British Afternoon Tea with Shortbread Cookies with Edible Flowers

Britisch Afternoon Tea mit essbaren Blütenkeksen

This blog post is “posh” as I will be serving British Afternon Tea with shortbread cookies with edible flowers and some maple bacon cupcakes. This is due to the fact that it’s celebration time. I will always find a reason to whip something up. This can be anything, the classic cake needed on Sunday afternoon, or because I want to cheer up my colleagues on Monday, because a difficult case at work finally came to a close, you will soon realize that there is always reason to celebrate. This is something we tend to forget. In the mundane life of ours we hustle and bustle, but forget to just sit still and celebrate the special moments. And this time is an extra special moment. Zorra from the German blog Kochtopf is celebrating her 15th blog anniversary. Ha, I am such a baby blog compared to hers. My blog is about two and a half years old. But anyway, Zorra is inviting us virtually to a British afternoon tea asking us to whip up a recipe. Well, that’s something I can get behind!

Britisch Afternoon Tea mit essbaren Blütenkeksen

And when I think about a British afternoon tea, I immediately think about the floral patterns you will find on the china, the wallpapers, the decoration when you are invited. I have been meaning to bake with edible flowers anyway, so I decided this was the perfect moment to give it a go. For that reason I picked my favorite shortbread recipe with brown butter and decided to decorate the cookies with edible flowers. You will find a similar slice and bake recipe on my blog called Heidesand. I already knew that I could use daisies as edible flowers, I even created an entire cake with daisies inside the batter and on top, you will find the daisy cake in this blog post. But apart from daisies there are so many edible flowers, just to name a few: violets, cornflower or bluebottle, camomile, primrose or cowslip, daisies,  clover blossoms, chrysanthemes or mums, dandelions, lavender, and herbs. Since I had planted many of stated flowers and herbs on our terrace, it was easy for me to get them, knowing no dog had come near them and the flowers had been untreated.

Britisch Afternoon Tea mit essbaren BlütenkeksenSo I plucked them in the morning and pressed them the entire day between heavy books before I put them on my prepared shortbread. When I did research on cookies with edible flowers, I found out that it is possible to bake the flowers, but that they will look much prettier and keep more of their original colors if you “glue” them on the cookie right before serving. This is done best with royal icing as it helps for the flowers to really stick to the cookie. The egg white also helps to seal the flowers so that they look fresh for even longer.

Britisch Afternoon Tea mit essbaren Blütenkeksen

Shortbread Cookies with Edible Flowers

Serves: Between 28-30 cookies, depending on size
Prep Time: 45min Cooking Time: 10min Total Time: 55min

These brown butter shortbread cookies with eatable flowers are definitely the show-stopper of your afternoon tea or tea party. Cookies can be prepared the day before and flowers glued on on day of serving.

Ingredients

  • Edible flowers such as violets, cornflower or bluebottle, camomile, primrose or cowslip, daisies,  clover blossoms, chrysanthemes or mums, dandelions, lavender, herbs, etc. Be sure that they are untreated!
  • 175 grams of butter
  • 90 grams of regular sugar
  • 1 vanilla pod
  • 2 tablespoons of milk
  • 170 grams of all-purpose flour
  • 1 very fresh egg white

Instructions

1

Pluck the flowers and carefully clip off stem. Press flowers down between paper or newspaper and heavy books for at least an hour or overnight.

2

Melt the butter on the stovetop. Once melted, reduce heat and let simmer for about 5min. Butter will slowly turn color, once you see brown specks and it smells nutty, it's done. May need a little longer. Place in fridge for 45min or longer immediately.

3

Beat butter with mixer for about two minutes, then slowly add sugar. Add scraped out vanilla pod and milk and beat until the mixture turns pale.

4

Slowly add the flour to the butter mixture. Knead in last part by hand. Form into ball and place in fridge for at least half an hour.

5

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsisus and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Take out dough and roll out on a floured surface. Cut out circles approx. 8cm in diameter. Place cookies side by side and bake for about 9min. The cookies should not get too crunchy. Let cool completely.

6

Brush the egg white on top of the cookies, one at a time and carefully press down one flower on each cookie, brush again egg white on top of the flower to glue it even more onto the cookie, but also to seal it. Serve with a nice cup of tea.

Notes

Due to the edible flowers and the raw egg whites used, I only recommend keeping these cookies for a night if chilled. Serve immediately, if possible.

Britisch Afternoon Tea mit essbaren Blütenkeksen

If you are thinking about throwing a British afternoon tea, how about these alternative recipes:

Strawberry shortcakes  (you can use other berries and fruits)

Eaton mess cake

Strawberry macarons

Black forest eclairs

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2 Comments

  • Reply
    zorra vom kochtopf
    Thursday September 12th, 2019 at 10:46 AM

    Die sind wunderschön und schmecken bestimmt auch so wie sie aussehen. Und natürlich ist es super, wenn man auch genau weiss woher die Blümchen kommen. Ich greif dann gleich mal zu. 😉

    • Reply
      Jenny
      Thursday September 12th, 2019 at 12:04 PM

      Liebe Zorra, virtuell gieße ich dir Tee ein und reiche dir die Kekse, auf noch viele tolle Bloggerjahre!

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