Lavender Ice Cream

Easy Lavender Ice Cream recipe

I make Lavender Ice Cream using my standard ice cream recipe. It has a wonderful floral creaminess which is perfect eaten in the garden on a sunny English summer day!

Lavender is a strong taste and needs to be used in moderation to avoid echoes of furniture polish!  Don’t be tempted to increase the amount in this recipe.  What you are looking for is a subtle whisper of lavender rather than a full-on bombardment of your taste-buds.    As it is such a strong flavour,  I would serve this Lavender Ice Cream on its own or possibly together with plain vanilla ice cream or maybe Lemon Shortbread biscuits.

You only need the egg yolks for this recipe which means you will have spare egg whites.  As I hate waste, I pretty much always make some form of meringue, when I make ice cream and, very conveniently, my meringue recipe requires four egg whites.  If you feel in the mood for meringue, you could check out my basic Meringue  or Pavlova recipes, or if you want something slightly different, you could try my Rose Meringue recipe.

Edible flower recipes – lavender, rose and elderflower

As is probably obvious from the title of this blog, I love using floral flavourings in my cooking. Lavender-lovers might like the recipes for Lavender Cake and Lavender Shortbread and Honey Cream Tea with Lavender Scones.

For rose-lovers, there are some great easy baking recipes including Rose and Strawberry Cream Cake and Almond Shortbread with Rosewater. For dessert, you could try Rose and Raspberry Pavlova or Rose Meringues. I also have a fantastic easy recipe for delicious floral Rose Petal Jam and an easy-peasy recipe for Crystallised Rose Petals.

For elderflower-lovers, there are recipes for Elderflower Ice CreamGooseberry and Elderflower Sorbet and Elderflower and Lemon Cupcakes. I also have a recipe for a classic Elderflower Cordial and also really easy recipes for Elderflower Gin and a lovely floral-flavoured Elderflower Vinegar.

Other home-made ice cream recipes

I am a great home-made ice cream enthusiast. I make it in the summer, of course, but am happy to eat it in winter too! There are some brilliant, shop-bought ice creams available but it is so easy to make your own. I like to experiment with flavours and some of my other ice cream recipes are listed below.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

Easy recipe for Lavender Ice Cream

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Lavender Ice Cream

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.6 from 5 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 10
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: for 6 people 1x
  • Category: Ice-cream
  • Cuisine: English

Description

Rich and creamy, this Lavender Ice Cream is a great way of using the wonderful, floral taste of lavender.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 85 g caster sugar
  • 425 ml double cream
  • 3 fresh lavender flowers broken down into petals (or 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh lavender leaves)
Lavender Ice-cream, lavender ice cream recipe, lavender ice cream
Cream and lavender

Instructions

  1. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl until the mixture looks paler and resembles a mousse.
  2. Put the cream and lavender flowers or leaves in a saucepan and heat gently. Do not allow to boil – it will be the right temperature when you are just about able to bear to dip a finger in it!
  3. Remove the saucepan containing the cream and lavender from the heat.  At this stage you can strain the cream to remove all the lavender.  I generally don’t strain the lavender out as I like the little blue petals distributed through the ice cream but I know some people prefer a totally smoothe ice cream with just the flavour and no petals!
  4. Pour the infused cream into the bowl containing the egg yolks and sugar, whisking all the time.
  5. Transfer the combined mixture into a bowl set over a pan of simmering water or, ideally a double-boiler, as you need to reheat it very gently.
  6. The mixture will gradually thicken until it looks like a custard (which is what it is).  Stir regularly to make sure it does not stick while it is thickening.
  7. Remove the thick custard from the heat and transfer into a bowl.  Allow to cool to room temperature and then transfer to the fridge to become thoroughly chilled.
  8. When you are ready to make the ice-cream, transfer to your ice-cream maker and use according to your machine’s instructions.  If you do not have an ice-cream maker, you can place the mixture in a freezer-proof container, put in the freezer for several hours until half-frozen.  Whisk the mixture and then return to the container and replace in the freezer until totally frozen.

