Lavender is one of our favourite fragrant herbs, and apart from medicinal, it has a whole bunch of culinary purposes to relax all your senses.
Lavender Lemonade
Ingredients:
1/4 cup dried lavender flowers or a drop of lavender oil
6 lemons, peeled and squeezed
1 cup honey
5 cups water
Instructions:
Boil half of the water and remove from the stove and then add honey and lavender to the water. Let it rest for 20 minutes, filter it and then pour it in a large bowl. Add lemon juice and remaining water and stir well. Chill the lemonade well before serving.
Lavender Ice Cream
Ingredients:
500 ml liquid vegetable fat based whipping cream
150 g blueberries
150 g blackberries
200 ml liquid yoghurt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon lavender leaves
Instructions:
Pour liquid whipped cream 5+ in a deep mixing bowl. Whip the mixture with an electric mixer on low speed for about 1-2 minutes. Wash the fruit. Add the fruit, yoghurt, cinnamon and lavender leaves. Slowly mix it all together, cover it, and leave it in a freezer for 24 hours. Serve it with a fruit topping of your choice. You can also add 50 grams of candied fruit to the mix.
Lavender Biscuits
Ingredients:
65 g powdered sugar
1 spoon lavender flowers (fresh or dried)
140 grams softened butter
lemon peel
250 grams flour
3 egg yolks
80 grams granulated sugar (roll the biscuits in it)
Instructions:
Add powdered sugar, lavender and lemon peel to the butter. With an electric mixer beat until whipped and fluffy. Add flour and mix everything by hand until mixture forms a dough. Add egg yolk and form dough into a cohesive ball with your hands. Wrap the dough in transparent foil and place it in a refrigerator to chill. After 30 minutes, take it out and roll out the dough to to a thickness of between 5 and 8 mm. Press a mould into the dough to shape biscuits and achieve the desired shape, roll them in granulated sugar and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 10-12 minutes. Let biscuits cool completely before storing them in an airtight metal tin!