Lavender earl grey cookies are heavenly delicious on their own, but then drizzle with lemon glaze and you'll be addicted!! The cookies are soft, chewy, and full of fresh flavor with subtle notes of lavender and bergamot. The dough is so simple to make in just one bowl and doesn't require any chilling in the fridge. These are the BEST lavender earl grey cookies!
If you follow me on Instagram and watch my stories, you know how obsessed I am with making lavender earl grey tea lattes!! So, I was brainstorming what I could bake with those same ingredients, and cookies sounded like the best idea! I was right. And I knew I wanted to finish the cookies off with a glaze to make them look as pretty as they taste, and the lemon glaze turned out to the perfect addition!!
When I say these are the best lavender earl grey cookies, I mean it! And if you ask my future mother-in-law, she will tell you that these are the best cookies she's ever had. Period. Everyone who has tried these cookies loves them, so I have no doubt that you will love them too! Even those who aren't familiar with the taste of lavender or earl grey tea still rave about them.
I'm thinking that next I should bake a lavender earl grey tea cake or scones 😋
Why you'll love this recipe
Soft and chewy.
These cookies are thin, but trust me they are perfectly soft and chewy cookies with a beautiful crinkle top. The trick is to make sure you don't over bake the cookies! You want to pull them from the oven when they are just lightly golden brown on the bottom, but the tops still look a little uncooked. As the cookies sit, they will continue to cook.
Easy to make.
This cookie dough doesn't require any chilling in the fridge, which is pretty much always a must for me when it comes to baking cookies, and all you need is one bowl to mix up the dough! Dried lavender and earl grey tea go right in with the dry ingredients. Both the lavender and tea bake so nicely into the cookies without affecting the texture.
Lemon glaze.
For me, the lemon glaze just ties it all together and seals the deal! It adds a bright, zesty element, and also makes the cookies look extra pretty!
Ingredients
- Salted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Dried lavender
- Earl grey tea
- Powdered sugar
- Lemon juice
Ingredient notes
- Texture. As the cookies bake, the dried lavender and earl grey tea soften up and bake nicely into the cookies. It doesn't affect the texture of the cookies.
- Earl grey tea. You can use caffeinated or decaffeinated earl grey tea bags, both work great. Simply cut the tea bags open and use the contents inside.
Lavender Earl Grey Cookies Recipe
Lavender Earl Grey Tea Cookies are super simple to make and only require one bowl! Let's talk about how to make them. Scroll down to the recipe card for the full instructions.
- Cream together the butter and sugar. Cream until fluffy and light in color, about 2 minutes. This creates pockets of air in the dough, which helps the cookies puff up, creating soft cookies.
- Add the egg and vanilla. Beat in the egg and vanilla until just combined.
- Add dry ingredients. To the bowl with the wet ingredients, add all the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. You don't want to over mix the dough, which can make the cookies dense.
- Scoop the dough. I like to use a big 3 tablespoon cookie scoop for this cookie recipe, but you can make 2 tablespoon size cookies if preferred.
- Bake. Bake the cookies for about 11 minutes, or until they are lightly golden brown on the bottom and pale on top. As the cookies sit outside of the oven, they will continue to cook from residual heat. Baking the cookies any longer will result in dry, crunchy cookies.
- Lemon glaze. The glaze is a simple mix of powdered sugar, lemon juice and water. The glaze is sweet, tangy and the perfect addition.
Variations
- Make without the lemon glaze. Not a big lemon fan? The cookies are still incredible without the lemon glaze!
- Lemon lavender cookies. Skip the earl grey tea and add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of lemon zest to the dough. I've tested this recipe, and it's a delicious variation!
- Simply lavender cookies. If desired, you can leave out the earl grey tea and just make lavender cookies. Drizzle with the lemon glaze or skip it, the choice is yours!
Storage
Cookies are best served the day of or the following day! But, the cookies will keep for up to 5 days. Store in an airtight container.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do lavender cookies taste like?
