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Lavender


SaladFingers

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Using Andrew Pern's Black Pudding and Foie Gras book to create a dessert.

One of his recipes calls for "60ml lavender flowers".

Why 60 mls? Do you have to blend them or something?

Also, not sure if I'll be able to get fresh lavender. Anyone use a dried alternative to flowers and how much would you use in place of "60ml"?

Thanks

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I use dried lavendar in tea cakes and shortbread. Organic or not, you need to be sure to purchase a culinary grade. It will have been sifted more times to get rid of excess twigs and bits. I find less is more. 1/3 would be a good place to start.

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Orison Swett Marden

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20 gms is a lot of lavender. I use 5 gms in a lemon/lavender scone recipe and that is certainly sufficient. Any more and you get a soapy flavor.

As noted above, less is more, or more than enough. Dried lavender flowers weigh much less than the fresh. When I have dried my own (French and Spanish lavender) the dried weight is a tenth of the fresh weight.

This site has a recipe that indicates one teaspoon of the dried lavender. That is about the amount that I have used to good effect.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Using Andrew Pern's Black Pudding and Foie Gras book to create a dessert.

One of his recipes calls for "60ml lavender flowers".

Why 60 mls? Do you have to blend them or something?

Also, not sure if I'll be able to get fresh lavender. Anyone use a dried alternative to flowers and how much would you use in place of "60ml"?

Okay, so if I were to use dried lavender flowers in my shortbread, would 20g Flowers to 375g flour, 225g butter and 110g sugar sound about right or does that sound excessive?

20 gms is a lot of lavender. I use 5 gms in a lemon/lavender scone recipe and that is certainly sufficient. Any more and you get a soapy flavor. ...

60 ml is a ghastly measurement. A weight would be much more communicative ...

And it presumes you have exactly the same type of lavender ... when there are quite a few!

20g is way more than 1/3 of 60 ml of flowers ...

Be subtle with lavender - just use the merest trace - like a big pinch (somewhat less than 5g I'd say) in your pound and a half of shortbread. (You can always add more to decorate.)

However, when you have something that tastes like furniture polish (or Andiesenji's soap), you can't get it out. Or out of your mouth.

Aim for "Is that Lavender?" rather than leaving absolutely no doubt whatsoever!

CanadianBakin' said "less is more" - take that to heart!

Incidentally, this week - for readers in England (didn't this thread first appear in UK Cooking?) - right now Lidl should still have some rather nice French Lavender (lavendula stoechas) plants for under £3 each.

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch ... you must first invent the universe." - Carl Sagan

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Okay so my parents apparantly have lavender growing in their garden, which they say I can use.

Hopefully this question will make sense because weighing the stuff probably isn't the way to go. So, how about using this much lavender in my recipe:

lavender.jpg

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Okay so my parents apparantly have lavender growing in their garden, which they say I can use.

Hopefully this question will make sense because weighing the stuff probably isn't the way to go. So, how about using this much lavender in my recipe:

lavender.jpg

That looks to me like an "English" Lavender. Which I think can be "less subtle" in its taste.

But plants vary, and I think the strength even varies with the weather. Being hot and dry at the moment, its probably fairly intense.

I think the very finely chopped fresh flowers from, at most, a couple of sprigs like those shown would be a reasonable starting point for your 700g (1.5 pounds) of other ingredients. It can be VERY strong. Taste a flower on its own to check what you are dealing with.

If you should want it stronger, next time just use more (of the same - now known - stuff) - but do start low! Its better to err on the side of gentleness ...

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch ... you must first invent the universe." - Carl Sagan

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I have eaten a pinch of the lavender flowers - they're really nice though I wouldn't describe it as intense. Think I'll try using a few sprigs like shown in the photo and hope they provide a pleasant undertone. Certainly don't want to over use it. Thanks for your guidance.

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You could also try making a lavender sugar syrup or infusion and add that to recipes, this way it is really easy to modify the flavour. Steep dried lavender in boiling water (like a herbal tea) or boil them up with caster sugar and water for the syrup. Lavender is great with lemonade or blended with bluberries and added to the lemonade or used as a coulis etc

"Experience is something you gain just after you needed it" ....A Wise man

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Also, not sure if I'll be able to get fresh lavender. Anyone use a dried alternative to flowers and how much would you use in place of "60ml"?

Thanks

60 ml is a quarter of a cup. Dried shrink a little, so I'd use about half the volume if I were using dried.

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