Who wants some lavender?

I never knew there were so many recipes using lavender.  I always knew you could cook or bake with certain flowers, but wow.  There's a lot out there.

It was kind of a challenge to find the right lavender recipes to use for Jessica's personal shower.  In the end, I settled on two recipes that I knew I could make.  Lavender pound cake and lavender tea cookies.  Quick bread and sugar cookies have sort of become my two specialties, so I figured I couldn't screw them up too badly.  Thankfully, I was correct.

Lavender Pound Cake

Recipe courtesy of Joys of Lavender

 

Photo courtesy of Healthy Obsessions of a Girly Tomboy

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter or margarine
• 2 cups of sugar
• 5 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbls chopped dried lavender (I ground mine with a motar and pestal)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each egg.
3. Combine dry ingredients.
4. Combine buttermilk and vanilla.
5. Add alternately dry and wet ingredients to creamed butter.
6. Pour into 2 greased and floured 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 5/8 inch loaf pans.
7. Bake for one hour or until tester comes out clean.  Cool on rack for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans and let cool completely.  You can eat as is or you can drizzle your cake with a frosting.

This was easily my favorite food item from the shower.  I think it would be great as well without the lavender and served with strawberries and Cool Whip.

Lavender Tea Cookies

Recipe courtesy of What's Cooking America

 

Ingredients:

Cookies

• 1 tsp dried culinary lavender flowers
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp lemon extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp salt

Lavender Frosting

• 1 cup powdered (confectioners') sugar
• 2 Tbls dried culinary lavender flowers
• 2 Tbls milk
• 2 tsp light corn syrup

Directions:

Cookies

1. Grind lavender flowers with a mortar and pestle.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together ground lavender flowers, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon extract.  Add flour and salt; mix until combined (dough should be soft but not sticky.)  Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours or until dough is firm.
3. Prepare lavender frosting; set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.   Remove dough from refrigerator.
5. On a lightly-floured surface, roll dough approximately 1/4-inch thick with your rolling pin.  Cut into desired shapes with your favorite cookie cutters and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.   (I use powdered sugar to "flour" my rolling surface.)
6. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges.  Remove from oven and cool on wire cooling racks.  When cool, frost with lavender frosting.

Lavender Frosting

1. In a small plastic bag, combine powdered sugar and dried lavender flowers.  Let stand at least one day before using.  When ready to use, sift the mixture into a medium-size bowl; discarding lavender flowers.
2. Add milk and corn syrup, mixing well.  NOTE: Additional powdered sugar or milk may need to be added (enough milk to make frosting easy to spread).  Spread on baked, cooled cookies.

I wasn't a huge fan of this cookie.  However a couple of people asked me for the recipe, so it can't be too bad, right?!  Don't get me wrong, the cookies were good.  They just had a little more of an "earthy" taste to them than the lavender pound cake did.

As you can see from the photo above, I let a few of them bake a little too long.  I think it was because the dough was warm.  I would suggest keeping it in the fridge until you're ready to bake them.  Go ahead and roll and cut out the cookies, but slide the baking sheet in the fridge while you're waiting to put them in the oven.

I also have to point out the cookie on the top of the plate.  Some of the cookies weren't exactly smooth on top and the frosting pulled away a little bit.  When I checked them in the morning, I found this little guy.  How awesome is that cute little heart within a heart within a heart??  I ran into the bedroom with the cookie to show my husband.  He just looked at me like I had lost my mind.  I still think it was pretty awesome.  :)