Dried lavender adds a subtle floral taste and aroma to the cookies. I find that a lot of people are surprised by how much they enjoy the taste of lavender.
What does earl grey tea taste like?
Earl grey tea has some light floral notes, but a stronger citrus flavor from bergamot, an oily substance extracted from the rind of the fruit of a dwarf variety of the Seville orange tree.
Do I have to chill the dough?
Nope! This dough doesn't require any chilling!
Does the dried lavender and earl grey tea change the texture of the cookies?
When it comes to texture, the dried lavender and earl grey tea both go undetected once baked into the cookies!
Recipe tips
- Measuring flour. When measuring the flour, use spoon to scoop the flour into the measuring cup (don't pack it in), then level it off with a butter knife. Scooping the measuring up directly into the flour can pack it too tight, resulting in dry cookies.
- Don't over mix the dough. Once you add the dry ingredients, mix until the dry ingredients are just incorporated into the wet ingredients, resulting in soft and chewy cookies.
- Don't over bake the cookies! The trick is to remove the cookies from the oven while they still looked under cooked. Trust me, this works every time. You want to remove the cookies from the oven when they are lightly golden brown on the bottom and the top still looks slightly undercooked. For my oven, the perfect amount of time is 11 minutes for cookies that are 3 tablespoon size. The cookies will come out a little puffy, but they will settle and finish baking as they sit from the residual heat.
- Cookie scoop. I love using a cookie scoop to measure the dough because it makes the process quick and easy, and it gives the cookies are nice crinkle top!
- Smaller cookies. I like to make big 3 tablespoon size cookies for this recipe, but for smaller cookies, roll into 2 tablespoon size dough balls and bake for 9-10 minutes.
More cookie recipes you'll love
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below! I'd love to hear from you! If you're on Instagram, share a picture of the food you created and tag me at Modern Farmhouse Eats! I enjoy seeing all the pictures! 😊
Lavender Earl Grey Cookies with Lemon Glaze
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter room temperature
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon dried lavender
- 3 earl grey tea bags
Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice (about ½ lemon)
- 1-2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and lighter in color, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until just combined.
- Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and lavender. Cut open the tea bags and pour earl grey tea into the bowl. Beat until just combined, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Roll 3 tablespoons of dough at a time and place evenly spaced on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 11 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden brown on the bottom and pale on top. Remove from the oven and let sit for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining dough.
Lemon Glaze
- In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar and lemon juice. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water as needed to thin out the glaze until it reaches drizzling consistency.
- Using a spoon, drizzle the lemon glaze over the cooled cookies. Let the glaze firm up before storing the cookies.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is automatically calculated by a third party software and is only an estimate, not a guarantee. This information is provided as a courtesy, and you are solely responsible for all decisions related to your health.
rae says
i wish there were metric measurements for this. when measuring out flour from cup to grams, i used 125g/cup, so 280g in total, but that wasn't enough. the batter was too cake-like and wet even after letting it sit on the counter for a while to hydrate. i added in an extra 40g-50g of flour, which helped to stabilise the batter into a workable cookie dough.
for anyone looking for metric measurements:
butter - 227g
sugar - 300g
flour - 330g (start with 300g then add tablespoon at a time till batter is able to hold its shape when scooped onto parchment paper)
overall, excellent recipe - this was a huge hit. good quality earl grey is key here to impart that fragrant aroma.
Rachel Kochlin says
Thank you so much for taking the time to share this! I really appreciate you noting what worked for you. I've started incorporating gram measurements more regularly (especially in my sourdough recipes), and feedback like this is very helpful. I'm so glad the cookies were a hit!
Terry says
Thank you for sharing your recipe. They are amazing!
