Lavender & Other Flavoured Sugars

When I was making Lavender & Lemon Cheesecake, the recipe called for some lavender sugar to decorate it with. I know sugar is seen as something we should be reducing in our diets but flavouring sugar makes it a treat that we can enjoy just a little of to make something really special.

Making lavender sugar couldn’t really be any simpler: mix lavender flowers and sugar and leave in a jar for at least a week.

You can use fresh or dried lavender flowers – just make sure you are using culinary lavender. Rough quantities are: 1.5 – 2 tbsp fresh (or 1 tbsp dried) lavender flowers to 1 cup granulated sugar. Scale this up or down as you wish.

Put the lavender flowers and sugar into a container that has a lid. Stir and mix together the lavender flower and the sugar. You can put the sugar mix in a food processor to finely chop up the flower buds into the sugar but I love seeing the buds in the mix.

Let the lavender sugar mix sit in a sealed jar for a week in a cool dark place to allow the flavour to fully develop. You can also sift the flowers out using a sieve after the sugar has flavoured if you don’t want them in the final product.

You can use the same method for other flavours such as rose, violets, rose or peppermint scented geranium, or vanilla – or make a combination. If you put them into decorative jars they make great gifts: perhaps a trio of different sugars. Or make a lavender or rose themed gift and combine with other sweet treat like lavender syrup.

You can use lavender (or any flavoured) sugar in any recipe that you would use sugar to transform the flavour. Use it for sponge cakes, scones, pancakes, crepes or muffins to turn them into something extra special. It is really delicious in shortbread or try sprinkling it on halved peaches and nectarines and put them under the grill until just brown and caramelised.

: Make a trio of flavoured sugars

: Try rose, violets, scented geraniums or vanilla

: Make a themed gift

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