I’ve only recently gotten into wild foods for cooking and baking but I am love with this branch of herbal art/creation. It is such a satisfying feeling to know that I can make delicious food from plants that grow in my own yard or in the fields behind my home. Last year when the lilacs flowered I made lilac syrup (oh so good and definitely worth a look see) but this year I decided to try my hand at lilac blossom sugar cookies. After Monkey gobbled up two, my neighbour gave them the thumbs up and my husband went “Mmmmmm” I decided they must be good enough to post.
Growing up in Canada I was no stranger to Anne of Green Gables, both the books and the films. As I was making these cookies the image of Anne sitting down with Marilla enjoying these cookies with a glass of raspberry cordial popped into my mind. What a delightful thought! Something about the smell and flavour of lilacs makes me think of afternoon tea, fancy luncheons (the ones with the tiny sandwiches) or small communities (like Anne’s) enjoying a meal together.
But I digress….
Unlike the lilac syrup, the flavour of the blossoms is more subtle in this recipe. Not overwhelming or powerful, but instead pleasant and slightly fragrant. The pairing of lilac with vanilla was truly lovely, but I imagine this recipe would also work with lemon extract or lemon zest replacing the vanilla. In fact if you like the pairing of lilac and lemon wander on over to Nitty Gritty Life and check out her recipes for lilac meringues with lemon curd. I know it’s not a word but…. nom.
Experimenting with Substitutions
As I mentioned above try mixing it up a little! Substitute lemon zest or lemon extract for the vanilla. Also, if you are not a fan of coconut or are allergic, this recipe works just as well with butter (ideally organic grass fed). As for sugar substitutes, I do not have any. If you experiment and have some success substituting for honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar etc. please comment below and let me know. And finally free free to use your regular old all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour as well… I’m just on a spelt kick 😉
A Note About Harvesting Locations
I have a beautiful lilac bush in my backyard far from the road. We also don’t spray anything nor use any chemicals at all. I feel very comfortable harvesting my flowers from them and I don’t feel any need to rinse/wash them. However if you are harvesting close to a dusty road, busy intersection etc. you may want to rinse and dry off your blossoms before using them. If you are harvesting anywhere near a pollution source I recommend not using them at all as even a good rinse won’t help get chemicals off (or out of) plants.
Okay so we got onto the recipe. Now I have to add a bit of a disclaimer here… these are not healthy. They are most definitely a sugar cookie and a treat, but they are delicious and worth making a batch. You could try reducing the sugar in the recipe a bit but I have not experimented with that so I’m uncertain how they would turn out.
- 2-1/4 cup spelt flour using all-purpose or whole wheat as substitutes
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground sea salt regular salt works too
- 1 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup cup organic cane sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups lilac blossoms
- Remove the blossoms from the stem until it measures approximately 2 cups worth. Roughly chop them into smaller pieces.
- Cream your coconut oil using a stand mixer or some good old fashioned elbow grease. If you are substituting butter please ensure it is at room temperature and softened.
- Add the blossoms to your mixer and mix well with the coconut oil. Allow these two ingredients to sit while you move onto the next steps (helping the flavours to marry).
- Combine flour, salt, baking soda in a separate bowl and combine well.
- Add the organic cane sugar to the coconut oil and lilac blossoms. Then add egg and vanilla extract and mix well.
- Finally add in your dry ingredients and mix until everything is well incorporated.
- Roll your cookies into balls (about 1 inch in size) and place about one dozen on a cookie sheet. Flatten them with a cup, rolling pin or your hand.
- Place in a preheated oven (325 degrees) and bake for 11-13 minutes. They will be lightly brown on the bottom and around the edges.
- Allow to cool on a cookie rack and enjoy!
For more wild and herbal food recipes you can check out some of my other blog posts:
Thanks for joining me and happy foraging,
P.S. Pin and share often please 😉
This was rad! I had a lot of fun making them. I used lilac sugar instead of normal and they taste pretty good. They’ve got a nice crunch on the edges and bottom that helps balance everything out.
I do have a quick question though. I’ve never done lilac stuff before and the flowers I used I just pulled off the stem (taking as much of the internal green-stem things out as possible) and they have a bit of a bitter after taste. Is there a different way I should harvest the lilac?
The bitter aftertaste is definitely from any green portion of the flower/plant. It is tedious work pulling all the flowers off! Which is why we only make one batch of this yearly. I’ve also heard that some varieties of lilacs are more bitter than others. The ones I’ve used are a very pale purple colour. Not sure if that helps or not!
These are the first lilac related thing I’ve ever made and it turned out pretty great! I mixed some lilac sugar earlier in the week to use instead of normal, it’s pretty good. They’ve got a nice crunch that isn’t over powering.
I do have a question though. The blossoms I used I simply pulled off the stem (taking out as much internal green as possible) and they had a kind of bitter aftertaste. Is there a different or better way I can pick/clip the blossoms?