Notes

Make sure that you only use fresh lavender that you are sure has not been sprayed with chemicals.  The best place to source it is from your garden – it is very easy to grow!

If you do not have access to fresh lavender, you can use 2 teaspoons of dried culinary lavender.  The flavour is strengthened by the drying process, so the amount is less than that for fresh lavender.

Lavender Shortbread

Easy home-made Lavender Shortbread

This quick and easy Lavender Shortbread recipe is the perfect place to start if you have never tried using this delicious floral flavour in your cooking. The shortbread is buttery and delicious with a subtle lavender flavour. It is very simple to make and takes under half an hour from start to finish.

Plain shortbread is  delicious – it should have a fairly soft, crumbly texture –   but it also makes great vehicle to showcase a range of flavours,  including lavender, rose geranium, thyme, rosemary and lemon verbena.   It is a great accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee and is also a good partner with ice-cream or sorbet.

I love lavender!  I grow several varieties in my garden and look forward to the first hot day of the year when you get a waft of lavender scent on the air and know that summer is truly here.   Lavender Shortbread is an excellent way of capturing the essence of this beautiful, fragrant plant.

Loved this recipe? Check out the Recipe Index

What you need to know about making Lavender Shortbread

  • This is a really easy recipe which makes it perfect for those who are not experienced bakers. It is also a great recipe if you want to cook with younger children or for older children to cook by themselves.
  • It is also a very quick recipe – from bowl to table in under half an hour. This makes it great if you need to produce something yummy and home-baked and are short of time.
  • In this recipe, I flavoured my shortbread with my shortbread with fresh, finely chopped lavender leaves from a plant in my garden. It is the leaves, rather than the flowers, that have the strong lavender flavour. If you are using fresh lavender you must be sure that it has not been treated with any chemical pesticides or herbicides.
  • If you do not have access to fresh lavender, you can buy dried culinary lavender in many supermarkets. However, you must make sure that it is labelled for culinary use.
  • Lavender has a strong flavour! Don’t be tempted to use too much. If you use the amounts specified in this recipe, you will get a subtly flavoured shortbread.
  • The addition of a small amount of ground almonds makes a real difference to this recipe. It makes the shortbread crumbly but moist and also goes really well with the lavender flavour.
  • I always use butter in this recipe as I prefer the flavour. However, if you are a vegan or wish to avoid dairy products, you can use a non-dairy substitute instead of the butter.

Using lavender in cooking

Lavender has many culinary uses and its fragrance works well in a variety of sweet and savoury dishes.   However, you do have to be a bit careful though as lavender is a very strongly scented plant and, if you use too much, it can overwhelm other flavours.  For this reason, I think it is best used on its own rather than in combination with other aromatics.

The history of culinary lavender

The English word lavender is thought to be derived either from Old French lavandre which is taken from the Latin lavare “to wash” which refers to the practice of using it in infusions or from the Latin livere “blueish” in reference to its colour.   Lavender (“nard” in Hebrew) is mentioned in the Song of Solomon. 

It was introduced into England in the 1600s.  At that time, it was used to make herb tea which was appreciated for its taste and for its medicinal properties.   It was also used to make a conserve which was prized by members of the aristocracy including, allegedly, Queen Elizabeth 1.    Although lavender is often now associated with southern French cuisine, it was not widely used until the turn of the 20th century and its use was popularised only later  by its inclusion in the 1970s in herbes de Provence, a blend of herbs invented by spice wholesalers.

Other lavender recipes

If you like this Lavender Shortbread you might like to try my rich and creamy Lavender Ice Cream, which is very easy to make, or my simple Lavender Loaf Cake.

Other easy shortbread and biscuit recipes

Baking shortbread or biscuits (cookies) is a really good place to start for inexperienced bakers. They are generally very easy and do not take very long to bake. If you like this recipe, you might also like my Almond Shortbread with Rosewater or simple Lemon Biscuits (Cookies). I also have a great Cheese Biscuit recipe, which you can make with or without chilli, if you want a savoury snack.

