Lavender's blue, dilly dilly

I have always loved lavender as a flower and for its scent, but I have only lately begun to appreciate it for its culinary potential. I have had as a kid lavender rock and lavender fudge, but I am discovering that it's so much more versatile than that.

For my birthday afternoon tea a month ago, I made lavender shortbread. It was dusted with the most delicious lavender sugar, made by whizzing up dried lavender and caster sugar into this heady grey powder that filled the room with perfume. There was sugar left over, so I have kept it for a special cake or pudding.

Tonight I was cooking rump steak, and I rubbed it with dried lavender flowers crushed with the mortar and pestle and mixed with a bit of ground black pepper. The result was very good - subtle, but added a lovely depth of flavour to the meat. It really is a herb that works with savoury as well as sweet. I'm keen to explore more.

Brownies - so good

I was at a local cafe yesterday, and saw that they had cinnamon crunch brownies. They were deliciously fudgy chocolate with a yummy crunchy layer on top, laden with cinnamon and white chocolate chips.

The slice was served with vanilla icecream and oh so good. I am going to have to see if I can get the recipe from them.

Choc malt slice

I made this for an afternoon tea I am hosting tomorrow. I'll post on that later because tea, and the gathering of people to enjoy it, deserves a post all to itself.

This was created with a list of oh so yummy but oh so unhealthy ingredients: chocolate biscuits, maltesers, condensed milk and butter. And chocolate on the top. This recipe came from an Australian Women's Weekly book I have. It's no bake, just melt and mix - how easy can you get? I modified it a bit - the recipe had it topped with plain milk chocolate with a malteser sitting on the top of each square, but I couldn't be bothered mathematically lining up the maltesers before I cut it up, so I did the white chocolate instead.

My good friend Catherine gave me a similar recipe for Malteser slice which uses golden syrup instead of condensed milk, and scotch finger biscuits. It is brilliant and I LOVE it, but I thought I would try this recipe out.

I was actually going to make brownies instead, but I am on an egg-free diet at the moment as my baby Ella has been having strange nappies and we are investigating food protein intolerances. At least I can have chocolate - for a while there I was dairy, soy and egg free. Not so fun, but actually quite good for my snacking habits.

Anyway, here it is - hopefully it will taste good. The white chocolate is a bit wobbly at the sides because the slice was a bit too cold when I poured the chocolate on and it was already starting to set. Oh well - you live and learn.

Later note: The recipe is posted on this blog. Find it here: Choc malt slice recipe