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Rosemary And Apricot Shortbread Cookies

Rosemary Shortbread Cookies


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.

Rosemary Shortbreads & Goat Cheese Ice Cream


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.

Rosemary Shortbreads & Goat Cheese Ice Cream


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.

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Comments


Rosa's Yummy Yums May 5, 2009 um 7:41 am

A delightful flavor combo! These shortbread sandwich cookies look heavenly!

Cheers,

Rosa


Nina Timm May 5, 2009 um 8:35 am

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!!!


Just Cook It May 5, 2009 um 9:10 am

Absolutely fascinating. What a great combination of flavours


Bonbon Oiseau May 5, 2009 um 9:43 am

these look sooo comforting and delicious…i need a glass of milk just looking at them!


Unknown May 5, 2009 um 9:46 am

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 😉


Finla May 5, 2009 um 9:49 am

I have a plant with rosemary, never made anything sweet with them, this looks so yumm.


chocolatecup May 5, 2009 um 10:10 am

mymy! lovely cookies! my mum loves apricot!:)maybe i will make her some for mother’s day:)


zaida May 5, 2009 um 10:13 am

your photographs and recipes are a master class.

thanks and congrats for such a wonderful talent!

Zaida


Karolina Beaudet May 5, 2009 um 10:51 am

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 🙂


Andrea Meyers May 5, 2009 um 11:23 am

These sound perfectly delicious. I do love a bit of savory with the sweet.


Ria Mathew May 5, 2009 um 11:55 am

omg! they look delicious!!yummy!!!

Hugs,
Ria


Kim May 5, 2009 um 12:14 pm

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?


tara May 5, 2009 um 12:14 pm

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!


Julia @ Mélanger May 5, 2009 um 12:29 pm

Sometimes there is nothing quite like a humble biscuit (i.e. cookie) with a cup of tea. These look delicious too. Nice combination. 🙂


Cindy May 5, 2009 um 12:41 pm

yes, the cookies look delicious.


Cindy May 5, 2009 um 12:43 pm

the cookies look delicious.


Ciao Chow Linda May 5, 2009 um 12:54 pm

This looks like a winner.


lubnakarim06 May 5, 2009 um 1:07 pm

Want to lick that right now…..Gorgeous….


Ina Todoran May 5, 2009 um 1:20 pm

I love the floral spoon! I also love all your photos and creations. You’re great!!!


Jen Yu May 5, 2009 um 2:37 pm

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 🙂


Cedar May 5, 2009 um 2:57 pm

These look amazing! I am saving this recipe for a future time!


Unknown May 5, 2009 um 3:11 pm

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.


Simones Kitchen May 5, 2009 um 4:09 pm

Those look absolutely delicious! You could have done them with strawberry jam ofcourse… just to keep in line with the season.. Haha..:)


Anonymous May 5, 2009 um 4:27 pm

YUM!!!


Engineer Baker May 5, 2009 um 5:13 pm

I agree – rosemary sounds better here than sage, especially with apricots. And goat cheese ice cream is definitely something I need to try. Eventually 🙂


Char May 5, 2009 um 5:18 pm

yummm…so sweet and I love apricot. the spoon is just so adorable and sweet.


veron May 5, 2009 um 6:06 pm

I’m more tea cake type of gal too (except for macarons) but this my friend, looks utterly delicious!


Sarah May 5, 2009 um 6:19 pm

Beautimous. I love apricot & savory flavors together. These look so great!


Penny May 5, 2009 um 7:22 pm

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.


Sweet Treats by Dani May 5, 2009 um 7:45 pm

interesting combo!!! and lovely photos 🙂


Karynefoodaddict May 5, 2009 um 7:46 pm

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!!!


nicole May 5, 2009 um 8:28 pm

These look fantastic!


Juliana May 5, 2009 um 8:45 pm

Such a nice combination of flavors…as always, the pictures are great.


Ivy May 5, 2009 um 9:24 pm

I always love your pictures. And the flavor combo of rosemary and apricot sounds intrigueing. Where do get those cute little milk bottles. 🙂


cindy* May 5, 2009 um 9:30 pm

mmmm…these look fantastic helen!


cathy May 5, 2009 um 10:16 pm

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!


