Lemon Verbena Shortbread
By Amy Maltzan
This pretty, pale green shortbread is quick and easy to make in the bowl of a food processor, and wonderful alongside a cup of tea or herbal tisane. If you don’t have a food processor, just use a pastry blender to cut in the butter and flour. If you already have lemon verbena-infused sugar on hand, simply use that instead of blending fresh leaves into the sugar.
Makes 12 wedges
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup lemon verbena leaves
Pinch salt
½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
In a food processor, pulse the sugar, verbena and pinch of salt together until thoroughly blended (remove any tough larger pieces that remain before proceeding).
Add the pieces of cold unsalted butter, and pulse until well combined (pieces should range in size from oatmeal to pea). Add the flour, and pulse in short on/on bursts until the mixture looks crumbly. Turn dough out, gather into a ball, flatten into a disk and wrap with plastic wrap; chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 250ºF. Press shortbread dough into 9-inch pie plate. Bake for 60 minutes, until the top looks lighter and dry and the shortbread is starting to turn golden brown around the edge. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
While still warm and in the pie plate, cut into 12 wedges. Let cool completely in the pie plate, then transfer wedges to cooling rack.
This recipe originally appeared in our Summer 2012 issue.
