About These Lavender Earl Grey Cookies
These lavender Earl Grey cookies are a fun, new take on a classic cookie recipe. 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!
For more Earl Grey flavored desserts on Hummingbird High, check out these Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies and this Earl Grey Tiramisu!
The recipe is from my friend Amy and her cookbook, Blooms and Baking: Add Aromatic, Floral Flavors to Cakes, Cookies and More. Check out her blog Constellation Inspiration for even more fun recipes!
Let’s Talk About Earl Grey
Now that I’ve convinced you to try this lavender Earl Grey cookie recipe, let’s talk about some of its key ingredients—Earl Grey tea!
Recommendations and Substitutions
- Earl Grey Tea: You can use Earl Grey tea from tea bags, but you’ll need to cut up the bags, pour out the tea leaves, and measure them. If you want to save time, buy loose leaf tea instead! Tea from tea bags also tends to be more finely ground than loose leaf tea. You’ll need around 4 teaspoons of loose leaf tea to make the 1 Tablespoon of finely ground Earl Grey needed for the recipe.
Use whatever Earl Grey tea you like best. I personally love this Sweet and Creamy Earl Grey from Aroma Tea Shop. It’s blended with the blue cornflower petals you see on these cookies! - Blue Cornflower Petals: If you want your cookies to look exactly like mine, buy a bag of edible cornflower petals and garnish each cookie after baking! Cornflower petals are available online or in specialty spice and tea ships.
Freezing The Cookie Dough
You can freeze the 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.
My Best Recipe Tips For Making These Cookies
- 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!
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
- blue cornflower petals
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.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, Earl Grey tea, lavender, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Cream the sugar and butter, then add the egg, vanilla, and dry ingredients. 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.
- Assemble the cookies. 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.
- Garnish and cool the cookies. If using blue cornflower petals, sprinkle a few petals on top of each cookie.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
Did you make this recipe?
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Weeknight Baking:
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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.
This is a great recipe! I can’t stop making them
horribly dry, thre batch was pure powder. had to find a new recipe.
I think something must have gone wrong on your end to be honest. Too much flour/too little butter perhaps? The batter is actually very moist and the end result is a chewy cookie (in my case, with European ingredients and homegrown lavender).
Would you be able to use lavender earl grey tea for this instead of plain earl grey plus culinary lavender? It’s really hard to get lavender in the UK, but I have lavender earl grey already so was wondering if that would suit?
Yes! Just use the same volume (1 1/2 teaspoons) of the lavender Earl Grey tea instead.
Turned out amazing, great recipe! I minor thing, I taste a slight salty aftertaste, what could I have done wrong?
Thank you!
Be sure to use kosher salt, and not regular table salt! Kosher salt has larger granules so it tastes less salty.
These cookies are delicious!!
No they DO NOT taste like soap…
Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Michelle!
Thanks for sharing this 🙂 I had fun making it!
Just wanted to ask – the end product came out really chewy but also quite soft (even a little limpy when baked at 12 mins). Wondering if this is normal, or if there’s a way to make it less soft?
Sounds like your oven might run cool! I recommend getting an oven thermometer to see what the internal temp of your oven is—they are only about $5 or so—and adjusting from there.
I am interested in making these cookies but was wondering if there would be any issues if I sub 1for1 Gluten Free All Purpose Flour instead?
In theory, you could substitute 1 for 1 GF flour without any issues—I just can’t guarantee it myself because I haven’t tried it!
Wow! I’ve never tasted a cookie with these flavors but something told me to include these for my holiday box this year. These cookies are so delightful and addicting plus the combination of lavender and tea is perfectly balanced. They are are perfectly buttery with a light crispy bottom and the satisfying softness that you hope for in a sugar cookie. I can’t get enough and can’t wait to share them! Thank you!
I haven’t made this cookie yet, but I’m already in love. I own an herb farm and a mobile restaurant that appears at farmers markets on weekends. This is right up my alley, at least three ways. Thank you for sharing this…and the beautiful photos. I will be sure to tag you when I make them and put them up for sale. If you want to know what I do, check out the Macungie Mountain Herb Farm IG feed, or my website (which needs updating) at http://www.macungiemountain.com. Your website is a total inspiration.
The cookie dough completely failed and I followed the recipe to a T. It completely melted all over the pan and wasted the butter really. Glad I cut the recipe in half. Don’t recommend. Find a good sugar cookie recipe and add in your herbs and teas.
These were delicious. Emphasis on were. Only changes I made were to sub out about 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar for part of the white granulated sugar and to skip the sugar dusting on top. I don’t have a cookie scoop or grinder—if you’ve got a halfway decent electric mixer and a mortar and pestle, you are good to go. I WILL be making these again.
