Showing posts with label lemon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lemon. Show all posts

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Wild Blueberry Creme Fraiche Tart




It's wild blueberry season again! Wild blueberries a.k.a. my favourite thing about late summer (yes I do realize it is september! Summer's not over 'til the leaves change colour!) are teeny tiny blueberries that are tarter and cuter than their cultivated cousins.
This season, I decided to bake something less rustic, and more elegant. Enter the Wild Blueberry CremeFraiche Tart, a recipe I had been saving until I could get my hands on my favourite forest fruits. This tart is made of a simple filling of blueberries, sugar, flour and lemon zest nestled in a simple roll-out tart dough, huddling under a rich blanket of tangy smooth creme fraiche.


This is one of the easiest and most successful tart doughs I've ever used. It comes together quickly, and rolls without much cracking, to a thin layer that fits almost perfectly in the pan. The only problem is that weighting is really essential as the dough did shrink more than I would have liked. That said, it was soft,tender and golden brown even after stay of about 40 minutes total in the oven.
The wild blueberry filling is tart and satisfying. It holds it's shape when you cut into the tart, and the tiny berries burst in your mouth like fruity caviar. I added about a tablespoon of lemon zest to the original recipe and it was just the perfect amount to keep the blueberries tart but to emphasize their inherent blueberry-ness.


The creme fraiche topping gets added much like one would add a sour cream layer on a cheesecake, and in fact sour cream would probably make an excellent substitute if creme fraiche is not viable. The creme fraiche layers gets baked last after the blueberry layer has been in the oven for 20 minutes, and it is baked until it starts to bubble and brown in spots as the juicy blueberries burst through the creme layer in purple spots. The broiled creme fraiche topping really added a layer of creaminess to counterpoint the zesty blueberry filling, and give another texture to this dessert.
Another thing to note , is that this tart is best eaten the day it is made (if it lasts that long!), as after a few days in the fridge, the creme fraiche absorbed some of the juices from the blueberries and turned a vibrant shade of magenta, delicious magenta.




Wild Blueberry Creme Fraiche Tart
dairy
makes one 8 inch tart, about 8 servings.

Tart pastry:
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon water

Filling:
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1/4cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 3 cups wild blueberries
  • 3/4 cup creme fraiche
  1. To make pastry: Combine flour, sugar, salt and butter until coarse crumbs, using a pastry blender or your fingers. Beat together egg yolk, lemon juice, and water. Sprinkle enough lemon mixture into flour base to bring dough together. knead into ball. wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
  2. Roll to fill an 8-inch loose bottom tart pan. press into pan, trim excess and chill for 30 minutes or until firm.
  3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  4. Place a sheet of foil or parchment on pastry and fill with rice or dried beans to weigh the pastry down. Bake for 15 minutes. remove foil and bake 5 minutes longer.
  5. To make filling: Combine flour, sugar and lemon rind. Mix with blueberries. place in tart pastry and bake for 20 minutes. Spread creme fraiche over blueberries and bake for another 30 minutes or until creme fraiche has bubbled and is slightly browned in places.
Adapted from: LCBO Food and Drink Magazine Summer 2005

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Lemon Pudding Cakes


This is a dessert I haven't made in a very long time despite the fact that I love citrus desserts and used to enjoy it all the time as a kid. Lemon pudding cake is one of the fancy desserts that I will always associate dinner parties and holidays. This recipe is a little bit different from the one my mom used to make, but the outcome is fairly similar: a tangy sweet lemon curd topped with a fluffy cloud-layer of lemon scented sponge cake.
Pudding cakes are the result of mysterious oven-magic, the cake is made by making a lemon mixture that is then folded into egg whites, but as it bakes in it's steamy water bath, the cake separates into a sauce with a fluffy cake topping. The result is delicious and moist and requires no garnish excet for some garden-fresh red currants and a dusting of powdered sugar. You can even make individual servings in ramekins but I opted to serve this dessert family style in a large casserole dish.
This two in one dessert is both pudding and cake, giving me ample opportunity to indulge my Anglophilia by calling it a "pud"and a generally using a parade of "British-isms" to assuage my longing to visit the land of tea and crumpets. Someday!

