Monday, April 30, 2012

What I've enjoyed this month: April 2012

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Oh, April. Where do I start in recapping this month?!

I suspect it goes without saying that our engagement lifted the month to Very Memorable levels. Indeed, with the accompanying trip to Exmouth, the first week of April turned out to be one of the more memorable weeks of my life.

When we returned, there was Mr Bite's birthday, complete with two cakes, and the rest of the month seemed to go by in a bit of a blur.

With that being the case, there are still some 'normal' things that I've enjoyed in April. That afternoon spent in Fremantle was one, and making lavender biscuits was another. Here are some others.

Smoothies

I enjoy smoothies, but don't make them regularly. Several things have contributed to a smoothie run in April, including being able to run more consistently than injuries have made possible of late (smoothies post running are particularly good), and finding this milk:


Several Australian bloggers have already exclaimed their excitement over this reaching Australia, and I can only add mine. Not only is this almond milk cheaper than the brands I could previously find, it is available at my local supermarket (no driving around town to find it), has calcium, and is, as proclaimed above, unsweetened. I've updated my non-dairy milk spreadsheet to include it.



In the above smoothie collection we have;

  • Almond milk, frozen banana, coffee and hemp seeds (top left and centre; I'm quite fond of this mix!)
  • Almond milk, frozen mixed berries, coffee, and hemp seeds (bottom left; an optimistic twist on the banana, which didn't really work)
  • Almond milk, frozen mixed berries, and that Vitarum sugar free drinking chocolate that I'm struggling to find uses for (right; surprisingly good)

There was also the green smoothie I enjoyed in Fremantle, and a few others haphazard creations not pictured here. Given that Perth's weather is finally getting cool, I'm not sure how long the smoothie kick will continue for, but it's been fun while its lasted.


Hemp Seeds and The Face of Birth
(I promise there is a link between these seemingly un-linked things...)

I was fortunate enough to receive not one but two give aways in April. The first was thanks to Theresa at The Tropical Vegan, who hosted a give away of hemp seeds provided by Hemp Seeds Australia.

I had hardly heard of hemp seeds prior to Theresa's post, and so was interested to read the nutritional benefits of them (they are sources of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, and of protein). I was absolutely thrilled to then be given a pack to try, and have been adding them to all sorts of things ever since. I'll save the results for a dedicated hemp post, but suffice to say I'm enjoying them - one product is featured right, and you may have noticed that hemp seeds featured in many of my smoothies.

The second give away was a copy of The Face of Birth DVD from Brydie at cityhippyfarmgirl. In addition to feeling mildly guilty for receiving two free things, I initially felt a undeserving of this because (i) I haven't had children and (ii) having children isn't planned any time soon. However, I am so grateful to have been able to watch the film. It is one I think all women - particularly all Australian women - should be able to watch.

It's difficult to summarise this documentary. It focuses on childbirth and  the importance of being able to make choices about how, where, and with whom childbirth happens. Being set in Australia, it also talks about how Australia's medical system approaches pregnancy and birth, including the idea of home births, and how this compares to other countries.

Prior to watching the film, I had very little knowledge or understanding of home births. If the idea of childbirth was daunting, the idea of doing it at home was definitely scarier still! This isn't surprising, it turns out, because Australia doesn't really support home births. They occur in a tiny minority of cases, and nearly became illegal in 2009. Last year, Professor Fiona Stanley publically endorsed home births, and called for those who label them as "unsafe" to provide data to support such claims. Despite her reputation in the area of child health and development, she was criticised for her comments.

There were many things in the movie that were powerful, but two in particular I wanted to touch on. The first is that research suggests the risks associated with home births are the same as those associated with hospital births, for low risk pregnancies. The second is that other countries have a completely different stance on home births. In the UK, the National Health Service supports home births and births in non-hospital birthing suites, with these options receiving NHS support and being available as choices for all mothers.

I don't know if I'll ever want to deliver a baby at home, but I do know that if I'm ever pregnant I would like to be given choices, and not told something is dangerous if the data suggest it is not.

Given all of the above, I would be happy to send the Face of Birth DVD on to someone else if anyone is interested in watching it. If there are a few people, perhaps we can have a DVD migration around Australia. Just let me know in a comment or email if you would like to watch it.

After that lengthy section...

Purple carrots

After finding them in Coles, I was thrilled to discover them yesterday at the local weekend markets where I usually buy fruit and vegetables. It seems they are well and truly in Western Australia! I'm more than a little excited to be able to try more purple dishes.


Purple carrot muffins are currently dancing in my imagination, so I think it's safe to say we'll be seeing more savoury and non-savoury purple products before long.
What has your April involved?!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Product reviews: Wrap bread x2, and the peanut butter of doom

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This post may give an insight into my vulnerability to supermarket specials. Hopefully, it will also give some insight into the following three products. One of the three is likely to become a bite-sized household staple...I wonder if you can guess which?




