Four Tasty Herbal Dessert Recipes

If you have a sweet tooth, you’ve come to the right place! We’ve compiled some of our favourite herbal dessert recipes that we’ve discovered on plant-based food blogs. So now you can include goodness from mother earth while you indulge, it’s a win win! It you make any, make sure to tag us in the photos!

Shop zero-waste this season & visit your local apothecaries, bulk stores, and co-ops! Buying locally helps your community and buying in bulk reduces your waste.

1. Yummy Fragrant Lemon Balm Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (or alternative) softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs (or flax/chia egg can work)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh lemon balm (or 1 teaspoon dried)
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon oil
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream the butter and sugar.
3. Add the eggs, chopped lemon balm, and lemon oil. Mix well.
4. Slowly add in flour, baking powder, and sea salt.
5. Drop by the teaspoon onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

2. Rose Drop Scones

This drop scones recipe is a bit more exotic than your everyday scone as they’re drizzled with a rose icing. You can opt for a more traditional option if you’d prefer, and serve with a very lightly whipped cream and rose petal jelly as accompaniments. 

Makes around 2 dozen scones

• 2 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 to 3 pinches cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup shelled pistachios, lightly toasted and coarsely ground
• 1 cup heavy cream or half-and-half
• 1 teaspoon rose water
• A generous handful of rose petals
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon rose jelly or 1 tablespoon red currant jelly mixed with about 1 teaspoon rose water
• 2 to 3 teaspoons water
  
  

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and blend thoroughly. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in butter until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Stir in pistachios.
2. Stir cream together with rose water. Rinse rose petals and pat dry. Cut into a chiffonade (thin ribbon-like shreds); there should be about 2 tablespoons. Stir cut rose petals into cream and add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Stir to form a soft dough.
3. Drop the dough by the heaping tablespoonful onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake scones for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Prepare the icing while the scones are baking. Combine confectioner’s sugar, jelly and 2 teaspoons water in a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Add another teaspoon water if icing seems too thick–it will melt a little if the scones are warm.
4. Remove scones to a baking rack to cool slightly before drizzling with icing. They are best served warm, right after baking.
5. If you want to prepare them in advance, cool them completely without icing and store them in an airtight container. Wrap them in foil and gently reheat in a 325-degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Drizzle the icing over them while they are warm.

3. Seed Cookies with Citrus flavored Herbs 

They’re poppy seed cookies, sesame seed cookies and flax seed cookies, all rolled into one. I first created this recipe using mint and orange zest. However, it also works really well with lemon balm or lemon verbena and lemon zest. These good-for-you cookies are full of flavor; the recipe can be halved easily. I make a big batch and freeze some to have on hand. My kids refer to these as birdseed cookies. 

Ingredients:

Makes about 7 dozen cookies

• 3 sticks unsalted butter (1 1/2 cups), softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon orange or lemon oil, optional
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons orange or lemon zest
• 1/2 cup packed orange mint or lemon balm leaves, or 1/3 cup lemon verbena leaves, minced fine
• 2 cups unbleached flour
• 1 cup white or whole-wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup flax seeds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly butter two baking sheets.
2. In a large bowl, food processor or mixer, beat butter with white and brown sugars until blended and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add citrus oil, vanilla, zest and herbs and blend well.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the flours, salt, baking soda, oats and seeds. Add dry ingredients all at once to the wet and blend well.
4. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonsful onto baking sheets at least 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown on the edges, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from baking sheets and cool on baking racks. Store in a tightly covered container.

4. Chewy Chocolate Cookie Recipe with Rosemary, Pine Nuts and Dried Cherries

These unique chewy chocolate cookies, rich in chocolate, are described to have ‘resinous overtones of rosemary, echoed by the pine and nutty flavors of pine nuts, and subtly teased by the tart/sour/sweet of the dried cherries’ which we love the sound of! The basic chewy chocolate cookie recipe (without the herbs, nuts and fruits) was inspired by the “911 Chocolate Emergency Cookies” in Diane Mott Davidson’s Dying for Chocolate (Bantam Books, 1992). These will freeze well, just incase you don’t get through them all in one sitting!

Ingredients: 

Makes about 5 dozen 1 ½ inch cookies

• 12 ounces semisweet, bittersweet or a combination of good-quality chocolate
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups packed dark-brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 4 extra-large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 generous tablespoons fresh minced rosemary
• 3/4 cup pine nuts
• 1 cup coarsely chopped dried cherries

 Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter 2 baking sheets
2. Break the chocolate into pieces. In a double boiler or the microwave, melt the chocolate with 4 tablespoons of butter, stir and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat 8 tablespoons of softened butter with brown and white sugars. Continue beating and add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and melted chocolate and mix until combined. Stir in flour mixture, rosemary, pine nuts and dried cherries, and mix until blended.
4. The dough can be covered and refrigerated at this point for up to a few hours, or the cookies can be baked immediately. Drop the cookies by the heaping teaspoon onto the baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake in a hot oven for about 8 to 10 minutes, changing baking positions halfway through the baking. The cookies should puff a little and flatten. Do not overbake them–they will firm up as they cool. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes and then remove onto racks to cool. Store these rosemary cookies in airtight containers for a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. 

These recipes are courtesy of Susan Belsinger via Mother Earth Living. Susan Belsinger is the author of Not Just Desserts: Sweet Herbal Recipes (Paul’s Printing, 2005).