Lavender Muffins
Yum
Lavender Muffins, made with fresh lavender buds and apple lavender jelly, done in 30 minutes, are delicate lavender bites with easy apple undertone. Perfect tasty little bites !
Edible flowers are back to our menu and we can enjoy fresh buds and flowers of so many varieties. Luckily, we can grow some on our veranda. Besides lavender, nasturtiums are so easy to grow. Nasturtium leaves are so great to mix with walnuts and olive oil to have absolutely amazing pesto ( Why didn’t I publish this one, I wonder ? )
Marigolds are great to have at hand. My neighbours are so kind to give me a bundle every season. Then I dry the petals to use since I know those I get are not chemically treated.
Among many edible flowers, my mother grows violets and lilac and they are also perfect to use, releasing their delicate sweet flavours.
I decided to develop Lavender Muffins since lavender is sweet, floral and delicate and can be used in both sweet and savory dishes.
It is known for thousands of years. Light and relaxing energy captured in this muffins recipe brings out the best of beautiful, everlasting edible and so healthy flower.
Also, if you do not have fresh lavender blossoms, dried ones can be used in this recipe. If that is the case, add only one tsp of them since 1 tsp of dried blossoms means more of them so the flavor is stronger.
I recommend you add Apple Lavender Jelly because it gives apple undertone. If you stick to my recipe, you’’ll find how easy is done. But it is not a must.
If you replace it with any delicate jelly or apple sauce, even juice made of apple, lemon or elderflower, you will get easy muffin recipe to enjoy your tea time.
Once you list ingredients, you see there’s nothing extraordinary required to make a batch of lavender muffins, Everybody will enjoy this light dessert.
You just whisk eggs, yogurt, sugar, baking powder, flour and some other ingredients available in every pantry, fill muffin tin ( 12 muffin cups ) and bake. There you have special and tasty treat after 20 minutes of baking.
Just please take care not to over-mix the batter. If you do, you’ll get dense muffins, so please be careful to get the best results.
Since there are so many great edible flowers recipes yet to be discovered, let me note some great ideas we tried:
- Peonies stuffed with ice cream,
- Tulip petals garnished spring salad,
- Rose petals syrup, salads and truffles decoration,
- Candied pansies to decorate cakes,
- Dandelion for vinegar and oil, tea, jelly ,
- Bougainvillea flowers for lemonade and as salad decoration ( this beauty grows successfully at our home ) ,
- Pansies to garnish both sweet and savoury dishes ,
- Hibiscus for tea and food colouring.
After all these information, I guess some questions pop out since it is not that easy to get edible flowers . Once you do, how to make them usable for longer period of time:
- How to make your fresh edible flowers last longer ?
The best is to have them growing at hand but let’s be hones: in most of the cases it is not possible.
So, once cut, keep them in clean water. To have fresh flowers for 4 – 5 days, change the water every day for the best results.
- How to dry edible flowers ?
I tried with parchment paper layer placed on sheet pan and covered with petals. I left it on our balcony but it was too hot so petals lost their colour and were dried ( „fried“ ) too quickly.
Oven is not an option as well since it is too hot as well. Flowers are so delicate ! At the end, I found it the most successful to place them on the top of living room cabinet for several days and tossed them occasionally. Once dried, I store them in cotton bag.
- Where to get edible flowers ?
The best is to grow them on your own. Balcony is just fine to do that. Just give them some time and love.
Street market and supermarkets nowadays offer some varieties too ( usually, it is edible flowers mix ).
Before you do anything with the plants you are not familiar to, please get as much information as possible from reliable sources since not every part of edible flowers is edible !
And at the end, let me say magnificent lavender brings warm memories back to what my grandmother used to do with lavender she grew in her garden : she used the flowers to deodorize chests and cabinets with freshly washed clothes and to keep them insect free.
Many people still do it nowadays. I do as well. But the muffins stay in the kitchen. 😊
Lavender Muffins
Lavender Muffins, made with fresh lavender buds and apple lavender jelly, done in 30 minutes, are delicate lavender bites with easy apple undertone. Perfect tasty little bites !
Ingredients
- 2 eggs, separated
- 7 Tbsp sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 Tbsp Apple Lavender Jelly or apple sauce
- 12 Tbsp yogurt
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 2 tsp fresh lavender buds
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 Tbsp sunflower oil
- Ingredients for topping:
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 2 Tbsp milk
Instructions
-
In a bowl, whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form.
-
Carefully add rest of ingredients and gently mix them with spatula.
-
Preheat oven to 180 C / 356 F.
-
Place paper muffins cups to muffins pan.
-
Fill muffin cups up to 2/3 and bake them for approx. 20 minutes.
-
While muffins are baking, in a small pot, mix milk and white chocolate until you get fine texture.
-
When muffins are baked, let them cool aside.
-
Once cooled, spread warm topping on the top of each muffin.
Leave a Reply