Grandma's Soap Cookies

I forgot to take a good picture
I’ve thought for a while that people are too unimaginative with dessert flavorings. A lot of desserts are either chocolate or A Fruit flavored. I love plain fruit but feel like there’s more that can be done here. The herbs in these cookies bring out the delicate flavors of the orange and the olive oil adds a deep, rich flavor that makes them complex and luxe without being heavy. They’re delicious but I will not deny that olive oil, orange, lavender and rosemary together scream old person soap, which is how they got their name. Also goes great with black tea.

¼ cup vegan butter/margarine
3/8 cup olive oil
½ cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 spoonfuls plant milk
Candied orange slices

Flavorings:
Respectably sized splash of vanilla extract
Sprinkle of salt
Zest of 1 orange
Rosemary, chopped
Lavender, Chopped
A LITTLE BIT of thyme

If you’re candying your own orange slices, do that before starting on the cookies so they have time to cool. The recipe I used for mine is here: but if you have one you like better do that.

Preheat your oven to 350° F or 177° C

Cream the butter and sugar together

Add olive oil and vanilla extract, mix thoroughly

Add everything listed under flavorings. You may have noticed that they don’t have listed amounts, besides the orange zest. That’s because I don’t really measure these. Roughly I did an even sprinkling over the entire surface of the sugar mixture of lavender, a smaller sprinkling of rosemary, and a dash of thyme. But follow your heart. And then mix it thoroughly. And smell it, it smells really good.

Start mixing in flour slowly, making sure everything is incorporated, but don’t over-mix.

Once the flour is incorporated, drizzle two spoonfuls of plant milk. The dough should be firm and not sticky, but not crumbly either. A couple cracks are ok, but it should mostly be able to hold itself together in a big ball. It’s ok if it’s a little oily.

Break the big ball into smaller, evenly sized balls, flatten out, and arrange on a baking tray. I think I made like 9 but don’t quote me on that. Put the candied orange slices on top.

Bake for 15ish minutes. They won’t change size or shape much but they should get a little golden brown. Then pull out of the oven, cool, and voila.

Have you made this? Share it with me! goatpath@proton.me