Lavender

[chocklateer]

At work, we have a patch of lavender in bloom. I would like to use it in a dessert special. I thought maybe a cheesecake but I'm not sure as to how to infuse the flavour into the base and how much to use so it's not overpowering. I am also open to other ideas/recipes. Does anyone have a favourite recipe or use of Lavender in dessert making ?

D.

[SKinCA]

Lavender Cookbook

The above is a good lavender cookbook. In the interest of full disclosure, this is written by a caterer that I frequently work for named Sharon Shipley.

One thing I do know about lavender is that not all lavender is culinary lavender! There are many different varieties and you need to be sure that the patch growing outside is the right type.

The wrong type won't kill you - nothing that severe! - but is will not taste nummy!

Good luck! Sharon's got some great recipes and I think you'll enjoy the book. If you want to browse it before buying, try Barnes and Noble or any of the big book chains - I think it's in most of them.

[JSD]

One thing I do know about lavender is that not all lavender is culinary lavender! There are many different varieties and you need to be sure that the patch growing outside is the right type.

Which ones are the culinary varieties?

[nightscotsman]

I think English lavender works well in cooking. It tends to grow large with long flower stems. You want to pick the flowers when they are still in the bud stage - just at the point when the start showing color. If you pick them in full bloom a lot of the fragrance and flavor will have been lost already.

I like lavender with honey (honey lavender ice cream is a classic), dark chocolate, peaches, and sour cherries.

You might also check out these previous threads on cooking with lavender here and here.

As for the cheesecake idea, I would start with a reliable recipe that includes some liquid like cream. Infuse maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons of buds in the heated cream and let steep for half an hour. Strain, remeasure, and use in the recipe.

[carswell]

In desserts, I use the fresh flowers for garnishing and the dried flowers, which can be bought in most health food stores, for cooking. I don't see why you couldn't use the fresh flowers for cooking, however. Lavender-infused crème brûlée is a delicious way to end a meal, especially one that has featured Provençal dishes. A great light dessert, especially in early winter when the clementines are at their best, is to heat some honey in a saucepan, add dried lavender flowers and set aside to infuse for 30 minutes or so. Strain and drizzle over peeled, sliced clementines. Decorate with fresh lavender flowers if you have them.

The flowers can also be used for tea, either alone or in combination with herbs (lemon verbena, for example) or black teas.

I sometimes use the leaves in a dry rub for meat: chop a mixture of 3 parts fresh rosemary leaves, 3 parts fresh thyme leaves and 1 part fresh lavender leaves and rub on the meat before barbecuing, broiling or roasting. This works especially well with lamb. The same herb mixture plus crushed garlic, lemon juice and soy sauce makes a fine marinade for a barbecued butterflied leg of lamb.

As others have pointed out, it's important to have a light hand with lavender. A little goes a long way and, as I learned the first time I used some leaves from my plant, the results can be close to inedible if you overdo it

[tan319]

Neil, et al...

I would be VERY careful with amounts of Lavender used in a recipe.

I had an assistant once at a restaurant I was at who decided to do a special ( on my day off) based around a polenta cake, a citrus compote and lavender ice cream.

I came in the next day and tasted the ice cream and it was like a creamy mouthful of Caswell & Massey soap!

An interesting idea could be to throw some Lavender into a good amount of sugar in a container and allow it to perfume it for a few days.

The amount of Lavender that was used in that ice cream was about a quarter cup, it was too much.

Edited July 20, 2004 by tan319 (log)

[Abra]

I make lavender ice cream, using the infusion method. Make a basic French Vanilla recipe, and set 3-4 sprigs of lavender into the hot base, then chill overnight. You can put some chopped flowers into the ice cream as it freezes, but I don't like the texture myselkf, and prefer to go with just the infused flavor.

[evilhomer]

i'm not sure if its the quantity or variety or what - but oftentimes (generally with dried) i find it ends up soapy tasting. I've had great succes mixing lavender and blueberries as a jam or just a quick warm sauce to spoon over ice cream or beside mild creamy cheeses (we have a sheeps milk one made here in ontario called ramembert that works very well with the blueberries and lavender).

