Probably my mom’s favorite thing I’ve ever made: Lemon Lavender Biscotti
Storytime-In my cookies class at school part of our final was to create our own recipe on the spot using just the ingredients we had on hand and the base recipes/procedures we’d already used. Being..well me, I was determined to come up with something completely different from everyone else in the class, so while everyone else was grabbing the chocolate and dried fruit I went to the herbs and spices cabinet. There I found a lonely little container of lavender blossoms that had never been opened. I was absolutely determined to use it but knew I didn’t want to use JUST lavender in a cookie and the thought popped in to my head of the tea I used to drink at home called lavender dreams and how i would always put some lemon in it. SO through that thought process I decided not only that I was going to put lemon with my lavender, I was going to make it in to a biscotti so I could take it home (it was just before winter break) and have it with my tea since it was December in Connecticut and I needed tea and sugar just to function.
I brought them home and set them on the counter along with all of the other goodies I had to make for cookies final and told my mom and brother to go ahead and eat whatever they wanted while I went away for 2 days. Well, I only got about 2 of those little biscotti because my mom LOVED them. I seriously still get little comments about them close to two years later.
So the a while back I was in NYC poking around the farmer’s market in Union Square and I saw a little stand that sold lavender. I’d been looking all over for lavender for a couple of months so I definitely had to get some. And by some I mean half a pound (which mom even paid me back for so WOO!) And of course my first thought is that I’ll make those lavender lemon biscotti as soon as I could. Not to mention in the car mom smelled it, asked what I had gotten and as soon as I said lavender she brought them up. So of course I recreated those lavender lemon biscotti. Finally. And they’re amazing.
Recipe Below
Modified from a base I got at school, unfortunately I just have a printout so I don’t know where it actually came from.
- 2 Cups Flour
- 1 Cup Sugar
- ½ Tsp Baking Powder
- ½ Tsp Salt
- 4 Tbsp (½ stick) COLD Butter
- 1 Tbsp Milk
- 2 Large Eggs
- ½ Tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ Tsp Lemon Extract
- 2 Fresh Lemons
- A few pinches Lavender Blossoms-About 2-3 Tsp but I didn’t measure (make sure your lavender is either organic or okayed for consumption because it is often treated with chemicals and pesticides otherwise)
- A bit of White Chocolate (optional)
- Preheat Oven at 350 degrees.
- Grease a baking tray and set aside (Parchment Paper works as well)
- In a small bowl put the 2 eggs, Vanilla and milk.
- Whisk together.
- Clean your lemons and then grate the zest of both (just the yellow part so you see the white under the skin) into the liquid mix.
- When the zest is gone from the lemon slice in half and squeeze the juice in from only one half.
- Whisk your liquid mix again.
- Add the lavender and just press it in to the liquid with your fingers until it’s mostly covered and set aside.
- In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Sift so the mixture is blended well. (Running a whisk through it works too if you don’t have a sifter).
- Now prepare to use your hands.
- Cut the butter into small chunks and add to flour mixture. Then with your hands in the mix, break up the butter and blend it with the mixture using your fingers.
- You want this dry mixture to appear like crumbs.
- Once you have a good mix, create a well in your dry bowl and pour in your wet ingredients.
- Stir this mixture with a wooden spoon until it is too hard to mix. (You can also do this in a stand mixer on a middle setting with the paddle)
- The mixture will be crumbly.
- From here finish mixing your ingredients with your hands like kneading bread, then roll it into a ball.
- Transfer your mixture to a floured surface and roll out your ball to resemble a 10-12” log.
- Bring your dough over to prepped baking tray.
- Using your hands flatten the log into a large oval shape.
- It should now be 6” wide and 15” long or more.
- Bake for 30 minutes
- When you take it out of the oven, let it cool for only 5 minutes.
- Then with a sharp knife cut the biscotti out into 3/4 inch wedges.
- You should get about 12-15 pieces.
- After cutting, flip the biscotti wedges on their sides and place back in the oven for 10-12 more minutes.
- Once your biscotti is cool melt down the white chocolate with a double boiler or in the microwave and either dip them or drizzle it on to biscotti.
