The flavor of lavender

We've gotten settled into our new house, and I am finding the most wonderful plants growing! There is purple sage, rosemary, mint, spearmint, lillies, lilacs, cilantro, white and purple lavender, peonies, hostas, a butterfly bush, roses, and more! I'm excited about the herbs, and am making a goal to learn how to use them! (fresh and dried!) It is absolutely wonderful to know we have these at our fingertips, and it inspires me to want to cook more! I know what you are thinking, "This girl does not cook!", and you are right. I hate cooking. I hate the prep, I hate the mess, and I hate the cleanup! I am, however, trying to improve on that, and become more comfortable in the kitchen. I love to bake, so when I was at the Virginia Herb Festival at Sunflower Cottage, and tasted the most delicious lavender cookies,  you know I HAD to find a recipe! So this morning I went out and picked some fresh lavender, found a recipe, and made some for myself!

Here is the recipe, which was originally found here:

Lavender Cookie Recipe

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 extra large egg, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoons dried culinary lavender, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Lightly grease a cookie sheet

3. In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar; mix well.

4. Beat in the egg.

5. Sift together the flour and baking powder into the mixture.

6. Add the lavender; stir until thoroughly combined.

7. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

8. Let cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve on a platter. Garnish the platter with lavender flowers.

Now, I had to make a few adjustments to this recipe. I used fresh Lavender, and through some internet research, I found you have to use 3 times the amount of fresh as you do for dried. So I used 3 tablespoons of fresh lavender. I pulled off all the flowers and buds and separated them from the stems. This was tedious, but I enjoyed the smell and had I now had a 17month old "helper" it would have gone faster. The second adjustment was the baking time. The recipe says 15 minutes, the first batch had browned edged and seemed dry, so the second batch went in for 13 minutes, this resulted in less browned  edges, but still dry. The last batch went in for 11 minutes, and this was the perfect cooking time (in my oven, yours may vary!)