I have also been served a lavender margerita which was delicious but I have not yet been terribly succesful in concocting it at home. The woman who served it to me though often kept lavender water in her fridge for sipping and this was quite good on it's own or with a slight splash of pastis.

[eem]

Lavender tastes great in pots de creme and ganache for truffles or

infused in whipped cream to put on fruit.

I sell chocolates at a farmer's market Portland, OR and I feel fortunate to have

as one of my neighbors a lavender grower. I get hidcote and grosso lavender

from himand make ganache for truffles using one or the other to give my customers

some subtle variety every now and then. I just got another variety called

Royal Velvet that I haven't yet used.This grower makes fruit jams perfumed

with his lavender.

I agree with tan319, a tiny amount goes such a long way. Especially the grosso,

which I'm extra careful how long it's infused. You might just want to keep tasting

it as it infuses while testing infusing times and temperatures. Speaking of the

strength, even a mild lavender flavor carries through nicely with an equal

or slightly higher amount of a 70% bittersweet.

And keeping in mind, people seem to taste lavender differently. I have heard

about some peoples taste buds being more sensitive than others. Lavender is

one of those flavors that I've gotten the widest spectrum of comments on

(WHILE using the same recipe) like: "I just can't taste the lavender" to

"It's too strong" and occasionally one of my customers (a lavender freak)

orders an extra extra strong batch of grosso lavender truffles, something

I'm always resistant to until she assures me that this is what she REALLY WANTS.

And thank God noone ever says it tastes like soap, (at least not to my face)

I believe I'm not overdoing it, I make a subtle lavender infusion and am content

to make it to my own taste.

Sorry about the spacing.....I'm not sure how to make the posted reply resemble the posting/editing window.

Edited July 20, 2004 by eem (log)

[duckduck]

It never tastes like soap and even though the flavor is strong, it's not overpowering, even to someone sensitive like me. Elizabeth's chocolates rock! I didn't think I liked lavender until I tried her stuff.

[eem]

Thank you duckduck

[johnny70]

we make a very light honey and lavender panna cotta, for a 2pt mix use 1tbs of dried lavender flowers, infuse and then strain out, gets a real nicely flavour panna cotta this way, serve with some burnt honey ice cream and a blueberry compote.

Regards

JOHNNY

[petite tête de chou]

My mother loves lavender! She has made raspberry lemonade scented with lavender (sometimes she used rose petals instead). She also makes lemon sorbet, again, only scented with the lavender. It IS such a strong (and wonderful) herb that often by merely scenting the dish with it, one can taste it.

Her mother would wrap lavender wands around bars of bittersweet chocolate tied with twine and give them to me when I would visit. Odd combo to some, but chocolate, lavender and lemons signal summers arrival to me.

[Bicycle Lee]

I second the creme brulee....and creme anglaise

I like lavender infused honey...but in savory applications...

scenting sugar with it for use in baking is nice too...

[alacarte]

Add it to a basic quartre quarts pound cake recipe -- add it with the wet ingredients.

[Bond Girl]

Use the tiniest amount on your first try. I made the same mistake of using too much on the first try and it tasteed awful.

[Abra]

I just did a lavender-blueberry jam - now there's a heavenly flavor combination!

[cupcake250]

do you ever make homemade molded chocolates.?? i have used lavendar on top of molded chocolates and also when i made petit-fours..i used a TINY sprig on top..there was a great article on epicurious.com where they taught you how to make them...very similar to a class i took..it looks beautiful...

good luck...

I also made homemade ice-cream...sssh with the help of an ice cream maker and put some lavender in it..it was delish...i think it was lavender peach? but you could do anything..and i did it for a dinner party and put a little sprig on top of each scoop...

