After that first taste of the honey lavender ice-cream at the Slow Food Nation Taste Pavilion over the Labor Day weekend, I have fallen in love with the idea of lavender in my food. It didn't help that a spate of recipes, food ideas, and pictures utilizing lavender in the creative culinary uses flooded the Internet in the following weeks. Naturally, I have to get my hands on a bag of culinary lavender, and that I did.

I've made Lemon Honey Lavender Shortbread cookies since with my bag of culinary lavender, but that is just the beginning; I still have a whole bag left. So how can I get my money's worth out of it? Scanning the collective brain of the Internet, one idea called out to me with its simplicity and the potentially wide-spread applications it offers--Lavender Sugar.

• The Kitchen Mage gave some pretty good tips in this post.
• I like the Herb Gardener's idea of keeping the lavender buds separate from the sugar with a muslin fabric, but don't really care for food-coloring.

And in the spirit of freestyle cooking, I made my own modifications. Instead of using a muslin fabric, I decided to use the loose teabags I use for my loose leaf tea to hold the lavender buds. That way, I don't have to strain the lavender buds from the sugar when I'm ready to use them; just scoop and use. And I don't have to go out and buy muslin fabric. Because the quantity of lavender buds I'm using is too little for my food processor, I decided to ground the buds lightly with a spoon before adding to the mixture. That helps to release the oils trapped in the buds and "refresh" the lavender.

Lavender can be overpowering when too much is used. Most websites recommend using 1 tbsp of lavender to flavor 1 cup of sugar, but you are welcome to increase the ratio of lavender to sugar if you prefer a stronger flavor.



I've gone ahead and used the sugar for my second batch of Lemon Honey Lavender Shortbread, which worked out perfectly. The uses for lavender sugar are similar to those of vanilla sugar, over baked goods, desserts, and fruits. For me, I'm plotting my next dish over a cup of tea, sweetened with, oh yes, lavender sugar.