I love the floral note lavender adds to desserts – part of the reason why my ‘must have’ summer ice-cream flavor is lavender fig made at a nearby ice-cream shop!
I recently used a culinary grade lavender (I wouldn’t use it from the garden since I’d be worried about contaminants!) to experiment a little bit in the kitchen.
Here are a few ways I came up with to use it…I hope to inspire you to come up with some of your own creations!
Lavender Iced Butter Cookies. I added a tablespoon of dried lavender and 2 drops of lavender essential oil to a standard butter cookie recipe. After the cookies were baked and cooled, I glazed them with powdered sugar, thinned with milk, and garnished the top of each cookie with dried lavender while the glaze was still wet. The finished product – butter cookies with that great subtle floral note of lavender!
Lavender Butter. A fabulous butter to use on scones – I just crushed some dried lavender and added it to softened butter. Great to serve with tea and scones!
Lavender Lemon Bars. Adding a teaspoon of crushed, dried lavender to the crust of lemon bars, as well as using some as garnish, adds the floral note of the flower to this summer dessert classic!
In addition to baked goods, lavender is great in summer beverages. I played around a little with ingredient quantities and came up with this satisfying lemonade!
Honey Lavender Lemonade Recipe
- 3 cups cold water
- Juice of 3 lemons
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup dried lavender (make sure it is culinary grade)
- 1 cup boiling water
Add the dried lavender to the boiling water, cover and let steep at least 15 minutes. Strain the water to remove the lavender. Dissolve the honey in the hot water. Add the cold water and lemon juice to the mixture. Serve over ice.
I hope you enjoyed my lavender experiment results! I’d love to hear how you have added lavender to your summer recipes! I recently found a recipe for lavender white chocolate ice cream that I may need to give a try before the summer is over!
Thanks for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie
P.S. Here are some links for other ways I have used lavender! Enjoy!