Lavender flowers

This short video demonstrates how to use Lavender flowers from your garden in three different ways.

When to pick Lavender flowers?

Pick the flowers on a warm, dry day. Damp flowers deteriorate rapidly and lose their potency.

Tie in bunches and leave hanging to dry and then strip off the flowers or leave on dehydrating trays to dry.

What are the best Lavender plants to use?

English lavender isn’t from England. It picked up its common name because it’s the kind of lavender that grows best in the UK. The plant is actually from the Mediterranean.

                                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The group in the  Aromatherapy Course: How to blend Essential oils will be using the dried Lavender flowers from my garden in their personalised Bath Salts. They will create their own Aromatherapy blend and then decorate with dried Lavender & dried Rose petals. They will also learn how to add Lavender Aromatherapy oil to Lip Balms, Body Lotions,  Massage Balms and Body butters.

How to make Lavender sugar

Ingredients

100g Caster Sugar

1g Dried Lavender flowers

Place the dried Lavender flowers in the bowl of a food processor and blend it for 10-15 seconds to chop it into small pieces. Add the caster sugar to the processor and blend well, for 15-20 seconds, until the Lavender flowers are finely ground and mixed into the sugar. Put the Lavender sugar in a Kilner jar to allow the Lavender flavour to further infuse into the sugar. When you are going to use the Lavender sugar for shortbread, then sieve the sugar to get rid of any larger pieces of Lavender.

Alternatively, finely grind the 1g of Lavender in a coffee grinder and mix with the caster sugar.

Recipe for Lavender Shortbread

Ingredients                                           (Makes about 20)

225g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

90g Lavender sugar (see Lavender sugar recipe)

225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

110g cornflour

Lightly butter 2 baking trays or line with baking parchment.

Put the butter and Lavender sugar into a large bowl and cream together, using an electric hand-held whisk or wooden spoon, until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and cornflour into the bowl and mix together until smoothly combined. Tip the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and knead to a soft dough. Don’t overwork.

Roll out the dough between 2 pieces of baking parchment to a thickness of 1cm. Prick the dough all over with a fork and cut into triangles or whatever shapes you like, using a knife or biscuit cutter. Re-roll the scraps once to cut more (if you re-roll too many times the dough may start to get greasy.) Put the shortbreads on the prepared baking trays and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat your oven to 170C.

Bake the shortbreads for 20 minutes, until just turning golden brown at the edges. Leave on the baking trays for a few minutes to firm up slightly; then lift the shortbreads onto a wire rack and leave to cool. Sprinkle over Lavender sugar if you wish to have a stronger Lavender flavour.