I am a Master Gardener and work in the Herb garden at our Demonstration Garden. I made your fantastic cookies for a picnic to wrap up our gardening season, they were a huge success. I needed to pass your recipe on to at least 9 people. A couple of the gardeners couldn't stop eating them. Thanks again
Rachel Kochlin says
Terry, this absolutely made my day!! I'm so glad the cookies were such a hit at your picnic - that sounds like a wonderful group! Thank you for sharing the recipe with your fellow gardeners and for taking the time to leave such a kind review!
Ashley B says
Do you blitz the lavender in a food processor before adding it to the batter or no? And can you do so? I'm slightly worried about biting into a whole lavender bud!
Rachel Kochlin says
Great question, Ashley! I add the lavender buds as is, but you can certainly try giving them a blitz. They soften up a lot while baking that they go undetected.
Francesca says
I LOVE this recipe!! I use a GF blend flour mixture to make these for myself and a Scottish friend. The flavor is incredible. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I rarely comment, but felt the need to after making it 4-5 times. Different flours will result with different texture of cookie. I grow a few lavender plants in hot and humid TN, not the culinary kind, but this recipe takes my thoughts miles away to cooler locations or France. This cookie is wonderful with a cup of loose leaf tea!!
Avery says
These cookies were so delicious! I’m vegan and replaced the egg with a flax seed egg (1 Tbsp ground flaxseed, 3 Tbsp water, rest for 5-10mins) and vegan stick butter, and these came out perfectly for my bookclub meeting! A great blend of cozy flavors and the glaze was a lovely addition of zest!
Rachel Kochlin says
Avery, I'm so glad that you found a way to make the recipe work for you and that you enjoyed it so much! Thank you for leaving a review - another reader may find this information helpful!
Renotta Smith says
Wonderful cookies. I added 2 cups coconut flour and1/4 cup regular flour instead of all regular flour and it gives it a great kick of coconut flavor.
L says
Just made these for a friend gathering, the lemon drizzle hits *perfect*! Although,where I'm at, (Mid MO, USA) and possibly due to weather ( t-storm looming), (*cough* I also doubled the batch...*cough*)- I would bake them for 15 minutes; instead of the 11 per batch. This allowed for the cookies to be solid enough to move off the baking sheet with a spatula, but still soft.
Summer says
I LOVE these cookies!! One of the best flavors I've ever tasted. I think I like them better without the icing but they're delicious either way 🙂
Farren says
I made these to bring to my Thanksgiving party at work, and they were a huge hit! One person even asked for the recipe! Of course, I sent them a link to this page. I'm just a beginner baker, so to have multiple people tell me that something I made was good meant a lot to me. Thank you for this recipe!!
Maria says
Hi! These cookies look great! I'd be interested in using a 1to1 Gluten Free All Purpose flour, do you think that would be an issue?
Modern Farmhouse Eats says
Hi Maria! I personally haven't tried it so I can't say for sure. I've heard good things about the 1 to 1 baking flour though, so I say go for it! 😊
Irene says
Do these cookies freeze well? Need to make a big batch for my daughter's wedding
Modern Farmhouse Eats says
Hi Irene! I love that you want to make these cookies for your daughter's wedding ☺️ I personally haven't tried freezing them so I can't say for sure, but I think it would work fine to freeze them for 1-2 months. I suggest trying it first.
Renee says
I love the original version from Amy Ho's book Blooms & Baking -https://amzn.to/2VSEVKG
The lemon icing sounds like a nice adaptation!
Modern Farmhouse Eats says
Renee, thanks for sharing. I've never seen or tried her recipe.
Nicole Linton says
I have been growing lavender for many years and this is the first time I’ve made something edible with it.
AMAZING recipe! 10 out of 10!
Modern Farmhouse Eats says
Nicole, I'm thrilled you loved the recipe! Thanks for leaving a review ☺️
Kelly Kochlin says
I give these cookies 10 stars!!! By far the best cookie I have ever tasted!
Rachel gave me a few and I would only eat half at a time to make them last
longer. They are incredible.
So yummy,
Kelly (future mother-in-law) 😉
Modern Farmhouse Eats says
Thanks Kelly!! ☺️