Loved this recipe? Check out the Recipe Index

Lavender Shortbread recipe

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Lavender Shortbread

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 5 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 15
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 15 biscuits 1x
  • Category: Biscuits
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: English

Description

These crumbly shortbread biscuits, delicately flavoured with lavender, are fantastic as an accompaniment to ice-cream or sorbet – or just with a cup of tea!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 125 g (4 oz) butter 
  • 55 g (2 oz) caster sugar
  • 100 g (3.5 oz) plain flour
  • 20 g (1 oz) cornflour
  • 60 g (2 oz) ground almonds
  • 4 teaspoons fresh, finely chopped lavender leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried culinary lavender)

Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 200 C/400 F/Gas Mark 6.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.
  3. Add the flour, cornflour and ground almonds and combine.
  4. Detach the small lavender flowers from their stalks and add them to the mixture.
  5. Roll out the shortbread dough to a thickness of approximately 0.5 cm (or a quarter of an inch).
  6. Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes from the dough.
  7. Put the dough shapes onto a greased baking tray.
  8. Bake the shortbread dough shapes for 15 minutes.  They will be done when they are firm to the touch and light golden in colour.
  9. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.

Notes

If you are using fresh lavender leaves, make sure that they have not been treated with any chemicals.  Do not use shop-bought lavender unless it is specifically designated as “culinary lavender”.

Loved this recipe? Check out the Recipe Index

Lavender Cake

Easy Lavender Loaf Cake

Just the name, Lavender Cake, makes me think about an English summer garden. I love the calming floral fragrance of fresh lavender, which is held in both the flowers and the leaves. I also think it looks beautiful with green-grey leaves and deep blue, purple or white flowers.

If you grow lavender in your garden, this is a cake to make in high summer, late June through to August when it is at its best. Make sure that it hasn’t been treated with any pesticides or other chemicals before you use it in your cooking! If you don’t grow your own lavender, you can use culinary lavender which is available from some supermarkets and also online.

Like many of the cakes that I make, this Lavender Cake is a variation on a simple loaf cake recipe. Lavender and lemon has become a popular flavour combination in cakes and desserts. For this recipe, I combined lavender with orange, which adds a similar zesty citrus flavour. It occurred to me when I had made this cake that lavender and orange are both included in the classic Herbes de Provence herb mix from the South of France which is used in savoury dishes.

So many lavender recipes….

I use lavender mainly in sweet recipes. I make Lavender Ice Cream, which is creamy and floral and fantastic at the end of a summer dinner party. If you want to give someone a summer treat, you could do worse than make them a lavender-themed Afternoon Tea with Lavender Shortbread Biscuits and Lavender Scones. I sometimes make a Honey Cream Tea, combining Cream and Honey with the Lavender Scones, which is a great twist on an English teatime tradition. If you have a lot of fresh lavender in your garden, you can capture the flavour by making Lavender Sugar which you can use as a baking ingredient.

….and so many cake recipes!

If you like this cake, you may like some of the other loaf cake recipes that I cook regularly. They are so quick and easy to make and you can get really creative with the flavours! On other pages of this blog you can find recipes for Rosemary CakeThyme Cake, Earl Grey and Orange Cake,Lemon DrizzleBlood OrangeLime and CoconutRum and Banana and Ginger and Pear.

