How to Make Pansy Topped Shortbread Cookie: A Floral Delight

Name: Pansy Topped Shortbread Cookies
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 11 min
Ingredients: cup unsalted butter ((2 sticks) at room temperature); 1/2 cup granulated sugar; 2 cups all purpose flour; 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste); Optional you could add lemon zest to the dough; 30 Assorted fresh pansies

I am a huge shortbread fan and when I saw these beautiful pansy topped shortbread cookies, I knew I had to make them. They are the perfect for Easter, Mother’s day, Baby or Bridal showers. Special floral cookies using real pansies! Who knew you could use real pansies on cookies like this? Make sure to use homegrown or organically grown pansies to avoid pesticides.

Jump to Recipe

Ingredients

The ingredients are most likely what you have in your cupboard and fridge. They don’t take hardly any time to whip up a batch.

1 cup unsalted butter, (2 sticks) at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste
Optional you could add lemon zest to the dough
Assorted fresh pansies, approximately 30 flowers, Best to use homegrown pansies to avoid pesticides (I just used flowers from the garden center)

How to make shortbread

In your kitchen aid mixing bowl add the butter and sugar and mix until combined. Or you can use your food processor.

Add the flour and extract, mix just until the dough comes together into kind of lumps.

Pull dough out of mixing bowl and place onto a floured surface and bring together into a smooth flat disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 2 hours

Prepare the Pansies

While the dough is refrigerating you can get your Pansies ready. Pull the stems off your pansies. The brighter colored pansies the better they will turn out.

Press the flowers between sheets of paper towel or waxed paper, using heavy books to weigh them down. Let them sit for at least 30 minute or up to several hours. I just did 30 minutes.

Bake Shortbread Cookies and Top with Pansy

Preheat oven to 325

Roll out dough to about 1/4″ in thickness. Using a round cookies cutter measuring 2 1/2″ cut out cookies and place on cookie sheet.

Bake 9-11 minutes. Shortbread cookies do not brown up. These cookies will be pale and soft when they come out of the oven.

Bake shortbread cookies and while they’re hot from the oven, gently place the pressed pansies on top, lightly patting them down so they adhere.

You can experiment using one or more on each cookie. The heat of the cookies will bond the delicate petals to the surface, so don’t press too hard.

Enjoy your Pansy Topped Shortbread Cookie

Sprinkle with granulated sugar if you like. They look so gorgeous! Let the cookies cool completely to firm up. After they’ve cooled they can be stacked on a platter

More Cookie Recipes

Apple Cider Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mini Magic Bar Cookies

Vanilla Meltaway Cookies topped with peaches

Pansy Topped Shortbread Cookie Recipe

Pansy Topped Shortbread Cookies

Buttery shorbread cookies topped with fresh pansies

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword shortbread cookies

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 11

Servings 3 dozen

Ingredients

cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
Optional you could add lemon zest to the dough
30 Assorted fresh pansies approximately 30 flowers, Best to use homegrown pansies to avoid pesticides (I just used flowers from the garden center)

Instructions

Make Shorbread

Put the sugar and soft butter into the bowl of a mixer or food processor and combine completely.
Add the flour and extract, and mix just until the dough comes together into a lump.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and bring together into a smooth flat disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 2 hours.

Prepare Pansies

Remove the stems from the pansies, and place them on a large sheet of paper towels or waxed paper.
Place another sheet on top, and then weigh it down with a baking tray or other large flat surface, topped with several heavy books. Let the pansies press for at least 30 minutes, or overnight if you like.

Bake the cookies and top with pansies

Preheat the oven to 325F
Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out with a cookie cutter.
Use a 2 1/2 inch cutter.
Bake the cookies for 9-11 minutes, depending on thickness. Your cookies will not brown, they will be pale and soft when done.
Remove the tray from the oven and gently press the flat pansies onto the hot cookies, pressing slightly to adhere the flowers to the cookies.
Don’t press too hard, the heat of the cookies will do the job. Sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar.
Let the cookies cool completely on a rack.Note: the cookies will be soft when they come out of the oven, but will firm up as they cool.

Karins Kottage

Welcome to Karins Kottage! There is always something fun going on! You would think after becoming an empty nester couple that our nest would be very quiet and empty but our Kottage nest is usually more full than what we started out with! You might find me hosting a birthday party or graduation party and a baby shower on the same weekend or a big outdoor get together with 25 of our friends and family in the backyard or maybe I might be in the kitchen trying out a new recipe for my hubby and I to grill on the BBQ for a quiet night for the two of us. I am passionate about entertaining and setting a beautiful table! I may or may not have an addiction to cloth napkins and fun salad plates oh and goblets too! I think I will always have a home decorating DIY project in the works as long as my hubby is on board with me haha. We have painted A LOT in the 6 homes we have owned in the 35 years that we have been married as well as re-done multiple pieces of furniture, added wall and ceiling treatments, replaced lights, bathroom fixtures and even tiled floors! I have sewn what seems like a million window treatments for our home as well as for family, made slipcovers, and duvets and even a formal dress or two!

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View Comments

Cindy@CountyRoad407 says:

April 11, 2024 at 5:37 pm

I had no idea you could eat pansies! Love this. Featuring it tomorrow on Farmhouse Friday. Thank you for sharing it with us. pinned
Esme Slabbert says:

April 11, 2024 at 11:12 am

Adding a pansy to these cookies makes them pop.
I visited you via Is This Mutton. My entries are Hot Tasty Zinger Chicken Wraps and Creamy No Bake Vegan and GF Chocolate Cheesecake. Feel free to join SSPS Linkup M-S: https://esmesalon.com/tag/seniorsalonpitstop/
Patty Lake says:

April 4, 2024 at 9:49 pm

Karin, I love these cookies! They are so pretty! I can't wait to make them, but in our part of Texas it has gotten too hot already for the pansies, and the nurseries are no longer carrying them for this year. I have printed your recipe and will put it in my recipe book - I can't wait to make them next year. Thanks so much! Patty
- Karins Kottage says:
  
  April 5, 2024 at 9:26 am
  
  Hi Patty. Wow it is already too hot in Texas for pansies! We lived right outside of Dallas 13 years ago and really enjoyed living there. We lived in Allen where are you? I do remember it getting pretty warm fast there. Here in Utah we are just barely getting spring here. So crazy how different it is all over the country isn't it. I am so glad you are going to keep the recipe to try next year. Let me know how you like it.
  
  Hugs, Karin
Joanne says:

March 26, 2024 at 10:26 am

These are beautiful! Almost too pretty to eat... almost. ;)