We’ve written about our love for the home garden before.  Naturally then, when a friend shared these pictures of  garden-flower pressed, short bread cookies, the idea resonated  and  had to be  passed on.

These flower pressed, short bread cookies were baked by Priti who spoke to us:

Could you share the recipe for these flower pressed, shortbread cookies? I got the recipe from this site: Joy of Baking
Shortbread cookies are versatile and can be customised to your liking . The flowers and herbs were carefully pressed on to the cookies just before I baked them by using an egg wash. You could also forego the egg wash if you like.

Why did you use fresh flowers to decorate these shortbread cookies? I am an artist and also a passionate gardener, a ‘plantoholic’ actually! I get immense joy from the beauty of the plants and flowers in my garden– this naturally found its way into another passion of mine, baking .

What are the health  benefits of some of the plants you’ve used?For these cookies I used edible flowers that were in bloom in my garden– The Rose , The Asian Pigeon Wing flower and the Sri Lankan Tagar Jasmine.  I also used herbs like mint , rosemary and thyme. What I like  about these cookies is that they don’t only look pleasing,  but the unique combinations of herbs and flowers used on them add distinct  flavours to each cookie. The flowers I used also have medicinal benefits. Rose has mild antiseptic and anti inflammatory properties, the Asian Pigeon wing (Shankapushpam) is known to calm nerves and help you relax  and the Srilankan Tagar is known to have antimicrobial properties .

Images: Priti

Image on Banner: Samerah Mathai