lavender milk chocolate brownies.

I know what you're thinking. Another lavender post? Yeah. But it's not that I'm absolutely in love with it or anything- I'm just want to try out all the popular lavender combinations while I'm still in the mood to experiment. First, I combined lavender with honey, or you could see it as lavender and cream (but most things taste good with cream I guess). Secondly, also lavender and lemon, in that same dessert. Now I'm attempting lavender with chocolate. I figured that milk chocolate would work best because of its sweetness mild flavour.

P.S. I also made lavender shortbread cookies. You could turn most things into cookies and they would be an instant hit.

I was initially worried that the lavender taste would show up too prominently because they smelled really strongly of lavender when baked. I find that true, the first sensation you get after biting into one would be of lavender galore but slowly, the chocolate flavour creeps up while the lavender fades away. That is, if you don't happen to take a bite off a lavender bud. Even if you do, it's not that intense, so don't worry. Of course, if you want the brownies to taste less of lavender you could use less.

I actually added just a touch of lavender paste in with the brownies but on hindsight, I shouldn't. It screams artificial. Luckily, the minute amount I added takes a lot of concentration to be noticed. I just really shouldn't have bought it at all. What a waste. If I were to use lavender paste, I probably should use the off-white stuff. That seems less unnatural.

Have any of you used lavender paste before? What did you use it in?

Lavender Milk Chocolate Brownies
makes an 8 x 5 inch pan's worth

For the brownie:
36g cake flour
3/16 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp dried lavender
3 tbsp butter
1 1/4 ounces milk chocolate
1/4 ounce unsweetened chocolate
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
70g brown sugar

Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare a 8 x 5 inch pan.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and dried lavender together. Set aside.

Melt the butter, chocolates and salt. Set aside to cool slightly then stir in the vanilla extract.

Whisk the egg and brown sugar until the mixture is pale and thick. Whisk in the chocolate mixture until combined. Stir in the flour mixture just until the flour disappears.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 18 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the brownie comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool completely before slicing. For easier and cleaner cutting, I like to refrigerate my brownies until thoroughly chilled, about 4 hours after cooling in the pan for half an hour. To speed up the process, place the brownies in the freezer for 30 minutes.