Scented Lavender Bread

‘Beautiful full heads of blue, mauve, indigo and yes even pink’. Lavender is indeed one of the most elegant and delectable flavours you can use in cooking. I’ve been looking for an excuse to open my jar of my home grown lavender and last week I found it when I stumbled across Vanessa Kimbell’s from Prepped.

Vanessa had an invitation for foodies to get involved and test recipes for the cookbook she is currently writing. I was more than happy to oblige my time and taste buds as a tester. So I wrote to her excited to be part of the development of her book and offered my humble services. I was even excited when it happened to be a recipe using lavender, and then a little nervous when it was a bread recipe. You see, I am not accustomed to giving my upper arms a work out, but it was so worth kneading and stretching. Homemade bread is the best, especially when it comes out looking like this.
The bread wasn't sweet at all, but delicately scented from the infused lavender. I will be making the bread again, so please come back in a weeks time when I’ll be able to share the recipe with you, it just needs a little bit of tweaking.
Updated 5 December 2010. I haven't heard back from Vanessa regarding re-testing the recipe. When I originally tested the recipe, she did say it was okay to post the recipe on my blog as other testers had, so for those of you who have been wanting to give it a go, here it is as it was given to me. I think I know where I may have gone a little wrong with my making of the Lavender Bread recipe, the salt I used was sea salt which dominated the flavour over the lavender.
Lavender Bread
2 tablespoons of culinary grade dried lavender
30 ml of hot milk
750g strong plain white flour
2 tsp salt
75g butter, cut into small pieces
7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
1 tbsp caster sugar
330 ml milk
100 ml hot water - but not boiling
Method
1. Pop the lavender in a cup and heat about 30ml of milk soak the Lavender in the milk for about 15 minutes. In the meantime tip the flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl and mix together with the butter turning it into fine breadcrumbs.
2. Pour the milk into a large measuring jug and stir in the hot water ad the lavender and milk solution. The liquid should be just about hand temperature, as this warmth will help the bread to rise.
3 Mix this until it forms a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl clean. Dust your surface with flour, then tip the dough onto it. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes by hand or alternately use a dough hook on your mixer to do the same job. The dough should be stretch y and elastic. Put this into a lightly greased liter tin and over with a clean damp tea towel to rise for about 35 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/gas 7. Once the dough is risen Bake for 30 minutes, until risen and golden brown. Leave in the tin to cool.
5 Tip it out onto a cooling rack and tap the base of the bread to check it is cooked. It should sound hollow.

Lavender Lemonade

Whilst I was busy house cleaning over the weekend, and peeking into my disorganised stored food cupboard I came across my lavender jar. I unscrewed the lid and sniffed high. Oh what a tranquil scent. Then I thought, mmm should do something with this.

I’ve made Lavender Sugar a couple of times. You just have to add a small amount of dried lavender to caster sugar and mix both ingredients in an airtight container, shake well regularly for the flavour and scent to infuse. Strain out the lavender (if you wish, I don’t) and use in sweet bakes, drink recipes and even sprinkled over porridge.
I decided on making some lavender lemonade. There are a number of recipes out there for lavender lemonade, but I decided to use a recipe from a book that I have yet to cook from. This is really a simple and delicious recipe. It uses agave nectar also known as agave syrup. I have seen agave syrup many times at health stores, but never had a reason to buy it, hence try it, until now. If you don’t want to purchase a bottle of agave syrup and I would understand as it is not particularly affordable costing about £2.50 for 250ml you can replace it with the same quantity of sugar syrup.

The lavender buds add a faint hint of purple hue to the lemonade too making it more enticing to the eyes, I think. The quantity made was quite generous for D and me, so I poured the remainder into flip-top bottles I used for my elderflower champagne. I am going to try and store a bottle, so that I can introduce the sweet yet distinct flavour of lavender to friends and family, that is of course if I don’t quench it all myself in the next few days.
Lavender Lemonade
Serves 6 - 8

Ingredients
6 cups/2 pints of water
¼ cup/5g lavender buds
½ cup/100ml of agave syrup or sugar syrup
¾ cup/150ml of freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 - 6 large lemons)
Method
In a small saucepan, combine the lavender with 2 cups/350ml of water. Bring to a boil, for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it steep and cool down for 10 minutes. Strain the lavender water into a serving pitcher and discard the cooked lavender. Add the rest of the water, agave syrup, lemon juice and stir well. Refrigerate until cool. Serve in clear glasses to appreciate the faint natural purple hue. From Vegan Soul Kitchen.

Lavender in a jar

I had a number of small tasks to carry out over the weekend, one of them was to fill up a jam jar with the lavender I had drying on the windowsill. I am really looking forward to making some edible delights in the cold months, as well as occasionally sticking my nose into the jar, just to get a natural high!
I have never been one to sew lavender into little sacks for drawers or wardrobes; or turn them into bath bombs - I think I will in the future, just not right now. The one thing I can do right now is keep the stalks of the lavender as they contain oil and make good fire lighters, a tip I recently read on one of my fellow bloggers blog.
A couple of years ago, D brought a present for me. Would you like to take a guess at what it was? Roses, perhaps a box of chocolates or even a ...(cough) No, it was a mandolin: a vegetable slicer - something every working kitchen should have. Yes, I know very romantic. Previous to that he gave me a flour sifter. Now that's what I call knowing me. I haven't used the mandolin much, as i'm quite nervous of the sharp blades, but over the weekend I decided to give it a go and make some Pommes Anna. It was actually quite therapeutic slicing the potatoes slowly, but not a task you get too comfortable with as a moment of distraction and you could slice some skin - ooh. The Pommes Anna turned out lovely, golden and crispy on the top and soft, yet with a little bite at the bottom.
I served them alongside some Broccoli in garlic cream. I know it doesn't look very pretty, but it was packed with flavour.

Broccoli in garlic cream
Serves 4
Ingredients
100g single or double cream
Zest of 1 lemon
1 large clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
400g -500g broccoli florets
1 tbsp toasted pine kernels to garnish
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Steam the broccoli. Do not overcook. Set aside.
Gently heat the cream, lemon zest and garlic together and allow the flavours to infuse for about 5 minutes. Season well. Toss the broccoli with the cream sauce, turn into a dish.

For the beady eyed amongst you, you might be wondering where are the pine kernels? Well I have to admit I burned them in the oven, so it’s optional if you want to scatter them over the dish.