March 14, 2009

Flower Power

6 years ago this July, my husband's cousin married one of my dearest friends. My other dear friend (and sister-in-law) and I threw her bridal shower. We cooked a wonderful spring luncheon complete with lavender iced tea. In order to make the tea, my SIL had been "harvesting" lavender from her neighbors and had left it draining in the kitchen sink. Her husband came home and proceeded to wash the dishes, splattering sudsy water all over the lavender. My SIL began yelling at him to watch the lavender because she needed it for her lemonade. He replied incredulously, "I didn't know lavender was food!"
Ironically, this July my sister/brother-in-law are expecting their first child and at a mini baby shower the afore mentioned cousin and I threw for her, she brought me a jar of culinary lavender. And this months You Want Pies With That challenge, Herbs & Spices, gave me a great reason to try it out.  Since this was my first try at cooking with lavender, I opted for Fruit and Lavender Cream Tartlettes. I altered my standard pastry cream recipe by first adding 2 teaspoons of lavender to the boiling milk and steeping it for an hour. The base is a sweet tart dough and they are topped with white peaches and strawberries with an apricot glaze.  Spring has definitely sprung.

Head on over to the You Want Pies With That to see what all the other Creative Tarts came up with!

9 comments:

Sara said...

Yum, this looks SO tasty! I love lavender, and I will definitely have to give it a try in some pastry cream. This definitely seems like the PERFECT spring recipe! We don't have good peaches in the store yet, but when we do, I am definitely going to have to see if I can make this tart happen!

The Food Librarian said...

How lovely! That pastry cream must have been so delicious with the infused lavender. Yum and Happy Pi Day!

suz said...

Absolutely beautiful. These must have been a big hit!

Libby said...

Oh, those are lovely. It's strawberry season here, so thanks for a wonderful idea! Libby

Ellen and Tom said...

Oh I love lavender with fruit! I almost used lavender for this challenge, too. Your tarts look lovely and what a funny story about the shower.

jane of many trades said...

i like to add lavender to raspberries, never tried it with strawberries or peaches though. sounds divine!

Jacque said...

That looks wonderful!! I would love a taste of that right about now.

P.S. I don't think your pie is on the "You Want Pies with That" list for this month... you might want to check with them.

Anonymous said...

Lavender is the newest addition to my spice rack. I used it in whipped cream. Cannot wait to try using it in the actual pastry cream.

Anonymous said...

I have culinary lavender and don't use it as often as I should. Your tarts look amazing.