sugar and spice.

Since I was a little girl, I've always enjoyed baking and am always excited to try out new recipes.

So--naturally--when I stumbled upon this unusual Scandinavian cookie recipe, I had to try it out. 

It contains the standard ingredients of most other cookies: baking soda, salt, flour, sugar, shortening, and... wait. Is that rosemary? Why yes, yes it is. Now you're probably thinking, "Is this bitch crazy?" Truth be told, an herb as strong as rosemary would be the last thing I'd ever think to include in a cookie, much less any other dessert. But you'd be amazed by just how damn delicious these things are. Not to mention, they're surprisingly easy to make.

First, I creamed 1/2 c. shortening, 1/4 c. butter, and 3/4 c. sugar together in a bowl. This is a pretty standard first step in just about any cookie recipe you'll find. 

Next, I beat in one egg and added 1/4 c. locally cultivated honey (straight out of the backyard of a family friend) and 1 T. lemon juice. So far so good, right? This is where it starts getting a little strange.

Moving onto another bowl... I mixed 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg, and--yep--2 tsp. dried, crushed rosemary and slowly added it to the creamed mixture in bowl #1.

Now, I'm the kind of person who enjoys a small, two-bite kind of cookie. That way, if it turns out to be a really rich recipe, it's not overwhelming. And if it's not too rich, well... then it's just an excuse to eat more cookies. My point is, I generally make smaller spoonfuls which in turn usually yields more cookies than the recipe says. So I greased up a couple of cookie sheets and baked these bad boys at 325° for about 14 minutes.

This was the final result.

And might I say, they were damn good. They were almost like a snickerdoodle with a slight honey and herbal taste. Paired perfectly with a cup of Tazo Zen tea. This is definitely one for the archive.

I guess the moral of the story here is don't knock it 'til you try it.

Just because it sounds weird doesn't mean it won't be absolutely delicious!