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Lavender Cake

Lavender Cake

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.7 from 3 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 20
  • Cook Time: 45
  • Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
  • Yield: 1 loaf cake 1x
  • Category: Cake
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: English

Ingredients

Scale

For the cake:

  • 4 tablespoons of milk
  • 1 tablespoon of fresh or half a tablespoon of dried culinary lavender
  • 125 g butter
  • 175 g Lavender Sugar (use caster sugar if you do not have Lavender Sugar)
  • 2 eggs
  • 175 g self-raising flour
  • Zest of 1 orange

For the icing:

  • Juice of 1 orange
  • 1 tablespoon of fresh or half a tablespoon of dried culinary lavender
  • 100 g icing sugar


Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 180 degrees centigrade or Gas Mark 4.
  2. Put the milk into a small bowl and add the fresh or dried culinary lavender.  Heat to scalding point and then set aside to cool.   Heating the milk allows it to take on the flavour of the lavender.
  3. Grease a 450 g loaf tin and line the bottom with baking parchment.
  4. Cream the butter with the Lavender Sugar or caster sugar.  (I usually soften the butter for about 30 seconds in the microwave first as it makes it much easier!)
  5. Gradually add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture.  If it looks as if it is going to curdle, add some of the self-raising flour.
  6. Once the eggs have been incorporated add the rest of the self-raising flour.
  7. Add the lavender-infused milk and the grated zest of your orange.
  8. Spoon the cake mixture into your prepared loaf tin.
  9. Put the tin in the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
  10. While the cake is baking, squeeze the juice from your orange into a small bowl and add the fresh or dried culinary lavender.  Heat to scalding point and then set aside to cool.   Heating the juice allows it to take on the flavour of the lavender.
  11. When your cake is done.  Remove it from the oven and place on a cooling rack. 
  12. When the cake is completely cool.  Combine the lavender-infused orange juice with the icing sugar and then pour over the cake.

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Honey Cream Tea with Lavender Scones

Lavender Scones
Honey Cream Tea with Lavender Scones

Honey Cream Tea with Lavender Scones

This Honey Cream Tea, made with Lavender Scones, is a variation on the traditional English Cream Tea which uses plain or fruited scones sandwiched with jam and cream.

I first tasted a Honey Cream Tea many years ago when visiting Quince Honey Farm in Devon.   Understandably, given the primary product of the farm, they served scones sandwiched with cream and honey, rather than the traditional jam.   When I decided to write a recipe for Lavender Scones, it occurred to me that a honey and cream filling would go very well with their floral flavour – and so it proved!  If you have lavender-scented honey, so much the better.

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Lavender Scones, Honey Cream Tea

Honey Cream Tea with Lavender Scones

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 1 review
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 15
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 15 scones 1x
  • Category: Scones
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This Honey Cream Tea is made with lavender-flavoured scones sandwiched together with honey and whipped cream.  It is a variation on a traditional English Cream Tea, which combines plain or fruited scones with jam and cream.

Lavender Scones
Honey Cream Tea

Ingredients

Scale
  • 350 g self-raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 85 g butter
  • 25 g caster sugar
  • 4 fresh lavender buds (or 2 tablespoons of culinary lavender)
  • 2 eggs
  • 100 ml milk
  • A small pot of good quality (ideally locally-sourced) honey
  • 300 ml double cream (whipped)
Lavender scones
Lavender scones

Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 200 C/400 F/Gas Mark 6.
  2. Put the flour and baking powder in a large bowl.  Cut the butter into small cubes and add it to the flour.  Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
  3. Add the sugar to the flour and butter mixture.
  4. Detach the small flowers from the lavender stalks and add them to the mixture.
  5. Lightly beat the eggs and add them and the milk to the mixture.
  6. Use your hands to very gently combine the mixture so that it forms a soft dough.
  7. Press the dough out onto a floured surface.  It needs to be about 1cm thick.  Use a round cutter to cut out dough shapes and place them on a greased baking sheet.
  8. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes until the scones have risen and are a light golden colour.
  9. Transfer the scones to a cooling rack.
  10. When they are cool, split them in half and sandwich together with honey and whipped cream.
Lavender scones, honey cream tea
Lavender scones

Love this recipe?  You may like these too!

