Earl Grey Tea Cookies

Been on a bit of a baking marathon for Chinese New Year. Unfortunately I haven't had time to post them yet but hopefully will get to them soon. These are not particularly festive but I wanted to try them out. The cookies were really soft and crumbly with a nice savoury taste. I made them 3 times recently - once without lemon zest. I personally prefer it with the lemon zest as I think it complements the flavour really well. These cookies are really simple to make and taste amazing. The best part is that they can be made in advance and kept in the freezer. You can then bake them whenever you need. Ideal for unexpected guests and perfect with a nice cup of tea.

Dough that has been frozen for 30 minutes

Sliced and ready to bake. When I was shaping the dough I thought it would be square (not sure why) but clearly they're not! I do quite like the shape especially since you can have Jenga cookies :)

 
Earl Grey Tea Cookies
2 cups flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons of Earl Grey tea leaves (approximately 4-6 teabags, depending on size)
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon water
250g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (I used salted butter once and it made the cookies quite salty)
Zest of 1 small lemon
 

• Heat oven to 190C
• Place all dry ingredients in a food processor and mix thoroughly
• Add the vanilla, 1 teaspoon water and the butter and pulse together until a dough is formed
• Roll the dough into a log, rectangle, square (I'm clearly not very good at shapes)
• Wrap with clingfim and chill for 30 minutes (approx 15 mins in the freezer)
• Slice the dough and place on a baking sheet leaving a little gap between them
• Bake until the edges are just brown, about 15 minutes (slightly longer if baked straight from the freezer)
• Leave the cookies to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely