Chamomile Cookies

These simple chamomile cookies offer the sweet and soothing flavor of chamomile flowers in the form of tender buttery cookies. They're the perfect treat to go with your afternoon cup of tea or coffee.

When it comes to plants that can take over your garden, everyone warns you about mint. But no one ever mentions chamomile. I planted a small bunch of flower in my garden once or twice in the past. Now they pop up just about anywhere and everywhere each summer. This year, it's even growing from a crack in the driveway pavement.

These small attractive flowers have tiny white petals, vibrant yellow centers and a tendency to drop their seeds and regrow as an annual from year to year. They certainly add some interest no matter where they appear and I don't mind too much, as chamomile flowers are much easier to remove and manage than mint.

Jump to:

• 🌼Ingredients
• 📋Substitutions & Variations
• 🍪Instructions
• ⭐Top Tip
• 🥄Equipment
• ⏲️Storage
• 💭FAQ
• 📖 Recipe

Like mint, chamomile makes a great tea. But that's not the only use for the edible flowers. Their sweet apple flavor makes a good addition in cocktails, on cakes, in this honey ice cream, and yes - cookies.

These are essentially an easy sugar cookie topped with fresh chamomile flowers. You press the flowers into the cookies right after taking them out of the oven when they're still soft. The residual heat softens up the flowers and sets them in place as the cookies cool.

For more garden inspired treats, try my Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake, Blackberry Thyme Scones, and Rhubarb Crumble Breakfast Cake.

🌼Ingredients

These cookies only take a handful of ingredients.

You'll need:

• Unsalted butter
• Powdered sugar
• All purpose flour
• Fresh chamomile flowers
• An egg yolk
• Salt
• Vanilla
• Coarse sugar

See the recipe card below for quanities.

📋Substitutions & Variations

• If you don't have chamomile flowwers in your garden and can only get dried chamomile, that's ok! You can find dried chamomile in the bulk section of health food stores or co-ops. Though you can also open up chamomile tea bags and use the tea leaves. Add 2 tablespoons dried and crushed chamomile flowers to the cookie batter and skip adding the flowers to the cookies after baking. Although your cookies won't look the same, they will taste similar.
• No powdered sugar? Just run an equal amount of granulated sugar in your food processor until you have a white powder - aka powdered sugar.
• Try replacing the vanilla with lemon zest for a slight change in flavor that would also complement the chamomile.

🍪Instructions

Note: Wondering why I wouldn't have you add the flowers before baking, rather than after? When I tried doing so I found that the flowers turned an unappealing color. I think the heat was just too much. Instead, pressing the flowers into the hot cookies right out of the oven proved enough heat to wilt the flowers and have them adhere to the cookies.

⭐Top Tip

Don't skip chilling the dough! This is important for a number of reasons. Primarily, in this case, it helps the butter firm back up so that the cookies don't spread out too much when baking. It also makes the dough easier to roll and cut. This is a soft cookie dough and if it gets too warm, it will stick to your surface and be difficult to roll out.

🥄Equipment

• A mixer, either a stand or hand mixer will work.
• A rolling pin to roll out the cookie dough.
• A cookie cutter (or even a water glass) to cut out the cookies. I used a 2 ½ inch wide glass.

⏲️Storage

Store these cookies in an air tight container at room temperature for up to a week.

You can also freeze the cookies after baking and store in a freezer bag. Just let sit at room temperature for a few minutes before enjoying.

💭FAQ

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📖 Recipe