Cooking with Lavender

The sun is shining and Spring is finally in the air! It makes me think of my garden and how things will soon be starting to grow and flower. My heathers and lavenders have survived the harsh Winter very well indeed! I do love the smell of Lavender and take advantage of it’s many uses. Cooking is one of my personal favourites.

Lavender is an herb that is not seen in the average kitchen.  However, fresh lavender flowers are excellent additions to sweet and savoury products and salads. The entire stalk of lavender with leaves and flowers can be used to infuse vinegar, oil, and sugar.

• Lavender is a member of the mint family and can be used similarly rosemary, sage, and thyme.
• English Lavender has the sweetest fragrance of all the lavenders and is the one most commonly used in cooking.
• The lavender flowers add a beautiful colour and texture to salads.
• Lavender can also be substituted for rosemary in many bread recipes.
• Create lavender sugar by adding buds to sugar and tightly sealing for a couple of weeks.  Then use the sugar in your normal cake and dessert recipes.
• Thread strawberries and marshmallows on to used lavender stems for before grilling on the BBQ.
• Lavender flowers look beautiful and taste great as a decoration on cakes and chocolates.

 

Honey Lavender Butter

100gm softened butter
10gm of dried lavender (bruised or chopped)
4 tsp. honey

Mix together and enjoy!

Lavender Herb Butter

100gm softened butter
10gm. fresh chives
10gm dried lavender.

10gm fresh parsley

Mix together and serve with fish or new potatoes
Lavender Sugar Recipe
30 gm dried lavender flowers
200gm White sugar or raw sugar
Red and blue food colouring (optional)
Jar with a tight fitting lid
Muslin fabric

Place lavender flowers in a length of muslin and wrap securely. Place lavender packet in a jar and cover with sugar. Seal the jar and set it aside for two weeks, shaking it occasionally. After two weeks, the aroma of the lavender will have permeated the sugar, and the lavender packet can be discarded.

If you would like to colour the sugar, create a shade of lavender you like using red and blue food colouring.

Once mixed, add the colouring slowly to the lavender sugar, stirring well to incorporate. Place the slightly moist sugar mixture on a baking sheet and dry in a low oven or the airing cupboard.

Lavender and Lemon Curd

• 50gm of real butter
• 125 gm white sugar
• 2 lemons, rind & juice up to 1/2 cup
• 4 well beaten eggs
• pinch of salt
• 1 TBSP dried lavender flowers or 3 TBSP fresh

Use a double boiler; bring water underneath to a boil then lower to simmer.
Place butter & sugar first in the top pot to melt together, and then add the rest of the ingredients.
Whisk gently until smooth and thickened.
Pour through a sieve over a heat proof bowl then spoon into two clean jam jars and cool. Keep refrigerated…about a week if you are lucky!

Lavender Honey

200gm Light Honey (such as clover honey)
60 gm of Dried Lavender buds

Heat honey in double boiler till fully heated add lavender and stir
Continue over heat for 30 minutes

Remove from heat and allow to partially cool
Strain out lavender
Put honey in jar

 

Lavender Cookies 

75gm butter, softened
50gm cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoonful dried lavender flowers
150gm self-rising flour

Preheat oven to 350 deg. Grease two baking sheets.
Cream the butter and the sugar together,
and then stir in the beaten egg.
Mix in flowers and the flour.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheets.
Bake about 15-20 minutes, until the cookies are golden.