http://www.lavenderfieldsforever.com

This photo is taken by Nestorz at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nestorz/8417269567/in/photostream

He has amazing photos on that website as well as he is the photographer for my parents company called lavenderfieldsforever.com

My family grows fresh lavender and we produce the oil and products. I wanted to blog about this because lavender is a very well known culinary ingredient these days and eventually I would like to put some of my families recipes on this blog that involve lavender. 🙂 One great recipe is, lavender vanilla creme brulee. (You can find the recipe below)

Lavender Creme Brulee-

For the recipe I incorporated my family’s organic fresh dried lavender to this recipe which gives it such a nice flavor. To prep for this prior to making the recipe, 1 teaspoon of dried culinary lavender. ( You can always order from our website as well, if you can not find culinary lavender.)

2 cups of heavy cream

1 whole vanilla bean split and scraped

1/2 cup of white sugar, plus 6 tablespoons for sprinkling over the top

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon of culinary dried lavender flowers

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Place 4 shallow oval 6- oz ramekins in a large baking pan lined with a kitchen towel.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil; keep hot until ready to use.

2. In a small saucepan, add your dried lavender to the cream , heat the cream on medium and add the vanilla bean and mix until the mixture starts to steam about 6 minutes. Turn off heat. Make sure you strain out the lavender and keep your creme.

3. In a large bowl, whisk togethr 1/2 cup of sugar and the egg yolks until combined. Whisking constantly, slowly add hot creme mixture. Strain mixture into a clean bowl. Skim off any surface foam with a spoon.

4. Pour custard into ramekins. Carefully pour the boiling water into baking pan until it reaches halfway up sides of ramekins. Bake until custard is just set in the center when gently touched with your finger, about 35 minutes. Transfer ramekins to a wire rack to cool. Cover with a plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator to chill completely, 2 to 3 hours or overnight.

5. Transfer to freezer 45 minutes before serving. Remove from freezer, and sprinkle 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar over entire surface of each. Using a kitchen torch, pass the flame in a circular motion 1 to 2 inches above the surface of each until the sugar bubbles, turn amber, and forms a smooth surface. Serve immediately. Kali Orexi 🙂