One day I found myself walking down a street that had Lavender plants lining the sidewalk.
I stopped to admire the inappurtenant floral arrangement and thought to myself, “I want to eat you.”
I knew immediately which recipe to use to properly accentuate the floral smell: A Vanilla Scone. There are no overpowering flavors in my vanilla scone recipe that will divert attention from the Light/Fresh flavor of lavender (contributed by the lavandulyl acetate, found in naturally occurring lavender oil). Also, since both both vanilla and lavender contain the floral flavoring linalool compound, it makes sense that these will pair nicely.
Lavender Learning Lesson
Before jumping into the baking process, I wanted to educate myself about lavender to ensure a more appreciative first bite. Below are some key points that intrigued me the most that I felt were worth sharing:
- Lavender is in the mint family of herbs and spices. What does this mean?
- Mint Family Anatomy: the surface of mint family herbs displays microscopic oil glands where the plants’ essential oils are stored and diffused from as the plants first line of defense against predators (like me?).
- Do not eat excessive amounts of lavender while on blood thinners because the sweet aromatic smell of lavender is contributed to by a compound called coumarin , which interferes with blood clotting. How much is an excessive amount of lavender?
- I do not know how much lavender is considered “excessive”, but one or two scones from the recipe below probably isn’t a toxic dose of lavender.
- There are multiple species of Lavender, and the type that is best for this recipe is French Lavender (Lavendula Stoechas).
- Lavandula dentata blossoms are the lavender species most traditionally used in herbes de provence (along with basil, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, and fennel – all members of the mint family, except fennel
Alright! Now that we are all pumped from a lavender lesson, let’s make some scones!
Wait…if you have never used lavender in cooking before, you are probably wondering where do you get lavender for cooking? You certainly shouldn’t just pick the blossoms from the planter downtown
Answer: Get your lavender from the same place that I get my lavender!
I used to get my culinary lavender from Williams-Sonoma because it was good, local, and reasonably priced, but I went online and found out they discontinued the product, so I order this lavender from Amazon now, and it still holds the “a little goes a long way” attribute.
Now that you have your lavender! Let’s get started!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose Flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
- 2 Tbsp Culinary Lavender
- 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter (grated)
- 1 cup + 1 tsp heavy whipping cream
- 1 large egg
- Optional: Honey
Procedure:
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Spray an 8-inch round cake pan with spray and flour the pan.
- In the food processor bowl, add flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, culinary lavender, and vanilla bean seeds. Pulse until combined.
- Add the cold butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly.
- Transfer dough to a large bowl, fold in 1 cup of cream, stirring until combined. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly, just until dough comes together.
- Press dough into prepared cake pan. Using a sharp knife, cut into 8 wedges. Transfer wedges to a prepared baking sheet.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and remaining 1 tsp cream. Brush tops of scones with the egg wash, and bake until golden brown, 12-15 minutes.
- After letting them cool for awhile, these scones are ready to eat!
- These lavender scones can be enjoyed simply with a light glaze of honey drizzled on top! Enjoy!