La Cuisine d'Helene May 5, 2009 um 10:59 pm

Absolutely delicious! I always find inspiration on your blog.


LaLa Lady May 6, 2009 um 1:25 am

These look beautiful, I can’t wait to make them.


redmenace May 6, 2009 um 2:09 am

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!


toontz May 6, 2009 um 2:56 am

Oh, yummy! I would rather have apricots than strawberries any day.


Helene May 6, 2009 um 3:09 am

Ivy: there are actually not milk bottles but single flower vases from Wal-Mart, sold in packs of 3.


lisa (dandysugar) May 6, 2009 um 3:37 am

Rosemary over sage in these cookies for me! I love this flavor combination. The cookies look amazing!


Chic Gastrique May 6, 2009 um 3:55 am

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!


Deeba PAB May 6, 2009 um 4:22 am

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 Cooking Photographer May 6, 2009 um 5:10 am

The pictures are sooo pretty! Beautiful cookies!


Cakelaw May 6, 2009 um 6:07 am

Yum! The apricot and vanilla bean jam bursting out of the centres looks luscious. Love the goats cheese icecream too.


monica May 6, 2009 um 7:01 am

Hello, your blog is beautiful, precioso! and so sweet.
What about cherries?


Mermaid Sews May 6, 2009 um 7:31 am

These are some of my favorite flavors, and I ADORE apricot, I look forward to making these.


Monique May 6, 2009 um 8:58 am

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?


Paula Maack May 6, 2009 um 10:04 am

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


Helene May 6, 2009 um 1:25 pm

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.


Helene May 6, 2009 um 1:27 pm

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!


montague May 6, 2009 um 2:53 pm

love that little spoon!


Half Baked May 6, 2009 um 3:13 pm

Lovely. There’s no end to the possibilities with shortbread cookies. These look divine:)


unconfidential cook May 6, 2009 um 4:25 pm

What a lovely post! Thank you.


Patricia Scarpin May 6, 2009 um 5:18 pm

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. 😀


Unknown May 6, 2009 um 9:19 pm

O. o. O!
yes, please.
I’m not just agreeing, I’m wishing I was in your kitchen.

gorgeous.


Thaís May 7, 2009 um 1:23 am

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!


Helene May 7, 2009 um 1:49 am

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.


Lori May 7, 2009 um 1:54 am

I love the cookies. I bett hey were amazing. And that spoon, how cute is that. Just lovely. Lets have tea now!


Zenchef May 7, 2009 um 4:36 am

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!
🙂


anadelicias May 7, 2009 um 7:32 am

Beautiful and delicious cookies, ice cream, everything!!!

Great pic also!!


Katie May 7, 2009 um 8:29 am

These sound fabulous. I wouldn’t have thought of pairing rosemary and apricot together but I can imagine it tasting wonderful.


Christy May 7, 2009 um 12:32 pm

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!!


Cookie baker Lynn May 7, 2009 um 3:09 pm

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.


Angelique from Bitchin' Lifestyle May 7, 2009 um 5:02 pm

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!


Cakespy May 7, 2009 um 8:59 pm

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!


cookingschoolconfidential.com May 8, 2009 um 1:07 am

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!


Hayley May 8, 2009 um 1:13 am

These look beautiful, and I love that floral spoon. Thanks for sharing!


ChichaJo May 8, 2009 um 4:37 am

These do sound like those types of cookies that you could just keep on eating! Lovely cookies and lovely photos 🙂


Vanille May 8, 2009 um 7:59 am

I’m an apricot lover and I like the combo with flavourful rosemary in these cookies !


Botacook May 8, 2009 um 4:00 pm

J’adore l’association abricot-romarin. Cette recette m’allèche à 200% 😉


Taste of Beirut May 11, 2009 um 4:07 am

amazing, is all I can utter!


Michelle Schraudner May 11, 2009 um 4:08 pm

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.


Fifi Flowers May 12, 2009 um 1:21 am

Those sound delightful!
ENJOY your weeke!
Fifi


Loren May 29, 2009 um 3:43 pm

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!


Beverly Hsu June 8, 2009 um 4:49 pm

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!


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