These wraps are marketed on the basis of their high fibre content. They contain 30% rolled barley flakes, along with wholemeal wheat flour and a reasonably long ingredient list beyond that (including things like canola oil, white vinegar, apple juice concentrate, baking powder, and the normal string of presevatives and added vitamins).


Each 45g wrap has 437 kilojoules / 104 calories, 5.4g protein, 2.2g fat, 10.6g carbohydrate, and 10.4g fibre. That is quite a lot of fibre, as the following picture highlights!


I really liked the taste and texture of these wraps. The barley makes them slightly chewy, and they have a mild nutty taste that I enjoyed. They were great with salad and hummus, with a spread of tahini, and even with honey.

In the end, though, the fibre content was a disadvantage for me. When you consider that fibre guidelines are in the range of 20g - 30g per day, one wrap can almost give half of your daily requirements. This might be good for people who eat a low fibre diet, but for people who eat lots of fruit, grains and vegetables, it's fairly easy to get to 20g of fibre without trying. Moreover, I quite often eat multiple wraps a day. Doing that with these wraps might, I think, end in some discomfort!


I also found these to be quite expensive, at $6 for a pack of 5 (at Woolworths). I bought them when they were available at 2 for the price of 1, but I'm not sure I would be able to justify them at their regular price.

All in all? I really enjoyed these in terms of how they are to eat, but they are probably too high in fibre and too expensive for me to consume regularly.



Mountain bread wraps are probably the wraps I buy most regularly. They are wraps you can happily eat two of - they are light and versatile, enjoyable at lunch or for snacking, and plain or with fillings. Mostly, I buy the rye or barley varieties for regular use, and enjoy the slightly harder to find spinach and tomato and basil flavours for variety.

When I saw the chia seed version, there was no doubt that I would buy them. These wraps are also quite reasonably priced, at $4 for a pack of 8 (or $2.50 if you buy packets in bulk from the Mountain Bread website).


The ingredient list is simple, albeit wheat based (for those that are bothered by that) - simply wheat flour, chia seeds, water, and iodised salt.


The serving suggestion is also for 2 wraps, something that makes me feel better about my tendency to eat that many in one go. A single wrap has 160 kilojoules or 75 calories, 2.8g protein, 0.5g fat,  13.7g carbohydrate, and 0.8g fibre. It also provides 110mg of Omega-3 fatty acids and 240mg of Omega-6 fatty acids (a fish oil tablet would give 300mg of Omega-3, as a point of reference).


In this instance, slightly more fibre and 'density' to the wraps would have been nice, but I did greatly enjoy the chia seeds. They gave a slight crunch and made the wraps fun to eat.


I note that the Mountain Bread website also refers to a new spelt flavour, so I will be keen to try that too at some stage. In the meantime, I will be adding this chia seed variety to my Mountain Bread rotation.




I didn't want to buy this. In fact, I really, really didn't want to buy it.

I reminded myself that I don't like regular commercial peanut butter. I reminded myself that it tends to make me feel sick, because inevitably I eat it off a spoon and regret it. I reminded myself of the odd sweet-salty nature of commercial mixes, that contrasts so poorly with the much nicer and much simpler 100% peanut versions.

I held out for several months. I knew I would probably give in eventually. After all, it was a commercial peanut butter, but it was whipped. Fluffy! Like peanut butter in mousse form...and we know I have a weakness for anything in mousse form.

And then it was on special for half price. $3 instead of $6. I gave in.


I am nothing if not predictable.


This really was fluffy, and mousse-like, and all the things I'd hoped for. It also made me feel a bit sick, and it was too sweet and salty.

I guess Kraft is predictable too.

The ingredient list on the whipped peanut butter is pretty similar to that for regular commercial peanut butter - there is sugar, and salt, and oil - so the main difference is in the whipping. I don't know how they do it, but this pictured jar is 375g, and a jar of the same size with regular peanut butter is 500g. Spoon for spoon, the whipped variety is thus slightly lower in calories and fat, although I wouldn't say it is any better for you.


I'm glad I tried this, though, because I have now got it out of my system. I'll stick with the 100% peanut versions from now on!

Any new product discoveries in your world recently?
Or have you tried any of those pictured here?

Thursday, April 26, 2012

ANZAC Day

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I think I'll let the pictures speak for themelves...








A different sort of Wednesday, that is for sure. Quite a lot better than a day spent sitting at a desk at work!

For fellow Australians, what did you get up to yesterday?
For those elsewhere, did your Wednesday involve anything out of the ordinary?

