| | | | | |

Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies

While I really love just about any chocolate dessert, it’s also nice to have a variety of cookie recipes, especially during the Holiday season. With the busiest entertaining season upon us, it’s also great to have a quick and easy recipe to share with your guests or include in a basket for friends.

Although I have made hundreds of cookies over the years, adding basil to the recipe is something I have never tried until now. These Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies were super easy to put together using the food processor. They baked up perfectly with the perfect mix of lemon and basil. 

Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies | Recipe on HoosierHomemade.com

This post is brought to you by AeroGarden ULTRA

These cookies are light, buttery and would be the perfect addition to your Holiday Dessert Table!

Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies | Recipe on HoosierHomemade.com

The ingredients for these cookies are very simple – flour, powered sugar, basil, lemon juice and zest, butter and salt. And the optional sanding sugar for decoration.

Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies | Recipe on HoosierHomemade.com

I’ll have to admit, I haven’t made cookies very often in the food processor. But this recipe was so easy, I think I will look for other recipes to use.

Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies | Recipe on HoosierHomemade.com

All of the ingredients are put into the food processor and mixed until large clumps form, which only takes a couple minutes.

Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies | Recipe on HoosierHomemade.com

I like using a cookie dough scoop to get all the cookies the same size.

Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies | Recipe on HoosierHomemade.com

Then roll them into a ball.

Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies | Recipe on HoosierHomemade.com

Then dip a flat measuring cup into powdered sugar and gentle press down to flatten the cookies to about 1/4 inch thick.

Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies | Recipe on HoosierHomemade.com

During the first week of November, we received our AeroGarden ULTRA. We were excited to get it put together, considering Winter was upon us and we knew we wouldn’t have our Herb Garden for several months.

AeroGarden Basil on HoosierHomemade.com

We were both amazed at how quickly the basil grew. The set up was super easy, Doug had it ready to go in minutes. Let me show you the growing process…

AeroGarden from MiracleGro | HoosierHomemade.com

AeroGarden from MiracleGro | HoosierHomemade.com

Day 1: On November 5, Doug put together the AeroGarden and planted the basil. The Quick Plant walks you through step by step planting.

Day 13: Then in just a few short weeks, on November 18th, we had basil growing. The growing system is fully automated and will add nutrients and water reminders.

Day 26: Once the plants hit the high growth cycle, they really took off. They are now about 5 inches tall on December 1st.

Day 33: We grew a variety of different basil. The Lemon Basil and Genovese is what we used in these Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies. There are more than 70 varieties of pre-seeded lettuce, herbs, flowers and vegetables. Or you can use your own seeds. I’m really looking forward to starting our garden early next Spring with the AeroGarden.

AeroGarden from MiracleGro | HoosierHomemade.com

And here we are, just a short 33 days later. The MyGarden Control Panel automatically runs all growing functions, you can keep it simple with just a push of the button or for the more advanced, there are 100 percent customizable options.

Fresh Holiday Entertaining with AeroGarden Ultra

For more Holiday Entertaining Recipes, visit Kitchen Play

Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies

Lemon Basil Shortbread Cookies

Yield: 18 cookies
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Total Time: 13 minutes

A savory cookie with lemon and basil, perfect for your Holiday Entertaining. Recipe from HoosierHomemade.com

Ingredients

  • 1 cup flour, all-purpose
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar plus some for pressing cookies
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold and cut into pieces
  • 2 tablespoons sliced basil
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or a little less table salt)
  • Sanding sugar or Glitter Crystals, optional

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a cookie sheet or use parchment paper
  2. Add all the ingredients, except sanding sugar, to the food processor
  3. Process for about 2 minutes until large, moist clumps form
  4. Scoop cookie dough and roll into balls
  5. Lightly dust the bottom of a measuring cup with powdered sugar and flatten each cookie to about 1/4 inch thick
  6. Bake for 7-8 minutes until lightly golden brown around the edge
  7. Transfer to wire rack and let cool

AeroGarden

AeroGrow will be running its ‘12 Days of Deals’ for the holidays with discounts and special bundles for the season. Plus, get up to 20% on everything storewide when using promo code ‘Holiday20’ in the shopping cart at checkout.

The AeroGarden would make a GREAT Christmas Gift for the gardener in your life!

Follow AeroGarden on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for more information

Standard Disclosure

5 Comments

  1. I have cinnamon basil in my freezer from last years herb garden. I think I will try it in these cookies.

  2. I would love to have fresh herbs growing in my kitchen right now! That’s awesome! The cookies also sound quite amazing – pinned!

  3. These sound amazing and so different. Thanks for the recipe. Have a wonderful weekend! Merry Christmas!

  4. Lemon and basil are such a fresh combination – and so welcome this time of year! Okay, I’d welcome them any time of year, but you know what I mean. I love that these are savory, and I’m guessing they’d even be good as sweet cookies. I may have to add these to my list of Christmas bakes…thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *