Image used with permission from Sarah at Sarah's Cucina BellaThis month's Sugar High Friday theme is Sweet Gifts. It's being hosted by Danielle over at
Habeas Brulee and as you know, the event was started by Jennifer,
The Domestic Goddess. The timing of this worked out very well, as I had a visit coming up to my friend Sarah, of the blog,
Sarah's Cucina Bella. I really wanted to make her something that she liked, but at the same time wanted to try something new. At first, I thought it would be fun to make a Boston Cream Pie, but then with all the travel time, I was worried it would either be a visual disaster by the time I got to her home,or even worse, the pastry cream would have gone bad. So that was quickly taken off the list. It's weird sometimes, you know a person really well and she even has a blog telling you all the things she likes, but it's really hard to come up with some things you think she'd enjoy. Anyhow, I was doing my weekly Wednesday reading of the New York Times and Los Angeles Times and hit the jackpot. The Los Angeles Times has a weekly section called "Culinary SOS" in which readers, or in this case an employee of the LA Times writes in/requests a recipe from a neighborhood restaurant or bakery. In last week's edition, they covered a lavender shortbread from a bakery called Akasha. I've never been, but I immediately knew that it was the thing to make for Sarah. In reading her blog, I knew that she liked to experiment with lavender. I like lavender, but I had never baked with it, so thought it would be a good time to try something new out. As fate would have it, the Penzey's in Grand Central stocked jars of lavender blossoms, so I was all set on ingredients.
It was a good recipe! It was completely different than anything I'd made before. It was really easy to make and has surprisingly very few ingredients. If you use the amount of lavender recommended, it can be a bit overwhelming, so I'd recommend taking it down a notch. I also used a flaky fleur de sel which ended up not incorporating into the batter well. As a salt lover, I actually kind of enjoyed the little salt pockets as it added a nice kick to the strong lavender flavor. For the amount of sugar used, it wasn't that sweet. I actually didn't find it too overwhelmingly buttery either. Since it was my first time working with shortbread, I wasn't sure how long to bake, but next time I might bake it a bit longer. I baked towards the lower end of the time range.
Also, Sarah was kind enough to make dinner for me that evening. She made these lovely sweet potato fries - I LOVE sweet potato, and also made these very clever bacon wrapped cheese-stuffed chicken breasts. (Bacon+cheese+chicken) x bbq sauce=delicious. Anyhow, I volunteered for dessert duty, so I also had to come up with something for dessert. Again, I was stumped about what to make. I remembered the self-frosting Nutella cupcakes that were huge in the blog-world awhile back. Since I hadn't gotten a chance to make them, I decided to try them out. In reading many of the posts, some thought the cupcake recipe was too heavy, so I opted for a simple yellow cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart. I thought it was a smidge dry for my taste (it could be that I overbaked them), but not bad. When making them, I thought that the 1.5tsp of Nutella was a bit too much, but it's not. With just 1tsp, you end up with a Nutella center, but there's not enough to "frost" the top. If making them again, I would definitely use more Nutella.
Akasha's lavender shortbread
Adapted from Akasha Richmond of Akasha Restaurant, Bar & Bakery in Culver City, recipe posted on the
LA TimesIngredients
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/4 cup (loosely-packed, or 4 ounces) powdered sugar, plus additional for dusting
1 tablespoon dried lavender blossoms
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
Directions
1. In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, salt and lavender until light and fluffy.
2. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mix well.
3. Add the vanilla.
4. Add the flour and fold into the mixture. Mix until just incorporated.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl and create a long log - about 9 inches long and 2 inches thick. Wrap in plastic and place in the fridge for about 2 hours - or until firm.
6. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
7. Take the log of dough and cut it into 1/4 inch slices.
8. Place the cookie slices on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. These cookies will not change shape or spread, so when you place them on the cookie sheet make sure they look the way you want the final ones to look.
9. Bake for about 8-10 minutes. These cookies don't color.
Once they have cooled, you can serve as-is (what I preferred) or you can also cover with powdered sugar.
Self-Frosting Yellow Cupcakes
Adapted from Everyday Food
Ingredients
1.5 cups All-purpose Flour
1.5 tsp Baking Powder
0.5 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 stick (1/2 cup) Unsalted Butter
3/4 cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
Approximately 1/4-1/2 cup Nutella
Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In a separate small bowl, mix the milk and vanilla extract.
4. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix well.
6. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then the milk mixture and then the remaining flour mixture.
7. Mix until just incorporated.
8. Pour batter into cupcake liners, this should make about 12 cupcakes.
9. Put about 1.5 tsp of Nutella into the top of each cupcake. Mix lightly so that parts of the cupcake batter is covering the Nutella.
10. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Cupcakes are complete when a toothpick inserted comes out without any crumbs (aim towards the sides, where there's no Nutella)