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Purple fried rice

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For some time now, I have been admiring purple carrots on other people's blogs. Johanna almost has a purple carrot recipe collection happening over at Green Gourmet Giraffe, and then there is Brydie's purple carrot bread, not to mention recipes like purple carrot cake trifle. I tell you, purple is the new black!

I had resigned myself to purple carrots not being available near me, and thought that they may be a cold weather vegetable not grown in Western Australia. When I saw a punnet of multi-coloured heirloom carrots in January, I even bought some in the hope of growing my own. Of course, this wasn't entirely logical given my thoughts about the carrots potentially needing cold weather. They haven't done very well, something that could be related to my planting them in the middle of Perth's hottest summer ever!


Given all of the above, I was thrilled when I found that purple carrots had arrived at my local Coles supermarket. The fact that they were flown over from Tasmania (for non-Australians, the other side of Australia to where I am...) may explain why I don't see them at the fruit and vegetable markets where I usually buy fresh produce. I swallowed my guilt over buying non-local carrots, packaged in plastic wrap no less, and took them home with a certain amount of glee.




Initially, I just wanted to try the carrots raw. Would they taste different? Would they smell different? The answer, to my surprise, was both yes and no. They seemed a little earthier, a little mustier, than the orange carrots I know so well, but they were still definitely carrot-like.

This, I am a little embarrassed to confess, is dinner when I'm tired and don't get to starting it until 7pm: steamed vegetables, baked potato, and a vegetable burger

With the initial tasting out the way, I wanted to try purple carrots in a proper dish. In the end, I made variation of a dish I make regularly, which in our house tends to be referred to as 'mixed up rice dish'. A combination of some variety of rice, some mix of vegetables, and some protein - often tofu.

For this dish, I used 'Mathew's Delicious Tofu', as previously mentioned in this post and featured on Veganise This and In the Mood for Noodles. I made smaller pieces than the first time I made it, and they worked well mixed through the rice.


This is similar to rice dishes I have made previously, so I expected it to taste similar too. However, it didn't! It tasted quite considerably better - like the fried rice of my childhood Chinese take-away memories, but fresher and with more distinct flavours. 

I wasn't expecting that and am still unsure if the purple carrots were responsible or if it was just the particular combination of ingredients I used. Irrespective, it was quite ridiculously good. We both agreed that it tasted better than the usual, orange carrot version - so much so that I think it may be worth the ongoing, occasional purchase of purple carrots!

Purple fried rice

Serves 2 - 3

Ingredients
2/3 cup white or brown rice, uncooked
~175g (I used half of a 350g packet) firm tofu, pressed and cut into pieces
~1 - 2 tsp oil
1/8 cup maple syrup
1/8 cup soy sauce
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp chilli sauce
1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped
1 onion, diced
3 purple carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 capsicum, diced
2 sticks of celery, diced



Method

Cook the rice according to packet instructions, until just cooked (I used white rice and cooked it on the stove top using the absorption method).

Meanwhile, stir fry the tofu until golden brown on both sides (use oil to taste; I used a drizzle). Combine the maple syrup, soy sauce, lemon juice, chilli sauce and ginger and whisk together. Pour over the tofu and cook until the sauce is nearly evaporated. Set aside.

In a large non-stick pan, stir fry the onion (again, use oil to taste) until lightly browned. Add the carrot, capsicum and celery and stir fry for a further 2 - 3 minutes. Add the tofu and remaining sauce and mix through. Keep over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the rice is cooked and can be added.

Add the rice to the vegetable and tofu mix and stir over low to medium heat for a few minutes. Then turn off the heat and allow the dish to stand for 10 - 20 minutes. Reheat in the pan before serving.





Have you used purple carrots? Do you find them to taste any different to the orange variety?!

Update 11th June 2012: Version two of this dish (with tofu bacon) can be found here.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Chocolatey chocolate cake

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Just over a week ago, we concluded Mr Bite's birthday celebrations with a birthday dinner with his family. His 'main' birthday cake was reserved for this occasion, and he requested the exact same chocolate cake that I made him last year.

I was delighted that he liked last year's cake enough to want it again. It should, in theory, also be easier to make the same cake one has made before rather than to make a new variety.

The only problem with this is that I rarely make the exact same dish twice. I make a concerted effort to write down measurements when I know I'll be blogging about a recipe or meal, but I don't even follow my own recipes exactly when I re-make them, never mind ones I get from elsewhere. I approximate, substitute, swap, and generally modify things to taste, mood, or circumstance.


Given this, the task of making the exact same birthday cake became a source of some anxiety. I knew the cake recipe had come from Taste.com.au, and I knew I had printed it out and thrown it into carefully stored it in my disorganised recipe drawer. I also knew that I had tried to follow the recipe closely last year, but couldn't remember if that meant exactly or just close to exactly. I also couldn't remember what chocolate I had used in the cake. All in all, I was reminded of why blogging recipes is so useful, and desperately wished that I had blogged about this cake in 2011!

