15 minute chill out lavender cookies

These soft, chocolatey, lavender cookies are designed to ease tension and soothe the soul. Def not a ‘healthy’ recipe, but totally inline with the 80:20 food philosophy; 80% of what we eat for nutrition, 20% for the soul.

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175C gentle bake.Line the baking tray with baking paper.
2. In a medium sized bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, you can use the wooden spoon or electric beaters. 3. Once the sugar is creamed, sprinkle the lavender into the creamed sugar and mix it in well.
4. Next, to the creamed sugar add the flour, cacao, baking pwder, salt, oil and vanilla. Mix it all together.
5. Onto the lined baking tray, drop largish sized teaspoon amounts of the batter. I like to roll the bater into a ball and give them a gentle press onto the baking sheet. Makes about 12 cookies.
6. Bake for 10-15minutes.

The smell will let you know when the cookies are ready. They will spread a little, and maybe get a nice cracked pattern on the top. If you take them too far the oil will cause they to ‘melt’ and start to burn. Once cooked, remove from the oven and slide the cookies on the baking paper onto a cooling rack. Cooled cookies can store in an air tight container for a week or so in the fridge.

why lavender cookies?

Tastes like grandma’s garden! The herbal extract of lavnder is used in herbal medicine and naturopathy for its calming and soothing qualities. Lavnder is often used in sleepy tea mixes, and can adds a bittersweet taste to baked goods. It acts to helps to lift depressive mood states, helps to unwind, induce sleep, and supports a nervous tummy.

Please be mindful and avoid lavender if you are on antidepressants as it may make you super sleepy. With lavender, a little goes a long way and more is not better, stick to the suggested amounts in the recipes. I like to get my dreid lavnder from Austral Herbs.

cacao and stress

Raw cacao has a beautiful, earty, bitter taste. It’s best to use raw cacao and not cocoa in this recipe. Why? Raw cacao is high in antixidants and magnesium. When we’rre stressed we excrete our magnesium more readily. This is annoying because magnesium helps to soothe muscle cramps and helps with inducing sleep. You can great a great organic cacao powder from Honest to Goodness.

need something stronger?

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