Ya'll know those miniature Christmas trees that are actually a small rosemary bush? They usually sell them at Whole Foods and I have coveted one for years. YEARS. But I've never actually gotten one because our rosemary bush in the front yard is out of control, I'll never need another rosemary plant again. But other people have them. Perhaps it's you and you're wondering what to do with all of that fragrant rosemary that hopefully isn't losing needles like live Christmas trees are right about now.
Enter these rosemary orange shortbread cookies. Use some of that rosemary, and use up some of those Christmas oranges if your family likes to pretend this is still the old days when oranges in stockings were the big thing to get. You can almost call these leftovers cookies, but these won't get shoved to the back of the fridge by any means. I've eaten three while writing this post.
Rosemary Orange Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 6 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary dried or fresh, but you may want to increase by half if using fresh
- 1 tbsp orange zest dried or fresh, same note as above for fresh
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Beat the butter and sugar until well blended.
- Add in the flour, rosemary, orange, and salt, and continue to mix until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Use your hands to finish forming the dough into a ball.
- Flatten and place the dough between two large sheets of parchment paper and roll it to about ¼″ thick.
- Refrigerate the dough for at least 10 minutes or up to an hour.
- Use a cookie cutter of choice (I don’t recommend anything too crazy since the dough is still a bit crumby, a circle or square would be best) to cut out cookies and transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Re-roll the scraps until you’ve used it up.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, do not let the cookies brown.
So now all you have to do is make dozens and dozens of these cookies and you'll be able to sleep at night knowing your little rosemary tree didn't die a sad, dry death on your kitchen counter. But trust me, once you taste these, the thought of baking dozens won't seem so far-fetched after all.
There's something about shortbread (butter, it's definitely butter) that makes them easy to eat, crave-worthy, and a great gift to others, whether they want cookies or not. One taste of these and they'll want not only the cookies, but the recipe too. Feel free to share it with everyone you know, or keep it as your own personal secret.
Find more cookie options: peanut butter and jelly thumbprint cookies, matcha sprinkle cookies, and Halloween cocoa cookies.
