I know it’s spring in the garden when chamomile starts to pop up like a weed.
On the one hand, I don’t mind. Chamomile is an attractive flower with small white petals and a vibrant yellow center. It certainly adds some appeal as my vegetable plants take their time to grow and fill in.
Chamomile looks much like a daisy, and that’s because it’s part of the same plant family. Depending on the kind (there’s a German variety and a Roman), chamomile can either grow close to the ground or up to two or three feet tall. I believe I have the German because although it is not a perennial like the Roman, the seeds seem to spread and pop up in unexpected places from year to year as an annual.
On the other hand, I don’t need chamomile flowers everywhere. The plants grow quickly, and before I know it, they’re all blooming at once. Again, I don’t mind that much. But I don’t want the flowers to go to waste, and it’s hard to keep up with picking them all. Each flower has to be picked individually by hand. They easily pop right off the stems, and you get one of the most surprising aromas in the process — sweet apple. It’s why the Greek name chamomile translates to “ground apple” when you break down its original meaning.
If you’re thinking of planting chamomile this year, consider doing so in some large pots. It’s easy to grow and could be mixed in a container with other herbs and flowers.
You could also cut the plant back and harvest the flowers later, which I tend to do. Don’t worry; the plants always seem to keep putting out more stalks and flowers, sometimes indefinitely, until the frost. Either way, after picking, you can dry chamomile in a warm sunny spot over a couple of days. Or if you have a dehydrator, that works, too.
When dried, there are many uses for chamomile, of which steeping for tea is the most obvious. For ages, humans have considered chamomile beneficial for its medicinal properties. We may know it most commonly for its ability to help promote relaxation and sleep, though it’s also considered useful for relieving stomach aches as well. In some parts of the world, you only drink chamomile tea when sick. But here in the United States, it’s a common tea to drink in the evening for many people.
I store the dried flower heads in a jar in my pantry. Personally, I don’t use them often for tea. Not that I couldn’t use an added boost of relaxation, I’m just more of a black or green tea kind of guy. So as I started to see the plants sprouting up again recently, I was reminded that I need to use last year’s supply before it’s time to pick the new flowers.
I wanted to use the appealing apple essence of the flowers to impart flavor into something I would eat in the evening — cookies. I chose shortbread as the cookie of choice because it has a simple flavor, mostly of butter, that would allow the subtle flavor of the chamomile to come through clearly.
Shortbread cookies come from Scotland, and people have baked them for hundreds of years. It’s fitting, then, to pair such an old cookie with an herb that has been used for just as long. I can’t be the first to put the two together.
Shortbread cookies are simple. After all, they’re mostly butter, which is why they have such a crumby texture or, technically, what you’d call a short gluten composition. To really get the flavor of the chamomile to come through, I decided to grind up the flowers and add them right into the batter. I also mixed some in with sugar to top the cookies before baking. I was impressed with the result — buttery apple-flavored cookies that are sweet and crumbly. I’m feeling calmer already.
Chamomile Shortbread Cookies
makes about 2 dozen small cookies
2 sticks butter, softened
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 tablespoons dried and ground chamomile flowers
2 tablespoons sugar
Use a mixer to cream the butter and powdered sugar until combined. At low speed, add the egg yolk, then the flour, salt, vanilla, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the chamomile. Mix just until the dough has combined and it holds together. If the dough is too sticky, add a couple of more tablespoons of flour until it holds.
Divide the dough into two. Shape each into a log about two inches wide. Wrap the logs in plastic and put them in the fridge to firm up for an hour or longer.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Slice the logs into rounds about 1/4 inch thick. Place the cookies directly on two baking sheets, leaving about an inch in between each cookie. If you can’t fit them all, you’ll have to do the rest in another batch.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining tablespoon of chamomile with the sugar. Sprinkle this over the cookies and bake them for about 15 minutes or until the cookies are firm to the touch.
Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to a few days.
May 13, 2021 at 11:00AM
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