Black pepper cumin lemon shortbread

Cumin-Black Pepper-Lemon shortbread

These are all my all time favorite cookies. I only make them when I expect company or else I finish all of them myself. The butter trips up the cumin and the pepper and the lemon and vanilla bring up the after notes and enhance the salty sweet taste. Also they are insanely simple

Recipe adapted (very slightly) from NYT recipe below

Heat oven to 350 F

In a food processor, add 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 stick unsalted butter cut into pieces, 3 tbsp sugar, ½ tsp cracked tasted cumin seeds, ½ tsp cracked toasted whole peppercorns, ½ tsp vanilla, ½ tsp kosher salt, grated zest of one lemon (1 tsp)

Whiz till mixture still crumbly but hold together when you squeeze it.

Dump out of food processor and shape into a rectangle. Either roll into 2 one inch diameter logs, refrigerate and slice into 16 cookies per log or divide rectangle to 16s and then into 32 and roll the cookies and flatten with your palm

Bake for 15-20 minutes till barely golden brown.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1088-pepper-cumin-cookies