Edited July 22, 2004 by cupcake250 (log)

[chocklateer]

Thanks everyone for your advice and ideas! I like the honey lavender panna cotta idea especially. I think I will experiement on a small scale first to understand the potency and flavour of the Lavender that grows at work. I'm wondering if anyone has any comments or experience with combining the flavour of Lavender with blackberries? I'm thinking a blackberry compote to go with the panna cotta as the blackberries right now are yummy!

Thanks again

D.

[melmck]

I love lavender with peaches, nectarines, and blue & blackberries. I frequently make syrup infusions because they last, and put lavender in preserves all the time. Also I love it with lemon. sorbet teacakes poundcakes you name it. ( I think rose water and orange water taste more like Jergens than lav.) also honey combos, porkloin, even BBQ sauce! Just becareful if you have sensitive skin and get CONTACT DERMATITIS. It is not fun.

[Redsugar]

I've been looking through my journal, and over the past 7 or 8 years I've made numerous recipes using lavender. One contributor to this thread mentioned her mother having used lavender to flavour a raspberry lemonade; I also have enjoyed that delightful combination! I prepared a Lavender Syrup by steeping 2 Tbsps fresh blossoms (I grow English lavender plants near my herb garden each summer) in a simple syrup for about 25 minutes. Strain, chill and use to sweeten ice tea as well. Altenatively, one could use lavender sugar in pound cakes, and berry muffins.

Additonally, I've baked Lavender-Almond Tuiles and Madeleines à la Lavande (the latter of which sparks the notion that you ought to try scenting a génoise batter w/ lavender, as that is the traditional base for the tea cakes).

Furthermore, you'll experience a heavenly taste in soaking just-cooked crèpes in a hot Lavender-Orange Sauce (spiked w/ Cointreau).

Also: Blueberries & Raspberries in Lavender Cream (from Susan Belsinger's "Cooking with Flowers"). Crème Glacée au miel de Lavande (from Robert Carrier’s "Feasts of Provence"). And, did you know that Lavender Crème Brûlée, although thought of as French, is actually Creole in origin? Such an elegant dessert! Finally, I've used the dried blossoms in shortbread.

BTW, English lavender (Lavandla angustifolia, aka 'Vera') is the most common of the two dozen lavender varieties. Its aroma is sweeter and more delicate than that of spike lavender, also called Spanish or Portuguese lavender. Spike lavender is primarily grown commercially for the perfume and soap industries to extend the more costly Engl. variety. As a culinary herb, lavender flowers and leaves may be used to flavour honey, vinegar, pork, lamb, game, jellies, cookies, and fruit. They also impart a distinct component element to Herbs de Provence.

[KatieLoeb]

A lightly Lavender infused vodka makes a spectacular Cosmo, particularly when the tiniest splashes of cranberry juice and Blue Curacao are used to make the drink lavendar in color as well as flavor. Looks pretty with an edible flower as garnish.

[bakerboy]

A lavender/pear bavarian wrapped in a almond joconde and drizzled with a little honey is something we do thats always well recieved. Have to agree with tan319 and bondgirl, use a little less than ya think. Too much lavender and the whole thing tastes like a creamy pot pourri nightmare.

[Tengrain]

With lavender, I have made ice cream, creme brulee, and shortbreak cookies. The secret is really to infuse one ingredient (and not overwhelm it) -- your guest should be intrigued by the flavor, yet still guessing what it is. One other hint - use the flowers only. The leaves are very resinous -- a lot like rosemary.

I have also thrown lavender onto the coals when smoking lamb, and that is really good.

[chocklateer]

So many amazing desserts to make...so little time. Actually, so little Lavender is more like it. When I went into work the other week(my how time flies!)and ventured into the garden to gather some Lavender, it had all disappeared! It turns out that the garden is overhauled and changed every two weeks. Much to my chaigrin! So, I opted for experimenting with Lemon Balm instead...with mixed results. I'm hoping to locate some fresh/dried Lavender at a retail supplier as I have been intrigued and inspired by all the great ideas given here on this forum. I'll let y'all know how it turns out!

Thanks again,

D.