I bet I am not the only one that is drawn for the smell of lavenders. That very special smell of those tiny, wonderful colored flowers has been kept in little sachets in our drawers to give fresh smell for years. In fact I love them so much that when my mom told me that she was having lavender sachets made for our wedding favor, I just thought “mom still knows me!”

Recently I have been seeing recipes using dried lavender blossoms used in icing or flavoring cookies. About 4 months ago in a Turkish forum I belong to, a friend wrote this recipe that I am about to share noting that it was an old recipe taken from Roz Denny. In that recipe it was calling for ordinary sugar but I chose to make my own lavender scented sugar first to give the cookies more of the flavor I was hoping to get. Lavender scented sugar is made the same as one would make vanilla sugar — mix sugar + dried lavender blossoms, put in a tight sealed jar and keep in a dry/dark place for some time. The longer you keep the heavier the scent would be. I think you can make your own recipe for the sugar to lavender propotion; I chose to use a tablespoon of lavender blossoms to a cup of sugar. That mix was in our pantry for 4 months — I do not think you need to wait that long, I simply forgot that I made the mix!

One thing you have to make sure is to get the dried lavender blossoms that are free of chemicals — do not go to a flower shop for instance. Either grow your own :) or get it from baking aisle of your store.
Now the recipe:

• 5/8 cups of unsalted butter, in room temperature
• 1/2 cup (lavender scented) sugar, pulverized in a food processor
• 1 egg, beaten well in a separate bowl
• 1 Tbs dried lavender blossoms
• 1 1/2 cups of self-rising flour

For the self-rising flour: add 2 tsps baking powder and a bit of salt to flour to make the total amount to be 1 1/2 cups — do not add more.

1. Preheat oven to 355F (180C)
2. Mix the butter and sugar until resembles cream
3. Add egg and beat well
4. Add lavender blossoms and flour, mix well
5. Line the baking sheet with wax paper and oil it as well. Using two tablespoons, drop a piece of a rounded dough, flatten it. (I used our icecream scoop for this and mine ended up a bit too big, resulting in 8 cookies, I suggest making small rounds)
6. Bake for 15 – 20 mins, until golden brown. Let it cool on cookie sheets and enjoy!

I have learned these cookies from a Turkish blogger, Sibel of Sibel’in Kahvesi. Since she published them it has been baked by many of us several times and has been a total winner. Whoever I served them for asked for the recipe.

Sibel said that they are reproductions of a famous cafe in Ayvalık, a city on the Western Turkey on Eagean coast. Since I have not had a chance to eat the original ones, I cannot judge how authentic they are but I know for sure that they are great!

These cookies ask for two unusual ingredients: mastic gum and lor cheese:

Mastic gum, resin from the mastic tree grown in particular areas on the Eagean sea coast, adds amazing flavor to these cookies. We usually add it to milk based desserts and always is associated with sweets. Looks like little gems, these are just wonderful in flavor. You will be able to fin them in little jars in Greek or Middle Eastern stores.

The other ingredient in this recipe is lor which is a Turkish cheese quite similar to ricotta or Indian paneer. Original recipes for lor and ricotta call for whey left over from the cheese making but one can make similar cheese by adding yogurt/salt/vinegar to boiling milk and let it curdle. In order to make 400gr (14 oz?) of lor, you need about 2 quarts of milk and one of the ingredients below:

• 1 tsp of white vinegar
• 1 tsp of salt
• 2 – 3 Tbsp kefir
• 1 – 2 Tbsp lemon juice

For the sweet recipes that uses lor, I usually try to use kefir or vinegar only. Sometimes it is so hard to get the milk curdle for some reason. Even though I have given those measurements for the acidic ingredients, I find myself putting more of them for some hard-to curdle milk. Not sure why some are resistant to curdling, if you have any ideas, let me know.

Having said that lor is similar to ricotta, I have never made these cookies with ricotta. I am sure the result will be perfect.

Now comes the recipe for the mastic gum lor cookies. :)

(Makes about 15 – 16 cookies)

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 250 gr lor/ricotta
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs (keep one egg white for brushing the top)
• 1/4 lemon’s juice
• 1 tsp baking soda
• approximately 2 cups of flour
• 2 small pieces of mastic gum
• about a cup of sesame seeds

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F), grease baking sheets
2. Mix the olive oil, lor (or ricotta), sugar and eggs in a bowl. Dissolve bakings soda in lemon juice, and add to the mix along with flour. Stop adding flour until you have a soft but not sticky dough
3. Crush the mastic gum into powder, add to the dough and knead some more
4. Take pieces from the dough, about 2 walnut size, shape them and dip into egg white and then to sesame seeds, put onto greased baking sheets about 5cm (2 inches) apart
5. Bake for about 30 – 35 minutes, until golden brown. It will be soft when you take out of the oven, let it cool before eating.

Enjoy!