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Passport & Plate - Lavender Sablés "Love Cookies"

France | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
100 gr room-temperature butter
50 gr sugar
125 gr sieved flour
1 tbls shelled & powdered almond
1 tsp orange flower water
2 tsp dried lavender
1 egg
1 yolk

 

How to prepare this recipe
Think about people you love, close your eyes and open your heart. Now you’re ready to cook. Let your inner artist be an impressionist today - like Paul Cézanne who was felled in love with the magnificent light in Provence. Whip butter and sugar until them mould into cream remains light-yellow cloud that could be seen in perfect sunny morning. Add flour to let this cloud look more realistic. It’s the beginning of your culinary painting. Don’t forget about the Sun and add egg to your work. Then proceed to creating Earth. Let it be typical for Provence region lavender field. Spread lavender seeds in your bowl-canvas and don’t afraid – it won’t be a soap. What a smell! Smell is very important, it is what you’ll remember for many years. Even if you’ll forget how it tastes. What else do your smell thinking about Provence? In spring air is tinged with the smell of orange and almond blossoms. Though those flavours never meet in real life as lavender blooms in mid-summer, let them join in your culinary painting. Then stir with tenderness in your heart and hands. Knead dough and roll it in a ball, cover it with cling film and leave it in a fridge for 30 min. Your painting is almost ready. Take it out of the bowl from fridge and put it on floured table. Artists stretch their canvas over frame in the beginning, but we do it at the end. Roll out the dough and cut into shape you like. I prefer heart-shaped cookies as Provence is always in my heart and I bake them with love to this land and to people who will eat them. Place them about 2 cm apart on baking sheet covered with parchment paper and brush with beaten yolk. Bake for 10-15 min in the preheated oven (190 °C) until cookies become golden around the edges. Remove from oven and let them cool completely. Serve with milk or tea and add your best smile as Chef's compliment. Bon appétit!

 

The story behind this recipe
I close my eyes and see with my heart endless lavender field, feel Provencal sun kissing my skin and kind wind (not mistral!) playing with my hairs. I miss my Provence, land of sunlight and joy, land where people respect Nature and enjoy her gifts. I feel at ease here. May be because I love local scenery and people, may be because I enjoy local culture and traditions. I’m not sure what the reason is, but I know exactly where this romantic relationship started. It was a book, not a novel you may think – or you may call it so as it was definitely a book about passion – passion for cuisine. No one knew how this book appeared in Grandma’s house in Russia – she admired French culture though she had never been in France. She collected different French things - found on flea markets or in the shops during her journeys. Probably this book of Provençale recipes was one of such great deals. Unfortunately my Granny didn’t know French and she never used it. But I was a child for whom all books were written in unknown letters and didn’t understand it. During each visit I asked “When we will cook smth from A Book?” She used to say “Soon”, but one day Granma changed her mind and we cooked shortbread cookies with lavender (as on my Granny’s opinion this ingredient makes any dish typically French) – one says that it was ordinary recipe that could be found in any book or even that this recipe was NOT from our book. It could. But on that day we were Chefs - culinary artists – and we created a piece of tasty art. Last summer I finally visited Provence and accidently found that lavender cookies really exist. Of course, not exactly the same ones I made and tasted in childhood, but who cares – all of us are artists and each cooks on his own way. When I turned home with some special ingredients bought in Provence I made these shortbread cookies that locals call “sablés” using recipe from book of Provençale Chef Guy Gedda. I name them love-cookies as they remain me people and places I love.