Lemon Pudding Cakes
makes 8 servings
dairy

  • 1/2 cup all-purposeflour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 large eggs, separated
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest.
  • 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice ( from about 2 lemons)
  • 1-1/3 cups whole milk
  1. Preheat the oven to 35 degrees F. Use either a large 2 quart soufle dish or 8 ramekins and place in a large baking dish. You do not need to grease the pans.
  2. In a small bowl, stir together the flour and the salt. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the egg yolks with 3/4 cups of the sugar until pale ad thick. they may be slightly grainy. Stir in the flour and beat until very thick, about 2 minutes more. Mine looked biscuit-like at this point. Stir in the lemon zest, juice and milk.
  3. Using an electric mixer on high speed, whip the egg whites until foamy. Sprinkle in the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and whip until soft peaks form when the beaters are lifted. Using a spatula, stir one fourth of the egg whites into the lemon mixture. Gently fold in the rest just until no streaks of white are visible. Divide among the ramekins, or pour into large casserole dish.
  4. Plae casserole or ramekins in a large pan and fill to one inch with boiling water. Bake until the centres are firm to the touch and the edges are slightly golden brown and pull away from the sides of the ramekins or casserole, about 40-50 minuteas. Remove from the oven but leave in the water bath for 15-20 minutes. Serve warm or at room tempertaure straight from ramekins or carefully cut into squares..
Adapted from: The Williams Sonoma Baking Book: The Essential Recipe Collection for Today's Home Baker

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Lemon Ginger Oatmeal Cake with Dried Cranberries









This is a not-too sweet tea-cake full of oatmeal, bran, fresh ginger, lemon zest and chewy dried cranberries. It is the kind of cake you could justify eating for breakfast or as a hearty pick me up snack on a rainy afternoon. A simple sugar glaze and a smattering of crystallized ginger make it pretty and inviting and adding subtle heat to each bite. This recipe is a great way to use up your last batch of homemade crystallized ginger!


The cake gets baked in a 9' round cake pan but as I only have 8" pans, I made one 8-inch cake plus three single sized ramekin cakes which came out so pretty that I might just skip the large cake and make all mini cakes the next time and oh there will be a next time.


Lemon Ginger Oatmeal Cake
makes one 9' cake or one 8-inch cake and three ramekin cakes.
dairy
time: abut 1 1/2 hous

  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 cup dried cranberries
  • 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
  • 1-1/2 cups ap flour
  • 1/2 cup bran
  • 1/2 cup quick cooking ats
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 largeeggs, beaten
  • 1 cup buttermilk
glaze:
  • 2 cups icing sugar
  • 1/4 cup buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan (or an 8-inch pan plus three 6-oz ramekins) and line the base with parchment paper. set aside.
  2. Place ginger, 1/4 cup sugar, and lemon juice in a small pot over medium heat and simmer, stirring, until sugar has melted and mixture is hot. Remove from heat and stirring cranberries and lemon rind. reserve.
  3. Combine flour, bran, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
  4. Beat together butter and remaining 3/4 cup sugar using an electric mixer untl light and fluffy. add eggs slowly and beat well. Beat in half of flour mixture, then buttermilk, then remaining flour mixture and beat until combined. Stir in cranberry mixture.
  5. Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes (even the rameking cakes took 40 minutes) or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let pan cool for 10 minutes then remove from pan, peel off parchment and allow to cool fully on a wire rack.
  6. Whisk together icing sugar and buttermilk until it forms a thin icing. Drizzle over cake and sprinkle with candied ginger.
Adapted from LCBO Food and Drink Magazine winter 2011

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Rice Pudding







Making rice pudding has been on my to-do list for a while. This recipe comes from the Gourmet Cookbook. This recipe utilizes a vanilla bean, one of my baking obsessions, but even if you substitute a tablespoon of vanilla extract, this is still a basic recipe made with simple ingredients.
Rice pudding has a long and complex history as rice pudding-type desserts show up in virtually every type of cuisine. In fact in every bowl of rice pudding there is a tale of conquest and globalization, made easier to swallow with some sweet starchy goodness. Indeed, I researched this. It seems rice pudding was brought to the British through colonialism, specifically from the British colonies in India.The rice pudding we know and love today was inspired by Indian Kheer.
This recipe is a simple vanilla version. Plain long grain white rice gets cooked with water, butter and a touch of lemon zest, as you would any rice dish. Once cooked, the milk gets simmered with a vanila bean to bring out its subtle sweet fragrance. The cooked rice then gets stirred into the milk and simmered for 15 minutes longer so that the startches thicken the milk into a creamy pudding, and the rice and raisins soften into a luscious toothsome dessert. The finished pudding gets dusted with cinnamon, and the heat of the rice wafts the scent of vanilla and cinnamon into the kitchen.


