Lavender Is Food

My sister-in-law loves caramel. She also loves lavender. Her affection for these items are documented here and here. For her birthday present, lavender fleur de sel caramels were the obvious choice.

Happy Birthday Beth!

Lavender Fleur de Sel Caramels
adapted from Epicurious
1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon lavender fleur de sel
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup1/4 cup water

1 tbs culinary lavender, chopped and additional fleur de sel for sprinkling on top of caramel.

Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then oil parchment. Bring cream, butter, and fleur de sel to a boil in a small saucepan, remove from heat and set aside.

Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until desired shade of caramel is reached.

Carefully stir in cream mixture and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers 248°F on thermometer. Pour into baking pan and cool 2 hours. Cut into 1-inch pieces, then wrap each piece in a square of parchment paper.

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!