Earl Grey Tea Shortbread

I saw this recipe on Food Network this morning, and I got REALLY excited. I knew my mom had a fancy loose Earl Grey tea I had given her, but she had yet to drink. Soooooooo, I called her and I asked her if I could have it back, of course. ; )The reason I got so excited is because this is an "earl grey de la creme" tea, and it has some sort of purple dried flower in it (lavender, maybe???) I bought it because it just smelled SO good. Earl Grey isn't my favorite, but I figured these could be outstanding. Besides, how can you argue with a cookie with purple flowers in it???

The other thing that is exciting about it is that it has only 6 ingredients -- fast AND frugal. So my style! However, I was a little worried because I don't have a food processor. I just followed the directions with my KitchenAid, and it whipped up just fine. It was REALLY, REALLY easy. I think it's a good base dough recipe too. I'd be interested in trying it with chocolate shavings, citrus zest, etc. I also wonder what it would be like with other flavored teas. I bet a chai blend would be good!

Without further ado--


I was a little disappointed because you really can't see the purple flowers unless you know they are there. The Earl Grey flavor is very light, but overall, they are DELICIOUS. The cookie recipe it's self is flawless and fool-proof, but I think I'll try it with maybe a citrus zest blend next time. Even still, I only baked half of these up, and I'm going to take the other half to Alpha. I think they will go over really well. They're impressive!

From www.foodnetwork.com --

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

Directions

In a food processor, pulse together the flour, tea, and salt, until the tea is just spotted throughout the flour. Add the confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and butter. Pulse together just until a dough is formed. Place dough on a sheet of plastic wrap, and roll into a log, about 2 1/2-inches in diameter. Tightly twist each end of wrap, and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Slice the log into 1/3-inch thick disks. Place on parchment or silpat lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart (2 probably needed depending on size of sheets). Bake until the edges are just brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks and cool to room temperature.

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