I ran out of milk and I used half milk and half water to no ill effect, so this recipe can be as sinful or as virtuous as you wish. I used a mix of golden and dark raisins, because I like the look of the two different colours interspersed with the pale vanilla flecked pudding. The flavours were subdued but the effect was pure comfort food. It is no wonder this is such a popular dish worldwide.


Rice Pudding

Combines the flavours of vanilla bean, lemon and cinnamon. Served warm or cold.

Serves 6-8 active time 40 min, about 1 hour start to finish

Dairy

  • 2 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
  • 1 cup long grain white rice
  • 4 cups milk (I used 2 cups 1% milk and two cups water and the pudding worked fine)
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
  • 1 cup raisins, I used a mix of regular and golden raisins
  • ground cinnamon for sprinkling

    1. Combine water, butter, salt and lemon zest in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir in rice and return to a boil, then cover and simmer over very low heat until water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.
    2. Combine milk, sugar and vanilla bean in a 3-quart saucepan and bring just to a simmer over low heat. Add rice mixture and raisins and simmer, uncovered stirring frequently, until most of milk is absorbed and rice is creamy, about 20 minutes.
    3. Transfer pudding to a bowl: discard vanilla bean. Dust with cinnamon and cool until just warm before serving.

Adapted from: The Gourmet Cookbook ed. Ruth Reichl

Monday, January 25, 2010

Vegan Gingerbread Cupcakes


A lot of my friends are vegan, and although we love to talk about food, I hate not being able to share a lot of the things I bake with these friends. So on a winter trip to Toronto, I was quite excited to find the book Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World, which I have heard is apparently the vegan cupcake bible.

So I decided to try out some vegan cupcakes to surprise some friends who don’t get to eat baked goods very often.

These Gingerbread cupcakes, with a lemony buttercream are my first real foray into the world of vegan baking. They use ingredients like soymilk and soy yogurt that I otherwise wouldn’t use on a regular basis, but for the most part the recipe was simple and straightforward. I was very pleasantly surprised by the cupcakes they were light and fluffy, had a lovely texture and a spicy, rich gingerbread flavour. They tasted good both warm from the oven and room temperature.

The problem however was their appearance. The cupcakes sank in the middle. A combination of the very liquidy batter, and possibly my inconsistent oven, produced fluffy tasty cupcakes that unfortunately had pronounced craters in their centers. Now as an artist I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my baking, and when I eat a cupcake I want it to have lovely rounded tops. I can’t bring myself to serve ugly cupcakes no matter how good they taste, my vegan friends deserve better.

Behold the craters:


The trick is to think of the craters as frosting opportunities. So I proceeded to make up a vegan “butter” cream recipe to make what was once concave look convex. The recipe is loosely based on the lemony buttercream in Vegan Cupcakes take Over the World, but I messed with the quantities because I really didn’t want to buy margarine. So I just used shortening as my frosting base, and made sure it was liberally flavored with lemon zest, and vanilla. And it was better than I’d hoped.

I brought these gingerbread cupcakes with lemony frosting to a soup-making potluck. We ate them with green tea to cap off a productive night of cooking. My friend said they tasted like a lemon bar and a gingerbread cookie that had a cake lovechild. She also thought that the lemon frosting was a surprise with the ginger. She went back for seconds so I do believe my vegan baking experiment was successful.


Vegan Gingerbread Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

  • 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 1/3 cup molasses
  • ½ cup maple syrup
  • ¼ cup soy milk
  • 2 tablespoons soy yogurt
  • 1-1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper cupcakes liners.
    2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt into a bowl and mix.
    3. Whisk the oil, molasses, maple syrup, soy milk, yogurt, and lemon zest in a separate large bowl. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix just until smooth. The batter will be quite runny.
    4. Fill cupcake liners two-thirds full. Bake for 19-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting. (I let the cupcakes cool in pans for about ten minutes before turning out.)

Notes: the cupcakes have a lot of liquid in them so they might sink in the middle, this is ok! As long as the cupcakes are baked through they will be good and fluffy and moist. Think of the craters as frosting opportunities.


Lemon “Butter” cream

  • ¼ cup shortening (I used Crisco)
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons lemon zest

    1. Beat all ingredients together until smooth, adding more lemon zest or sugar if needed to loosen or stiffen icing.

Adapted from: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Friday, September 4, 2009

Blueberry Struesel Bars with Lemon Cream


Wild blueberries are really the best part about staying in the Maritimes in August. I could do without the hurricanes and the fruit flies (who have taken up residence in my apartment) and the imminent arrival of the fall semester, but these tiny little fruits somehow make this rather depressing season seem a bit more palatable - worthwile even.