Baking time was spot-on for me. A+
Can you use the lavendar from a lavendar tea bag?
And can you grind the loose earl grey tea in a mini food processor?
Yes and yes!
These were delicious and taste like spring!
These cookies are amazing and the baking directions are spot on. They turned out perfectly in texture, flavour, and aesthetics. I didn’t have any butter and substituted margarine and I also doubled the lavender for a stronger lavender flavour. They taste just like a lavender earl grey latte and are now one of my new favourite cookies!
I la la la laaave lavender! It tastes amazing and I’ve made this recipe so many times and everyone loves it! Thanks so much for the easy recipe!
Can you advise what might be the best egg replacement for this recipe? I am a lavender addict who is also allergic to eggs. I’ve found cookie recipes can be tricky. If you aren’t sure, you could also advise what the egg is doing in this recipe, i.e. moisture, rising, etc.
Thank you for your help!!
You can probably use a commercial egg replacer like the one from Bob’s Red Mill. The cookies might come out puffier than what you see in the pictures though.
Oh. My. Gosh. Made these bad boys with a chamomile lavender tea I had…AMAZING! Didn’t add the extra lavender since it was already in my tea mix so the flavor wasn’t overwhelming. Refrigerated my dough for 30 min because it was super gloopy and they came out just like the pics. Adding this recipe to my go to cookie recipe list ◡̈
One question..why would Amy be annoyed if you asked about loose leaf tea amount? SMART QUESTION! Thank you for that!! I also have loose leaf. Looking forward to making these cookies. 🥰
Love this recipe! Made them for my meditation group and everyone enjoyed them. Question: I scooped and froze half of the dough for another time. Any advice on temp and baking time for baking them from frozen? Thanks for this recipe. It’s delicious.
Yes! It’s in the blog post:
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.
Thanks very much! That’s really helpful.
These are amazing cookies and so lovely for the spring/summer. The flavors are really delicate and well-balanced; neither the Earl Gray nor the lavender overpowers with the amounts in the recipe. I used 1:1 GF flour, and they came out just right – crispy on the outside and softer in the center. I am at high altitude, and I typically set my preheat to 15 degrees higher than an average recipe.
Hi! I’m interested in making these but am a total novice at making cookies *super nervous but excited*. Can I use a hand held mixer for this? I don’t have a standing one. Also, no cookie scooper but I do have and ice cream one. Will that work?
Lastly, what consistency should I expect for the dough to be sure I don’t mess it up?
Thanks so much!!
Yes, both a handheld mixer and an ice cream scoop will work for this recipe. Dough will have the color of sugar cookie dough, with chocolate chip cookie dough texture but without the chocolate chips!
Someone brought these to a potluck and I had to have the recipe. They’re addictingly delicious, with the perfect balance of Earl grey and lavender. Sometimes lavender is overpowering, but not in this recipe. They’re also sweet, but not overly sweet.
I made these cookies and they are delicious! Mine stayed thicker than the ones in the photo so might have to make some minor adjustments but I will definitely be making these again. They smell just like an Earl Grey lavender latte!
Hi!
This recipe was delicious and a big hit- it’s the perfect London fog cookie. Mine did not spread/collapse after cooking quite as flat as yours. Any suggestions on how to achieve this? (Melt butter completely rather than just soften, less flour, etc?)
Hi! Did you use measuring cups or a digital scale to weigh out the ingredients for the cookies?
These cookies came out exquisitely.. what i would consider sugar cookie perfection. Only tweaks i would recommend:
-1/4 tsp kosher salt. i added the full 1/2 tsp kosher salt (unspecified whether coarse or fine kosher salt should be used, so i used coarse.. maybe that was my issue) and it was way too salty. I appreciate a little salt with my sweet but this was just a tad bit much.
-MORE TEA & LAVENDER! I can’t stress this enough. Maybe the extra saltiness covered up the flavor of the earl grey & lavender.. because these just tasted like plain ol sugar cookies to me.
I did just make some lavender syrup so maybe i can try to experiment with that 😁 Thanks for this recipe, overall they were so yummy and addictive!!
Thinking about making these for our holiday cookie box. Would it be okay to use a cookie press to imprint a shape on them?
Hm, it probably won’t work—these are designed to be drop cookies.
I have been baking a lot of cookies to give away for Christmas this year, it’s been a long time since a cookie has made me smile, but these are it. They are simply delightful.
