Potpourri Cookies and The Leftovers Club

Ever since my days at sleep away camp, getting mail has been one of the highlights of my day. Especially packages.  I’ll never forget one of my first weeks at college when I went down to the student center and found that I had two packages: chocolate chip cookies from one of my grandmothers and brownies from the other.  Both tasted as fresh as if they’d just been baked.  It turns out that baked goods are more resilient than you might think.  Of course not wanting to gain the dreaded freshman fifteen, I found the willpower to not eat the entirety of both packages and instead share them with my new friends.

In the spirit of not eating the entire batch of sweets and proving the resiliency of baked goods, I recently joined The Leftovers Club.  The Leftovers Club is a group of about 20 bloggers all across the country who are paired up each month to share a homemade treat with a new friend.  For my first month in the club, my partner was Danielle from Dining with Dani.  One of the first things I found out about her is that she is also the proud owner of a pit bull mix, who I learned from stalking her (mouth-watering) blog is named Chase.  Immediately I knew I was going to have to send a two-part treat: cookies for Dani, and spent beer grain dog biscuits for Chase.

I decided to call these “potpourri” cookies after I brought them to my office (the other beneficiary of my desire to not consume the entire batch of everything I bake) and found that I could smell the cookies while sitting several feet away.  And that with the hints of lavender and orange zest, they kind of smelled like the little pillows of herbs that my mom puts in her drawers.

I admit that these are kind of an odd combination and definitely aren’t for everybody, but some of my very favorite cookies are made with unusual ingredients.  The candied ginger was leftover from Courtney’s recent batch of pumpkin beer, the white chocolate chips were originally intended to drizzle on top of a batch of pumpkin spice rice crispy treats that crashed and burned, and the lavender was an impulse buy in need of a good use.  The flavors that come through most consistently in these cookies are the orange and the lavender; the white chocolate chips and the candied ginger are more of a buried treasure providing an occasional sweet or spicy kick.  Overall the flavor is much more subtle than the scent.

Like to bake, but prefer to share?  
Want a surprise on your door step each month?  
Join The Leftovers Club!

“Potpourri Cookies”

White Chocolate Chip Cookies with Lavender, Candied Ginger and Orange Zest

Adapted from this recipe

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp dried lavender flowers
• Juice of one large orange
• Zest of one large Orange
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups of flour
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup chopped candied ginger

1. In a large bowl; cream the butter, sugar & lavender for several minutes.
2. Beat in eggs until smooth, and then add juice, vanilla and orange zest.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flout and baking powder.  Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Fold in white chocolate chips and candied ginger.
5. Spoon slightly-smaller-than-a-golf-ball-sized balls of dough onto a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Johanna