Wild blueberries are the tinier but more powerful cousins to the cultivated behemoths at the grocery stores. They are a fraction of the size and yet they taste of pure distilled blueberry goodness. It’s almost like an intensely flavoured blueberry candy but without the cloying sweetness and artificiality.

Ok, So I’ve digressed into an ode to the wild blueberry. On to the recipe!

I’ve backlogged this recipe for streusel bars ever since I picked up the June/July 2008 issue of Fine Cooking Magazine. I was enchanted by the section on blueberry themed desserts (In fact, the pictures taunt me everytime I browse this magazine. Blueberry lime pound cake I’m coming for you next!) so with my hoard of wild blueberries, I decided to make these lemony bars full of bursting blueberry goodness. And you know they’ve gotta be good If I’m resorting to alliteration!

These bars are slightly fussier than your usually oat bar, because you bake in three steps rather than two (crust and then top). With these, after baking the crust, you layer on the filling and par-bake until it is shiny before then applying the topping and baking again. Really it’s not that much extra work. These really aren’t hard to make at all.


When cooled completely the lemon cream stays quite soft . The original recipe said to bake in a foil overhang so the bars can be lifted out of the pan easily but I found that the lemon cream was so soft if I had tried to lift them, the bars would have buckled and fallen apart. Just bake, cool and cut in a greased pan, I mean you'll still have to clean the pan anyways. These were soft and creamy at room temperature, but firm up in the fridge. Once you get past the first few edge pieces they are easy and relatively neat to slice into. (I eat the rejects/ evidence of clumsy bar slicing)

These bars are incredible and I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to make them. They are very rich and creamy, with great texture from the crispy topping, firm yet yielding lemon cream and the bursting tart blueberries in the middle of it all.

Can you still believe I have at least 3 cups of these blueberries left? I bought the small container I swear! Now what shall I do with the rest?



Blueberry Streusel Bars with Lemon Cream


Makes about 24 bars

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1-1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats(not quick oats)
  • 1-1/3 cups packed light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 large egg separated
  • 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
  • ½ cup fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
  • 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
  • 2-1/2 cups fresh room temperature blueberries, washed and patted dry

    1. Position a rack in the centre of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. (line a 13x9 pan with foil leaving a one inch overhang and grease the foil) or grease the bottom of sides of the pan.
    2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, sugar, salt and baking powder. Using your fingers or a pastry blender, blend the butter completely into the into the flour mixture. Transfer 2 cups of the crumb mixture to another bowl and reserve for the topping. Blend the egg white into the remaining crumbs to moisten and then press the mixture into the bottom of the pan to form a level crust. Bake the crust until it starts to form a dry top,10-12 minutes.
    3. Meanwhile in a medium bowl, whisk the condensed milk, lemon juice, lemon zest and egg yolk. Let this mixture stand for 5 minutes; it will begin to thicken.
    4. Sprinkle the blueberries evenly over the hot crust and then drop spoonfuls of the lemon mixture over the blueberries. Spread gently with a spatula to distribute a little more evenly, but take care not to crush the blueberries; it’s fine if the lemon mixture isn’t perfectly even. Bake until the lemon mixture just begins to form a shiny skin, 7-8 minutes.
    5. Sprinkle the reserved topping over the lemon-blueberry layer, pressing the streusel between your fingers into small lumps as you sprinkle. Bake until the filling is bubbling at the edges and the topping is brown, 25-30 minutes.
    6. Let the bars cool in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into 24 bars when completely cool. The bars may be stored at room temperature for a few hours but otherwise should be kept in the refrigerator.

From: Fine Cooking Magazine June/July 2008

Monday, August 24, 2009

Rhubarb Sorbet



I first had rhubarb sorbet at a Toronto restaurant as part of a rhubarb trio. It was in the form of a pink little quenelle perched atop a mini pavlova. It turned out to be the best part of the trio.

Anyways when I saw Garret’s recipe for rhubarb sorbet on Simply Recipes http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/rhubarb_sorbet/ I knew I had to try it, like right now!

Rhubarb has been quite inexpensive here so I picked up some fresh stalks. I chose to use Tartelette’s version of this recipe, subbing the orange with lemon and omitting the fresh ginger because I figured it would be more appropriate to the people who would be eating it. My rhubarb was not as brilliantly pink as many of the other ‘s must have been because when I pureed my sorbet base, the rhubarb turned bubble gum pink. When churned in the ice cream maker the sorbet was the colour of Pepto Bismal. However the taste was perfect. Tart and refreshing without being cloying, this sorbet also has an unusually creamy texture and stayed fairly soft in the freezer unlike some sherbets I’ve made earlier this year which turned into chrystalline ice shards.


