Yarrow is one of our absolute favorite plants. We love it for its medicinal attributes and functions in the garden ecosystem, and lately we've been working with it as a culinary herb.
Like other bitter aromatic herbs such as rosemary, sage, and thyme, yarrow can be added to soups, teas, spice blends, ferments, vinegars and oxymels, and worked with in so many ways. A recent way we've been having fun with yarrow is as a garnish on shortbread cookies. We can't claim this to be the healthiest way to work with yarrow, but they were delicious. We made these cookies several times this winter and they were a big hit!
Below is a base recipe that you can experiment with.
Yarrow Shortbread Cookies
2 cups of flour
2 sticks of salted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
zest of 1-2 lemons
little bit of almond extract
yarrow leaves (Achillea millefolium, the Texas native kind that has white flowers)
Optional: for extra flair, we like adding pressed edible flowers from our garden (like cosmos), and various powdered herbs for color and flavor (like fennel powder, beet powder, rose powder).
Preheat oven to 325F.
Cream together butter and sugar.
Add lemon zest (and a few tablespoons of powders if you want)
Add flours and combine.
Roll out the dough to about an inch thick.
Add yarrow leaves, pressed flowers, and any other decorative elements
Roll a few more times to press the leaves and flowers into the dough.
Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter. We just use the bottom of a tin can.
Bake until the edges are browned. About 10 minutes or so.
Enjoy as an after-dinner treat. Yum. Share with others so you don't eat the whole batch yourself. :)
