled the dough into a log in some parchment paper, refrigerated it for about an hour, then sliced and baked them, no adjustments were necessary.
Can you use the tea out of a tea bag in place of loose leaf tea for cookie recipe?
Yes! Amy’s original recipe instructs you to use Earl Grey tea from 3 tea bags.
I just made these and they are pretty good but they just taste like normal sugar cookies. Can not taste the lavender or earl gray at all.
I wish you’d address various cookie times, spacing and yield if using a smaller scoop. I did not even know cookie scoops came in different tsp measurements. I only know a huge ice cream or a regular cookie scoop. U mention the original recipe used a bigger scoop, then u go on and use a smaller one but then bake both @ 12 minutes. I went ahead and baked them at 12 minutes but agree with another comment or they could hav been baked for 10 minutes. In addition, my cookies did not spread out that much. Besides the picture is a little misleading as the cookies are not that big. I used a “regular” cookie scooper and the cookies were about 2 1/12 inches in diameter and yielded 3 dozen.
You might find this video I made about cookie scoop sizes helpful: https://www.tiktok.com/@hummingbirdhigh/video/7085454630733237547?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=6959623123864880646