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| Home made Lavender Biscuits |
It has a
wide range of medicinal and culinary uses both savoury and sweet. Queen Elizabeth I was fond of Lavender tea
apparently.
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| From my garden |
I have been
growing Lavender in my garden for years, it looks beautiful, gives off a
heavenly scent and the bees love it. It
also makes the most fantastic biscuits.
One of the
things I love about these biscuits is the reminder of the importance of
seasonality in our eating habits. I use
fresh lavender flowers and therefore bake them only in the summer. So for me they are one of those recipes with
strong seasonal associations
This recipe
is one adapted slightly from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible.
There are a
few critical points to be aware of…
Firstly, we
are aiming for a ‘short’ type biscuit here.
This means it should crumble in your mouth as you bite it but not fall
apart completely. Imagine a nice buttery
‘shortbread’ type consistency. Therefore…
- We use a good quality ‘plain’
flour which is low in gluten.
- We ‘work’ our dough as little as possible at the
mixing stage.
Secondly,
oven temperatures vary from oven to oven.
So the cooking time is not exact, you need to experiment and be able to
judge when they are ready. You want some
colour on the biscuits, they shouldn’t be too pale. Remember when you take them out of the oven
they will be soft as they are hot, they have butter in them and butter is soft
when warm. Don’t be tricked into
thinking they aren’t done because of this.
As they cool, they become crisper and firmer.
Be ready to
experiment a little here and get to know your own oven. My experience is that it is better to be a
couple of minutes under done as you can always return them to the oven
later. When a biscuit is over done there
isn’t much you can do about it.
And
finally, use good quality butter. Do not
even think of using margarine.
Ingredients
175 g of
really good quality unsalted butter
100 g of
caster sugar
225 g of
plain flour
2
tablespoons of very finely chopped lavender leaves.
Utensils
A large
mixing bowl
A wooden
spoon
4 sheets of
greaseproof paper
A large
baking tray
A wire
cooling rack
Method
Put the
well softened butter and the finely chopped lavender into your mixing bowl and
beat with the wooden spoon until really well mixed. This will help to extract as much of the
flavour from the lavender as possible.
Add in the
caster sugar and beat again until really well incorporated.
‘Stir’ in
the flour. Don’t beat it or overwork at
this stage. You can use your hands to
bring it together but don’t ‘knead’ it like bread. However, you do want the flour thoroughly
incorporated.
Divide the
dough in half. I actually return to the
scales to get an exact amount.
Place each
half of the dough onto a sheet of greaseproof paper and shape it into a sausage
about 15 cm long. Roll up the greaseproof
paper around the dough and bring it together tightly to form a kind of
Christmas Cracker shape. Return this to
the fridge until firm, about 30 minutes but it depends on the temperature of
your fridge and how often you are opening and closing the door!
Pre – heat
your oven to 180 °C. If you are using a
fan assisted oven then 160 °C.
N.B. If you
want to put two trays in at the same time then you need a fan oven. If using a conventional oven then use only
one tray as the heat becomes blocked by the tops and bottoms of the trays and
you won’t get an even bake.
Place a
sheet of greaseproof paper onto your baking sheets.
Unwrap your
dough sausage and cut into nice even biscuit rounds. Get the same thickness here or they won’t
cook evenly.
Place the
biscuits onto the paper lined baking trays and straight into the oven.
Cook for
about 15 minutes. I would check after
about 13 – 14 minutes. Remember that you
are looking for a nice golden brown colour to them.
When done,
leave to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to your wire rack to cool
completely. They keep really well in an
air tight container.
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| Gorgeous, buttery, summery lovliness! |
Enjoy
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