Garden Season continues! The basil, thyme, and sage are going crazy. The tomatoes are starting, and the peppers are gaining color. When we first planted our garden, I added a little lavender plant. One year later, the plant has increased in size probably ten-fold and I've never used it for anything. Time for that to change.
Most lavender recipes out there are for fresh or dried lavender
flowers. I had a great time exploring all sorts of different recipes and information links
here,
here, and
here. I ultimately decided that I wanted to use various Lemon Lavender muffins as an inspiration. I've used lemon once before, although the result wasn't very successful.
Last time, I used so much lemon juice that the dough was extra soft, and the lemon scent was overpowering. This time, I decided to pair the lavender leaves with the zest of a lemon. Additionally, I added quite a bit of sugar to this recipe and used warmed milk instead of water to proof the yeast. I think the yeast may have under-proofed a bit, because my resulting challah was dense, almost like a tea biscuit... which was really my goal. This is the kind of challah that I want to slather with lemon curd and serve with Earl Gray tea.
1/2 c milk (I used skim)
1 tsp active dry or instant yeast
1/4 c plus 1/4 tsp sugar
1 egg (split, I beat it then used "most" in the dough)
2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
Zest of half of 1 lemon
Leaves of 1 sprig of fresh lavender
I based this recipe off of my REALLY Small Batch Challah, as I did earlier this month with Strawberry Basil Challah. One small-size loaf.
Finely chop the
lavender. Place lavender and
milk in a small sauce pan on the stove and warm. Add the
yeast and
1/4 tsp sugar. Let rest for about 10 minutes. Add the
egg,
rest of the sugar, and
lemon zest. Add the
flour and
salt.
Knead with a dough hook on 2 or by hand until the dough holds together as a ball. {You can see how small this batch is here.}
Cover and place in a covered, oiled bowl. Let rise until doubled bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. As I said, the dough didn't seem to really rise... but I just went with it. Braid as normal.
The Hazz also made me a little "A," perfect for a pre-Shabbat sampling...
Let rest for about a half hour. Egg wash with the reserved egg and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 180 degrees.
I love this challah. It's surprising. It smells like tea time. It just feels
fancy. I'm calling it a success. Can't wait for more challah from the garden throughout this summer.
Shavua Tov, from our bayit to yours!!!
