Chamomile Lemon Honey Cookies
The thought of having to go back to work full time as a network engineer fills me with anxiety and dread. I carry a lot of anxiety around letting people down. That always impacted my confidence as an engineer. I was always worried that the upgrade would fail or something else would happen and then the client would be upset. This lead to lots of late nights with visceral stomach reactions. They say the body keeps score and I can tell you that mind does. I seldom tried deep breathing and for the longest time I didn’t know that was a thing. I’m only now learning that that can help to reset your fight or flight reactions, by helping engage the parasympathetic nervous system which helps calm the body.
Some people like tea to calm themselves down. I’m more of a coffee person and maybe that’s part of the problem. They say Chamomile is one of the more calming teas. It has a light taste. This is a giant pain when trying use it to flavor something, let me tell you. I brewed 4 different strengths and they barely moved the flavor needle. After adding in the loose tea that helped a bit. My wife had to remind me that they were well flavored since Chamomile is a light gentle flavor. The lemon and honey add additional flavor and sweetness to balance and round out the cookie (no pun intended).
The actual cookie part is based off of a snickerdoodle. They have a wonderful chew while remaining moist. If stored in an air tight container they will keep their chew for a while. If they lose it before you’re able to eat all of them you can always add a single slice of bread to the container. The cookies will pull the moisture from the slice of bread and regain their chew.
No that I’ve rambled enough let’s tie this all together. When it’s 1 am and you’re up handling your change controls, or the latest outage, no one is awake, or calm enough, to make a cup of tea. What better way to get the calming aspect of a cup of Chamomile tea than one of these cookies. If you do make the cup of tea the cookies will pair wonderfully with it.
Mental health tip: Remind yourself no one is going to die. People may be upset. Outages happen. Take 4 deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. This will help engage your parasympathetic nervous system and start to calm you down. Once calm and clear, tackle the issue.
Ingredients
1 Cup unsalted Butter
1 1/4 Cup granulated Sugar
1/4 Cup honey
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons loose Chamomile tea
2 3/4 Cup all purpose flour
zest of one lemon
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Cream the butter, sugar, and honey until smooth
Add the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla and mix in
In a separate bowl combine the cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, tea, and flour
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet in two batches. Don’t forget to scrape down the sites of the bowl a few times
Using a 1 1/2 Tablespoon scoop, scoop the cookies onto a baking sheet
Bake for 9 minutes
Cool on the pan for 3 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling
