
Tada! No strawberries! I can do this. A completely strawberry free post right in the middle of the season. Didn't hurt either. Ok, maybe a little but the pain was eased by the handful of blakberries gathered today in the yard and having a batch of these Rosemary and Apricot Shortbread Cookies while working through various deadlines. Crumbly shortbread specked with freshly chopped rosemary and filled with homemade apricot jam. Sigh...there is only one left.
I realized that unless I am nicely bribed by friends to make cookies, I don't usually make or post many on this site, except for macarons but they are in a league of their own. I guess cookies are not in my DNA, I am more a tea cakes, and tarts kind of gal. Bill on the other hand has the reputation among his family and friends to be The Cookie Monster. I guess this was his lucky weekend.
A few weeks ago I was asked to post links back to Better Home and Gardens and specifically to their Spring Dessert and cookie recipes, as did my pal Jen who posted the most lucious lemon cake I have seen in a while. Like her, I did not feel comfortble blindly posting about something I was not familiar with and decided the best way to approach this would be to try one of their recipes myself.

I like BH&G and I did get the chance to read quite many of their magazines while living with my in-laws when we were building our house. Fifteen months can be long without having a real place of your own and I did enjoy day dreaming while reading about their house renovations and decorations. But I admit that I never quite paid attention to the recipe section. No particular reason other than having a pretty big database of my own and many recipes still to get to on my to do list. Until now...
There were so many pop-ups ads that I almost stopped browsing the recipe section after I had found one that I liked. But for the sake of doing this right, I persevered and finally settled on these cookies. Except I had a senior moment while shopping for ingredients and it's not even my birthday yet! I meant to make the Apricot Sage Cookies but my brain got stuck on rosemary instead. I think it worked out for the better because neither Bill or I are great fans of sage in sweet things. Rosemary, thyme, lemon basil...oh yes!
The cookie recipe is very straightforward and it has just the right amount of herb to play with the buttery flavor of the shortbread. I used homemade apricot and vanilla bean jam that I had in the freezer but any good quality jam will do. I got to tell you though, they are addicting! We had friends over the day I made them and I almost wished I had baked a double batch! To add sweet insult to dessert injury, I served these with homemade goat cheese ice cream and that, as Shuna will agree, was just the right combination.

One year ago: Lemon Rhubarb Mascarpone Mousse Cake.
Two years ago: Vanilla Cardamom Ice Cream.
Rosemary Apricot Shortbread Cookies, from and with permission of Better Homes and Gardens
Notes: I baked these at 350F in a convection oven instead of 375F and I used a smaller cookie cutter which yielded 25 cookies once assembled.
Makes 20
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp. snipped fresh rosemary or 2 tsp. dried rosemary
3 Tbsp. milk
Apricot spreadable fruit
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a bowl stir together flour, sugar, and cornmeal. Using pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in sage. Add milk. Stir with fork to combine; form into ball. Knead until smooth; divide in half.
On lightly floured surface, roll half the dough at a time to 1/4-inch thickness. Using 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out dough.
Place cutouts 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 10 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Transfer cookies to wire rack. Cool.
Spread bottoms of half the cookies with spreadable fruit. Top with remaining cookies. Makes 20 sandwich cookies.
To store: Place in layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store at room temperature up to 3 days. Or freeze unfilled cookies up to 3 months. Thaw cookies; fill with spreadable fruit.
79 comments:
A delightful flavor combo! These shortbread sandwich cookies look heavenly!
Cheers,
Rosa
Beautiful as always!!! After my tour through your kitchen on Real Butter's site, I feel like I am experiencing your posts on a totally different level!!!
Absolutely fascinating. What a great combination of flavours
these look sooo comforting and delicious...i need a glass of milk just looking at them!
If I'd live there my diet would have been already epically failed: I never thought to use fresh rosemary with cookies but I can foresee the taste... hmmm.
Great photos and I'd like to steal that miniature milk bottle ;)
I have a plant with rosemary, never made anything sweet with them, this looks so yumm.
mymy! lovely cookies! my mum loves apricot!:)maybe i will make her some for mother's day:)
your photographs and recipes are a master class.
thanks and congrats for such a wonderful talent!
Zaida
I've wanted to make these cookies since I first saw the recipe on BH&G page...what a great idea to use rosemary instead of sage!!! I absolutely love your version of the recipe. And, I love the idea of serving them with goat cheese ice cream, too. It must have been delicious :-)
These sound perfectly delicious. I do love a bit of savory with the sweet.
omg! they look delicious!!yummy!!!