Can hardly wait to try these!! Quick nerd question: is it half teaspoon culinary lavender, finely ground – or – half teaspoon finely ground culinary lavender? Hope my nerd question makes sense… I received a bottle of culinary lavender pods from a local company, TemeculaLavenderCo.com, and want to know if I should measure before or after grinding. 😜
Measure, then grind!
Thanks! Baking this weekend!!!
Waste of time. Followed recipe to a tee and they turned out awful. They are incredibly dry and crumbly. The dough smells amazing before baking so Im really disappointed. I had to go back and check to make sure I didn’t mess something up they were so bad.
This is one of the best cookie recipes I’ve ever made! I didn’t have culinary lavender so I went ahead and made them with Stash Paris Breakfast tea which is essentially lavender earl grey. These are the best! Thank you!
I’ve made this recipe multiple times and it’s always a hit!
Didn’t know you could use earl grey as dessert ingredient! Earl grey tea is my favorite and I’m excited to try this recipe! Thank you so much!
They just taste like shortbread
Wondering about how to go about substituting culinary lavender extract for the dried lavender…any tips on how much to use?
Delightful! Shared with somebody I know who isn’t a huge earl grey fan and they loved it! Perfect sugar cookies and the lavender compliments the earl grey wonderfully. Process sampling is equally if not more delicious than the final product.
This recipe is absolutely amazing! Both my family and friends absolutely loved them, and I’ll probably be making them constantly because of how much everyone enjoyed them. For mine i added food coloring for a muted earthy green coloring and shaped them into frogs with little piped chocolate faces :>
I love the taste of these cookies but they don’t fall and crack once they cool, they seem round and thick…have I done something wrong with the dough?
Sounds like they have too much flour—did you use measuring cups to measure the flour?
I did measure but perhaps packed it without meaning to!
I LOVE these cookies! It’s like meditation in your mouth! Every single person that tried them loved them. WARNING: if you make these you will be hounded to make them again and again. They’re just that good! Thank you so much for this recipe!!
It was delicious. I used lavender earl grey tea (1 tbsp, finely ground) instead of earl grey tea and lavender and it still tasted good.
I also halved the recipe and it still worked well (just measure out half of a large egg on a food scale).
Make sure you have exactly the measurements that are in the recipe. I was short on a couple things and the cookies are a bit dry and crumbly.
Our family really liked these! We’ve been deciding on a cookie to make as a gift for everyone at our convalidation mass and these were the clear winner in our family taste test! I doubled the recipe to make sure that worked okay (since I’ll need ~200!) and made them in about tablespoon sized balls and got ~43 cookies. I’ll have the recipe memorized by the end of this project, but it’s a good one to know. Now I’m just hoping the cookies themselves freeze well since I won’t have a chance to bake them the day of or day before.
These turned out amazing! Thanks Michelle!
This recipe is amazing! I was looking for something to bake on this rainy Sunday. These came out wonderfully. The cookies are soft and chewy with a perfectly crisp bottom and the most delicious tea flavour.
I can’t find any culinary grade lavender anywhere near me but I DO have lavender extract! Could I use that instead??
A favorite aong my friends and family! I did not do the garnish because it is already pretty sweet but it is delicious! I noticed there may be a typo in the instructions, it says
“Cream the sugar and butter, then add the egg, vanilla, and dry ingredients. 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.
It mentioned to add the egg and vanilla twice but maybe I’m reading it wrong…
anyway great recepie! I honestly wan to keep it a secret because its so good!
I cannot stop eating them. Made them the first time yesterday. It’s always a risk trying out a new recipe. This is, hands down, the best cookie I’ve made. The tea gives it a citrus flavor. They came out perfectly. Definitely making them again.
So I went off script since I started before checking for all the ingredients… I thought I had Earl Grey (and did not), so I used Lemon Zinger. I used about half brown sugar when I ran out of regular white and I used coconut oil instead of butter. I was shocked when they actually turned out well! I look forward to making the actual recipe in the future.
I deemed the lavender that grows in my yard as culinary lavender. I always try to make something new with my fresh lavender every year and 2024 was the year of this cookie. The universe spoke to me when I ran in to Earl Gray tea on sale for a couple of bucks. The cookes came together easily and the flavor combination was so unique (in a good way). Only change I would make is increasing the bake time by about a minute to 13 minutes total. Other than that, this is a total winner!
These are delicious! My only change is to double the amount of lavender and add some lemon zest/squeeze of lemon juice. Thank you for the recipe, this one’s a keeper!
Love these! Unfortunately I messed up and didn’t read the recipe fully before executing it so i added the sugar to the dry ingredients and I didn’t have real butter :/ but they turned out just fine. Next time I hope to do them correctly