Lavender Sugar and Rose Geranium Sugar

Lavender Ice Cream

 

 

 

Lavender Sugar and Rose Geranium Sugar

Rose Geranium Sugar recipe
Rose Geranium Sugar

Two Herb Sugars – Lavender Sugar and Rose Geranium Sugar

This recipe tells you how to make two Herb Sugars –  Lavender Sugar and Rose Geranium Sugar.  Both follow the same process and are very easy to make.  You simply place fresh lavender leaves and buds or chopped rose geranium leaves in a jar of sugar.   The sugar will become infused with the scent of the herbs and can then be used as an ingredient to bring a floral flavour to cakes, puddings or other dishes.

About Rose Geraniums

Lavender is quite a common plant in gardens or in pots on balconies.  Rose Geraniums are less well-known.   There are a number of scented varieties of Rose Geranium (which are actually technically pelargoniums) and all have leaves that smell of rose –  I think they actually smell a bit like Turkish Delight!  I have two varieties –  Angels Perfume and Attar of Roses  –  which I bought from Herbal Haven which is a specialist herb nursery.

Rose Geranium leaves can be used in lots of puddings and desserts to add a subtle rose flavour.  I think this is a better way than using rose-petals as you only need a few leaves whereas you need loads of petals (and, really, who wants to destroy their roses?).

Pelargonium
Rose Geranium

About Herb Sugars

Herb Sugars were popular in Victorian times as a way of capturing the flavour of fresh herbs.     Once the sugar has taken on the scent of the herb, it will keep for many months and, in the days when people cooked with what they grew themselves, this allowed herb-scented dishes to be made in winter when there were no fresh herbs available.

It is best to make Herb Sugars in the summer, when the flavour of herbs is at its strongest.   A wide variety of herbs can be used to produce Herb Sugars, in addition to lavender and rose geranium, and some of my favourites include: thyme, rosemary, bay, lemon verbena and mint.

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Lavender sugar recipe

Lavender Sugar

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 1 jam jar 1x
  • Category: Herb Sugar
  • Cuisine: English

Description

Lavender Sugar is produced by allowing the flavour of fresh lavender to infuse into caster sugar which can then be used as an ingredient to bring a floral taste to cakes, biscuits, puddings and other dishes.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 350 g caster sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh lavender (leaves and/or flowers)

Instructions

  1. Place the caster sugar in a bowl.
  2. Place your chopped lavender on a plate and press with the back of a spoon to encourage it to release its flavour.
  3. Add the chopped lavender to the sugar and mix well.
  4. Transfer the sugar and lavender mixture to a jam jar.
  5. Seal the jar and leave for at least 24 hours, and preferably a week, to allow the flavour to infuse into the sugar.
  6. When you are ready to use the sugar, you can either pass it through a coarse sieve to remove the herb pieces or you can leave them in the sugar.

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Rose Geranium Sugar recipe

Rose Geranium Sugar

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 1 jam jar 1x
  • Category: Herb Sugar
  • Cuisine: English

Description

Rose Geranium Sugar is produced by allowing the flavour of fresh rose geranium leaves to infuse into caster sugar which can then be used as an ingredient to bring a floral taste to cakes, biscuits, puddings and other dishes.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 350 g caster sugar
  • 10 rose geranium leaves (finely chopped)

Instructions

  1. Place the caster sugar in a bowl.
  2. Place your chopped rose geranium leaves on a plate and press with the back of a spoon to encourage them to release their flavour.
  3. Add the chopped rose geranium leaves to the sugar and mix well.
  4. Transfer the sugar and rose geranium mixture to a jam jar.
  5. Seal the jar and leave for at least 24 hours, and preferably a week, to allow the flavour to infuse into the sugar.
  6. When you are ready to use the sugar, you can either pass it through a coarse sieve to remove the herb pieces or you can leave them in the sugar.

Notes

In order to make this Herb Sugar, you need to make sure you source Rose Geraniums, such as Angels’ Perfume or Attar of Roses, which have leaves that are strongly rose-scented.

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Lilac Sugar, Lilac Honey and Lilac Syrup

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