As I live on a lavender farm, it kinda goes with the territory that I cook with the stuff on occasion. One thing I love about fall and winter is that I finally slow down (ha ha) enough to be able to do a bit of culinary experimentation. My favorite part is how I get inspired to make things, there is often no rhyme or reason to the process.
For example, I was in a big box store with my daughter Sunday, as we were completing Operation Blue And Silver Christmas Decoration Procurement Because You Promised. Ugh....While I was held consumer hostage by my offspring, I noticed a bag of lemons for two whole dollars. There was like 15 small lemons in that bag! It was a sign!
A sign of what, I wasn't sure at the time, but I did get out of the store relatively unscathed and was the proud owner of a bunch of silver and blue holiday decor along with a ginormous bag of lemons.
Later that night, I was huddled in my recliner nook next to our blazing woodstove when I began to ruminate about what I could do with my newly acquired lemon horde. Some sort of lemon confection needed to be concocted, but I wanted it to be special. It's the season of magical happenings and goodwill, a standard lemon bar or cookie just wouldn't do.
I thought about adding cardamom to the flavor profile I was building, as I have been on a cardamom kick lately, but then it struck me like a bolt of duh lightening, lavender you dolt!
So I got out my note pad and began conceptualizing. I wanted a shortbread/sugar cookie-like crust. Lemon and lavender go lovely with dairy, and there was a packet of cream cheese just chilling in my refrigerator. And on the top I wanted a crumble. I think the crumble part of the cookie bar equation came from me watching the British Baking Show recently and they did a crumble challenge.
But how to incorporate the lavender you might be wondering? Well, in baked goods I grind my lavender buds into the sugar. A whole lavender bud looks like mouse poop in things. Like a mouse who ate only purple Skittles, it's just not appetizing to look at. Plus, I like my lavender flavor to be well interspersed. Floral flavors bring out taste and accentuate things, and when done right it is like a symphony for your taste buds.
So, after being lazy and not wanting to wash my coffee grinder, trying to grind my lavender buds into the sugar in my food processor (fail), I washed out my grinder, and ground the sugar and lavender together. A mortar and pestle would work too, just a lot of elbow grease would be required.
I then made a basic butter dough of sugar, flour, and butter with flavor extracts. I divided the dough in half, pressed half into a square baking dish, and then baked it until it was slightly brown.
Here's the fun part. You need to let your base cool before adding and baking your filling. So, even though this recipe is pretty easy, you do need some time on your hands to work your way through the steps. I always have something to do, more things to do than time really, so this isn't a problem in my realm.
Later, after the base had cooled, I whipped up the cream cheese, freshly juiced lemons, some zest from said lemons, and a bit more sugar. Not gonna lie, I wanted to eat that cheesecake-like filling from the bowl. I refrained, but only barely.
I then took the reserved cookie dough stuff out of the fridge and crumbled it on top of the filling. The bars got plopped into the oven for a bake while I ran up the road to collect some high school basketball players from the activity bus (The hubs was making carne asada so the baking beauties were supervised). (Side note: So much basketball around here right now)
When I got back, I took my golden brown bars out of the oven and let them cool. After ingesting a pile of street tacos for dinner, I served my Lavender And Lemon Sugar Cookie bars to my family. I was especially interested in my husband's opinion as his mother decided that lemon merengue pie was his favorite dessert one year and always served it when he was around. The passive aggressiveness of that gesture still makes me giggle because the hubs hates lemon pie and lemon stuff in general.
They all did, and that's because lavender, when done right, makes food taste amazing. I cant' describe why, you just have to try it for yourself:)
And a little culinary lavender side-note: Not all lavenders are created equal. Culinary lavender is miles from lavender bred for oil production. Plus, you don't want to eat lavender that has been sprayed with industrial ag chemicals. Some good culinary lavenders are L. Augustifolia (English Lavender) Melissa Munstead Folgate, and Provence which is a Lavandin. Culinary lavender should be sifted (I triple sift mine) and isn't as camphory as lavender bred for oil production. What I mean is that no one wants to eat soap right? And lavender comestibles done with a heavy hand or the wrong cultivar can definitely taste like soap.
As mentioned above, you don't want to use a heavy hand when adding the buds to dishes. My motto is you can always add more but want to hit your head on the door when you have to throw out an entire batch of anything because you got a little too enthusiastic in spice addition land. With time and practice (and failure) you get good at things, so don't be afraid to try lavender and dive on in!
Lavender And Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars
For The Crust:
1 cup of sugar
2 tsp dried culinary lavender
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 cup butter (softened)
2 cups of all purpose flourUsing a coffee/spice grinder (or mortar and pestle), grind lavender buds and sugar until well combined. Cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add extracts and whip a bit, then add flour 1/2 cup at a time until dough just forms.
Divide dough in half. Press 1/2 of the dough into a greased 8X8 or 9X9 pan. Bake at 350 Degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes or until the edges of your cookie base just start to brown. Place other 1/2 of dough in the fridge. Cool cookie crust base completely before moving on to making the filling.
For the Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup lemon juice (I used freshly squeezed)
2 TBSP lemon zest (divided)
1/2 cup sugarPreheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine all ingredients, reserving 1 TBSP of the lemon zest for garnish, in a mixing bowl and beat until light and creamy. Spread onto cooled base in an even layer.
Take out reserved cookie dough and crumble evenly over the top of the filling. Bake for 3o minutes in preheated oven.
Let bars cool for a while before garnishing with remaining lemon zest and devouring.
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's zesty and a bit tempestous-y as of late iPhone.