Hugs,
Ria
I adore strawberries, but must say that the ice cream and apricot shortbread cookies could make me forget that strawberries are in season! Splendid as always. It was good to see you, maybe we can go strawberry picking this month?
Yum! I don't think I would like these with sage, but rosemary and apricot is right up my alley. And your addition on goat's cheese ice cream is brilliant.
I was also contacted by BHG, and I am glad to hear that I am not the only one that felt their site tough to navigate. What with the popups and the sheer amount of information crammed into pages, it was hard to sift through it all - a pity, as there are some good recipes to be found!
Sometimes there is nothing quite like a humble biscuit (i.e. cookie) with a cup of tea. These look delicious too. Nice combination. :)
yes, the cookies look delicious.
the cookies look delicious.
This looks like a winner.
Want to lick that right now.....Gorgeous....
I love the floral spoon! I also love all your photos and creations. You're great!!!
You make cookies look as sexy as cakes ;) I have no idea what rosemary in sweet treats tastes like, but now I want to find out. The pop-ups - oh how I hate the pop-ups :)
These look amazing! I am saving this recipe for a future time!
I'm making these today. Wish I had plain goat cheese to make that ice cream, too. I don't know how I missed that recipe the first time around. Oh, how I love goat cheese. Oh, how I love rosemary cookies.
Those look absolutely delicious! You could have done them with strawberry jam ofcourse... just to keep in line with the season.. Haha..:)
YUM!!!
I agree - rosemary sounds better here than sage, especially with apricots. And goat cheese ice cream is definitely something I need to try. Eventually :)
yummm...so sweet and I love apricot. the spoon is just so adorable and sweet.
I'm more tea cake type of gal too (except for macarons) but this my friend, looks utterly delicious!
Beautimous. I love apricot & savory flavors together. These look so great!
The cookies, to die for. The spoon, to swoon on. Your site, a delight. I agree about BH&G's site and the magazine - too many ads to wade thru. Gourmet used to be one of my favorite magazines, but the ads are starting to bother me. Epicurious does a good job though and they are user friendly. They do not charge a monthly fee like CI. Hee,hee.
interesting combo!!! and lovely photos :)
ça donne vraiment envie et l'alliance de romarin et de l'abricot me paraît heureuse!
des très belles photos!!!
merci pour ces belles recettes!!!
These look fantastic!
Such a nice combination of flavors...as always, the pictures are great.
I always love your pictures. And the flavor combo of rosemary and apricot sounds intrigueing. Where do get those cute little milk bottles. :)
mmmm...these look fantastic helen!
i love (what I think is) the jar of milk in the background! it definitely looks better than the plastic jugs I buy it in. and of course, the cookies look delicious as always!
Absolutely delicious! I always find inspiration on your blog.
These look beautiful, I can't wait to make them.
It's not nearly strawberry season here yet. I am jealous. However, these are absolutely lovely! I'm considering something like this for my wedding. Thanks for your inspiration!
Oh, yummy! I would rather have apricots than strawberries any day.
Ivy: there are actually not milk bottles but single flower vases from Wal-Mart, sold in packs of 3.
Rosemary over sage in these cookies for me! I love this flavor combination. The cookies look amazing!
These look so tasty - I can't wait for apricot season to hit us here and this makes me anticipate it even more. Thanks for posting!
Delighful Helen...how apt that they add sweet insult to dessert injury...giggle, I love the way your words 'flew'!!I have a TINY rosemary plant, which shall find it's way into these once it grows up.Thanks for the flower vase hint from Walmart.Do u think my sis would kill me if I added it to the ever growing list? Beautiful post indeed!!
The pictures are sooo pretty! Beautiful cookies!
Yum! The apricot and vanilla bean jam bursting out of the centres looks luscious. Love the goats cheese icecream too.
Hello, your blog is beautiful, precioso! and so sweet.
What about cherries?
These are some of my favorite flavors, and I ADORE apricot, I look forward to making these.
Hi tartlette, Please how do I contact you. I'm a really really green new blogger. I tried a macaron experiment (trickier than they look, although I thought they looked tricky as well!) and I've referenced your recipe on the blog, and would like to link it to your site, as it's pretty much your recipe, and then everyone can see your work and other lovely creations. Can you please let me know how to link to your page? I have no idea, and no tech savy friends to show me how...basically if it's not obviously in the drop down menu's, I'm lost. Thanks and I hope it's ok to use your recipe as long as I note it?
