Lavender Sugar

 

 

Lavender Sugar is quick and easy to make, and infuses a lavender scented and sweet tone to many foods. The sugar can be added to cream or sprinkled on biscuits, cakes, pastries, muffins, stirred in with berries, or try tea sweetened with lavender sugar, or try making Lavender Shortbread. Another idea is to give jars of home-made Lavender Sugar as gifts.

Below is the recipe for Lavender Sugar, also how to dry your own lavender, and a list of lavender varieties that are used in cooking.

 

RECIPE: LAVENDER SUGAR

 

1 cup caster sugar (or fine ground organic raw sugar)

2 tablespoons dried culinary lavender (see below for how to dry your own)

Jar with a good seal

Optional – muslin bag

1. There are several ways to make lavender sugar:

• Layer the sugar and lavender in a jar, and seal the lid tightly.
• Alternatively, place the lavender in a muslin bag and bury the bag in the sugar to infuse.
• Dried lavender can be placed in a food processor to chop it finely, then add the sugar to the processor and blend for a few seconds until the lavender and sugar are combined, then pour into a jar.

2. Leave the lavender sugar in a cool, dark place for at least one week, although two weeks is better. Allow the flavour to develop, and shake the jar every couple of days to distribute the flavor through the sugar.
3. After this time the sugar can be used as is with the bits of lavender still mixed in, or sieve out the coarser pieces of lavender, or alternatively sieve out all the lavender, to leave lavender infused sugar, depending on what you want to use the sugar for.

 

Please take a look at my Lavender Shortbread recipe, which uses this Lavender Sugar:

 

 

DRYING LAVENDER:

To make your own dried lavender:

• Make sure you know what the lavender variety is, and that the lavender is edible, as some types are only ornamental. English lavender is the one to use (see the list below of lavender varieties).
• Also make sure that the lavender hasn’t been treated with pesticides, and be careful of lavender growing in polluted areas.
• Pick the lavender on a sunny warm day in the late morning after the dew has dried, and when the lavender’s aromatic oils are warm and scented from the sun.
• Air dry the lavender by tying it in small bunches and hanging it upside down in a warm place such as the airing cupboard. Air-drying is best, but alternatively, spread the lavender on a tray or dish and dry in the oven on a very low temperature.
• When dry, pick off the lavender flowers.

 

 

LAVENDER VARIETIES FOR COOKING:

The varieties listed here are used for their scent and flavour in cooking, and both the leaves and flowers can be used

 

Lavandula angustifolia  (English Lavender – highly aromatic and a parent of many cultivars)

‘Alba’

‘Blue Ice’

L. angustifolia ‘Elizabeth’

‘Hidcote Giant’

‘Loddon Pink’

‘Munstead’ [good for lavender sugar]

L. x intermedia ‘Grosso’ (hybrid)

L. x intermedia ‘Seal’ (hybrid)