Rhubarb Sorbet

  • 3 1/2 cups of chopped fresh rhubarb (4-5 stalks)
  • 2 1/2 cups of water
  • 1 2/3 cups of sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of lemon zest
  • 2 tablespoons of corn syrup

  1. Place the rhubarb, sugar, water, and lemon zest in a large and heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 5 minutes, uncovered.
  2. Let cool to room temperature. Working in batches, purée the mixture in a blender until smooth. Stir in the corn syrup. Cover and refrigerate until completely cold, preferably overnight.
  3. Process the ice cream according to your machine's manufacturer's instructions. The sorbet will have a soft texture right out of the ice cream maker. Freeze a couple of hours before serving.


adapted from Simply Recipes via Tartelette

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Lemony Buttermilk Sherbet


The first time I used buttermilk I was a bit put off by the sour milk smell. But the results you get from in baking have made me a convert. It just lends such a wonderful tanginess and tenderness to baked goods. Oh and it’s good in ice cream. I have since grown accustomed to that funky buttermilk smell, but when cultured dairy products are combined with sugar and a little citrus zest the result is deliciousness. Even though buttermilk can smell funky, this ice cream tastes nothing like sour milk.

It is lemony, light and refreshing not to mention low in fat (if you ignore the sugar content, that means it is healthy) Martha Stewart magazine calls this a buttermilk ice cream, but it is more a sherbet or sorbet because it uses no eggs or cream, just simple syrup, buttermilk, lemon zest and lemon juice. And it is the easiest to put together since the only cooking involved is the syrup.

This recipe doesn’t stay creamy long so you should enjoy it pretty soon after it is made to take advantage of it’s fresh-churned softness. After about a week in the freezer, it gets a bit icy.


Lemony Buttermilk Sherbet

Makes about 6 cups

Dairy

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tablespoon corn syrup
  • pinch of coarse salt
  • zest of ¼ lemon (about ½ teaspoon)

    1. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water, and bring to a boil; remove from heat. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until chilled.
    2. In a large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, lemon juice, corn syrup, and salt. Slowly add the chilled simple syrup; whisk to combine. Stir in lemon zest. Freeze in icecream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

From: Martha Stewart Living Magazine October 2001 (called buttermilk ice cream)

Friday, August 21, 2009

Lavender Blueberry Muffins



You put flowers in your muffins?!

This was my sisters reaction to my description of these unusual blueberry muffins.

Lavender is such a pretty flavour, fragrant and woodsy it makes a lovely aromatic addition to all kinds of baked goods. I had tried lavender in shortbreads and jams but never baked with it myself so when I found some dried lavender buds at one of the grocery stores I frequent, I knew I had to make something with lavender in it. Enter the lavender –blueberry muffin. I found this recipe on the Toronto Star recipe archive. It is a somewhat unusual combination, but lavender goes amazingly well with berries especially when it is accented with a hint of lemon. This recipe is a basic blueberry muffin heightened with the addition of lemon zest and lavender. I ground the lavender with the sugar in this recipe to make lavender sugar before adding that to the rest of the ingredients. I also used the tiny little wild blueberries that appear in the markets this time of year. These tasted a bit more complex than your usual blueberry muffin recipe. The lavender flavour comes through as a subtle aftertaste that is accented by the lemon zest in the batter.

I think my only problem with this recipe was that it uses a full tablespoon of baking powder, which gave a light texture and created nicely domed cupcakes but I think it also made them a little on the dry side.

Despite that these muffins taste fresh and springy and bright , and with a bit of butter and jam they make a great brunch. I really like the combination of blueberry and lavender and I think I will try using lavender sugar in place of regular sugar in other blueberry treats.


Lavender Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1-1/4 cup buttermilk
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh lavender or 1 tsp finely chopped dried
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
  1. In food processor grind sugar with the lavender until lavender is finely ground.
  2. In large bowl, combine flour, lavender sugar, baking powder and salt.
  3. In separate bowl, beat eggs and stir in buttermilk, oil, lemon zest, and blueberries. Stir into flour mixture just until dry ingredients are moistened.
  4. Pour into lined 12-cup muffin tin. Bake in preheated 375F oven 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely before removing from pan.


Makes 12.