Ooooh...yummy!!
I love the milk bottle. And the shot of the rosemary in the glass is just so fresh.
Gorgeous, and mouthwatering. Helen! I look forward to trying these soon.
Cheers,
~ Paula
Monica: if you are looking for cherries recipes there are quite a few on the blog. Just enter cherries in the search button.
As far as using cherries right now, they are not quite in season yet. It will be july-august for us here.
Monique: my email address is in my about page. Unfortunately I am not familiar with Wordpress and how to add a hot link on word press, but for now you can just just copy/paste the url of the page where the recipe is and ad it as is into your blog.
Good luck!
love that little spoon!
Lovely. There's no end to the possibilities with shortbread cookies. These look divine:)
What a lovely post! Thank you.
Helen, I have tried several recipes from them and they worked like a charm. These will go into my to do list, especially now that they have been made by you. :D
O. o. O!
yes, please.
I'm not just agreeing, I'm wishing I was in your kitchen.
gorgeous.
Hi!
I have just found your blog and i love it! Your pictures are amazing! Congratulations...
I was going through your older posts and i saw lots of recipes with tapioca, and i noticed that the tapioca you use is in tiny little balls. Actually, here in Brazil, the tapioca is the flour of the manioc (or cassava, i dont know how you call it), and the little balls are "sagu". We usally cook it (the balls, not the flour) in some cheap wine or orange juice, with lots of sugar and spices (cinnamon, cloves...), till it gets thicker...
Its great, especially with a bit of vanilla crème. You should try it!
Once again, congratulations on the blog!
thaisd: I am familiar with it as we don't really use tapioca pearls in my family but tapioca flour. The blog is also a way to experience with things like tapioca pearls which I never used growing up.
Thank you for stopping by.
I love the cookies. I bett hey were amazing. And that spoon, how cute is that. Just lovely. Lets have tea now!
Oh la la... ca a l'air tellement bon! J'ai faillit tombe sur les fesses quand j'ai vu la premiere photo. MMMMMM..
One dozen to go pleaaase!
:-)
Beautiful and delicious cookies, ice cream, everything!!!
Great pic also!!
These sound fabulous. I wouldn't have thought of pairing rosemary and apricot together but I can imagine it tasting wonderful.
I agree with you that the addition of rosemary in baked goods give them that little bit of something extra. Curious about the sage though, might try baking with it one day. Wonderful photos Helen!!
Wonderful job on a non-strawberry post. I'm not at all tired of the strawberries, but these cookies are a delicious break. Good call on putting rosemary in them.
These look interesting, I will definitely try them because I am sooo interested to find out how the rosemary combo will affect the taste... lol I usually use rosemary on lamb!
Ooh, what gorgeously fresh flavors. Rosemary is one of my faves--there's a big rosemary plant down the street that I sometimes poach from to use it in baking. Mmm, forbidden rosemary. This looks like the perfect way to use my booty!
Rosemary and apricots - amazing combination.
We're starting a new semester at culinary school (I'm a student) and in this one we get to bake.
I can't wait.
Cheers!
These look beautiful, and I love that floral spoon. Thanks for sharing!
These do sound like those types of cookies that you could just keep on eating! Lovely cookies and lovely photos :)
I'm an apricot lover and I like the combo with flavourful rosemary in these cookies !
J'adore l'association abricot-romarin. Cette recette m'allèche à 200% ;)
Greeings Helen,
Not only a wonderful combination of flavors but also impressive photography.
Tastefully yours,
Chef Matthew J.G
Pro Chef 360
Created and maintained by the culinary minded
T: http://www.twitter.com/chef_matthew
B: http://www.prochef360blog.com
Practical Networking for Real Time Chefs
amazing, is all I can utter!
Looks delicious! I also love strawberry season maybe a little too much. :)
Thank you so much for the comment on my blog, I've added you to my blogroll. Not sure how I went so long without finding your blog, it's amazing.
Those sound delightful!
ENJOY your weeke!
Fifi
I just had to write and say thank you! These little beauties are delish and go perfect with an afternoon cup of tea! I pop mine in the fridge an hour before I eat them to give them a little crunch! yumm! Thanks!
I've been a long time fan of your blog - everything is so amazing - and just wanted to say hi!
I tried this recipe recently and it was so good I made another batch! (and I usually never repeat recipes)
Cheers!
These are delicious for Thanksgiving gifts of 2009
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