Loria Stern’s Shortbread Flower Cookies Are an Creative Delight

For me, meals is artwork and ought to be skilled with all of the senses.

Your cooking and inventive work let readers indulge all their senses. The place did this need to transcend style come from?  

I’ve all the time felt like life ought to be loved by means of all of the senses. All of us expertise emotions and emotions are impressed by the senses. I imagine that’s what makes artwork work. And for me, meals is artwork and ought to be skilled with all of the senses.

You write that rising up in Ojai impressed your love of nature and strategy to cooking. What are your suggestions for adopting this slower and extra considerate food-centric life-style? 

I feel there’s nature to be loved in every single place. The desert, the snowy mountains, a tranquil lake, a peaceable park, ocean cliffs, and breaking waves. It’s about deliberately placing apart time in our busy lives to spend in nature, wherever we’re.

Your ebook and your cooking are each a testomony to the limitless creativity present in meals. What are small, easy methods we will discover inspiration in meals?

There are a number of methods. First is to attempt totally different recipes and actually nail them down after which incorporate totally different elements to alter up the flavors. There are such a lot of staple recipes in my ebook that I take advantage of for limitless combos which yield totally different flavors so I’m by no means bored. The second is to concentrate on one seasonal ingredient and experiment with recipes surrounding that ingredient.  

What are accessible methods we will convey flowers into our personal kitchens?

I’m an enormous supporter of heading to your native farmer’s market and assembly your farmers. Natural vegetable farmers all the time develop edible flowers on their farms as a result of flowers entice pollinators and lots of flowers additionally deter backyard pests!  My suggestion is to go to the farmer’s market, meet your farmers (particularly the lovable ones 😉 and ask them if you should buy edible flowers from them. I’m positive they’d be very excited to promote you some or begin rising them for you!

What are your favourite flowers to prepare dinner or bake with?

That may be a very troublesome query to reply!  I’ve just a few: rose petals, calendula, bachelor buttons, violas, and pansies. The explanation I like baking with these is that they’re brightly coloured and yield vibrant bakes.

Loria’s Suggestions for Making Shortbread Flower Cookies

The buttery shortbread dough takes the flavors of edible flowers and herbs splendidly. Begonia will lend a tart apple-like style, whereas a viola flower amplifies the sweetness naturally. Within the recipe beneath I’ve used an array of various botanicals, however a few of my favorites are pea tendrils for a verdant look; hibiscus and maple leaves, that are harking back to fall; and smooth inexperienced herbs and freeze-dried peppercorns to have fun the vacations. Get inventive and don’t be afraid to combine and match your favourite flowers and herbs! See [below] for a few of my favourite combos. Simply do not forget that in case you press a complete flower into your dough, it could overpower the cookie taste, so petals, smaller blooms, and smooth stems work greatest right here.

Adhering edible flowers to cookies was a typical follow of the Victorians within the 1800s. The cookies had been baked after which the flowers, crystallized for longevity, had been connected to the cookie with egg white. I select as an alternative to lock the botanicals by urgent and freezing them into the dough, then baking the cookies with the flowers intact. This works significantly better to protect the flowers and herbs slightly than painstakingly portray every flower with egg white, so the recipe is less complicated to make at quantity; it additionally permits me to make these stunning treats vegan (utilizing a vegan cookie recipe, in fact). Including fruit dusts, flavorings, and spices to the dough is a phenomenal solution to taste and shade this base cookie recipe and add a unique dimension to the pressed flower aspect.

How one can Embellish Your Shortbread Flower Cookies

Taste Mixtures

Attempt these simple and flavorful options on your shortbread dough! Select pressed botanicals that complement the dough shade; usually contrasting colours look nice.

MATCHA ALFALFA: Combine ¼ cup (20 g) matcha powder into the flour and stir till uniform in shade earlier than including to the mixer. Use recent pressed wheat grass (rather than the vanilla extract).

TURMERIC LEMON: Add 1 tablespoon lemon zest with the butter and use recent lemon juice rather than the vanilla extract. Combine 3 tablespoons (15 g) floor turmeric powder into the flour and stir till uniform in shade earlier than including to the mixer.

RASPBERRY ROSE: Use rose water rather than the vanilla extract. Exchange ½ cup (63 g) of the flour with ½ cup (50 g) raspberry powder and stir till uniform in shade earlier than including to the mixer.

BLUEBERRY: Use blueberry extract rather than the vanilla extract. Exchange ½ cup (63 g) of the flour with ½ cup (50 g) blueberry powder and change an extra ¼ cup (32 g) flour with ¼ cup (20 g)  blue spirulina or butterfly pea powder. Stir till uniform in shade earlier than including to the mixer. Add ½ cup (13 g) freeze- dried blueberries to the dough when it has virtually come collectively in a ball.

CHARCOAL: Add 3 tablespoons (15 g) activated charcoal powder to the flour and stir till uniform in shade earlier than including to the mixer.

Decorations

Get impressed by the colour and flavors of the seasons with these decorations.

FALL: As an alternative of colourful flowers, go for urgent your cookie dough with edible maple or hibiscus leaves.

WINTER: Use shiny greenery akin to carrot tops, chervil, thyme, or tarragon and freeze-dried pink peppercorns and adorn like boughs of holly or little wreaths.