My anxiety about the cake escalated when I couldn't find the recipe print out in my recipe drawer. There were some tense minutes spent sitting on the kitchen floor surrounded by papers, asking myself yet again why I can't organise my non-blogged recipes in a sensible manner.


In the end, I located the print out, made some decisions about chocolate, and dived in. It smelt the same as last year. It looked the same as last year. In the end, I am pleased to say, it was pretty well the same as last year.

The cake is very rich, and Mr Bite compares it to the densest chocolate mud cakes. I am not one for dense chocolate mud cakes and so it is much more his sort of cake than mine - fitting, of course, on his birthday. It is one of life's minor mysteries that I could eat chocolate almost endlessly, but chocolate cake is inevitably either too rich and slightly nauseating, or too dry and just not exciting. This cake is definitely in the former category, so if you like rich and dense and fudgy, this may be a cake for you.


My version of the cake is only slightly adapted from the original Taste.com.au recipe, and so I wouldn't usually re-post it here. However, I am keen to have it safely recorded for next year if it is requested! I also found the recommended cooking time to be too short, both last year and this year, and the original recipe doesn't give recommended chocolate brands or cocoa percentages. I have noted what I used below.

Chocolatey chocolate cake

Rich, chocolatey, and fudgy - a cake for special occasions
Lightly adapted from the classic chocolate cake on Taste.com.au
Makes 1 large round cake

For a printable version, see the original recipe


Ingredients

For the cake
200g good quality dark chocolate - I used 100g of Lindt 70% cocoa and 100g of Cadbury 'premium baking chocolate' 45% cocoa
1 1/3 cups plain flour
2 tbsp good quality cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
225g butter
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk

For the ganache icing
150g good-quality dark chocolate - I used 60g Lindt Lindor 60% cocoa and 90g Cadbury 'premium chocolate' melts with 45% cocoa
125ml pure cream
20g butter, margarine or non-dairy spread


Method

For the cake
Preheat the oven to 160'C and grease and line a 24cm or larger round cake tin.

Mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over the stove top, or in the microwave on low power, stirring regularly. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs gradually, continuing to beat. Pour in the slightly cooled chocolate and beat well. 

Add ~1/3 of the dry ingredients and ~1/3 of the milk to the butter mixture, and beat until incorporated. Repeat until the dry ingredients and milk have all been added and mixed through. The batter will be almost mousse-like.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 58 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. (58 minutes seems very precise, I know. The recommended baking time was 45 - 55 minutes, but my cake was not even close to ready at 45 minutes. It was just set at 58 minutes.)

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then allow to cool completely on a wire rack.


For the icing
Melt the chocolate, cream and butter in a heatproof bowl over the stove top, or in the microwave on low power, stirring regularly. 

When melted, stir to combine and then allow to cool at room temperature or in the fridge for 30 minutes or until thick. 

To make chocolate curls, run a sharp knife or a vegetable peeler down the back or edges of a block of chocolate.


Without icing, this cake doesn't look particularly exciting. The icing, in contrast, is thick and creamy, spreads easily, and allows for a smooth and polished finish. I guess that is what cream does! It is certainly an easy cake to decorate.




For comparison, here is last year's version...


And a final shot of this year's...


I think that's as close to 'exactly the same' as I will ever get!

Do you have a 'go to' chocolate cake recipe? And are you a chocolate cake sort of person?

Friday, April 20, 2012

Fortnightly Fitness Fridays - A Sweat Pink Post

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For a little while now I have been aware that I present this blog as being about "food, health, fitness..." (and so on, see column to the right) but post on fitness and exercise relatively rarely. I have some posts on the topic of course, but they appear intermittently and with no particular structure.

This blog is never going to be all, or even mostly, about fitness. That's just not what I enjoy writing about the most. I like talking about food, and creating new dishes, and sharing the results. At the same time, exercise is a major part of my life, and a part that I consider instrumental in keeping me sane. I would like to mention it a little more than I currently do.

Recently, a solution to this minor dilemma landed in my lap. The lovely co-founders of Fit Approach asked if I would be interested in being one of their 'Sweat Pink Ambassadors'.


To give you a sense of the philosophy behind Fit Approach, I'd like to share a quote from their website:

"Do you have a passion for inspiring others on their journeys to health? Do you believe that strong is the new skinny, pink is the new black, and that a positive attitude and whole foods are a healthier route to happiness than self-loathing and 100-calorie snack packs?" [Source]

The last part, in particular, rings absolutely true for me. It is incredibly nice to be connected to like-minded women, and to know that a group has been created to promote this philosophy.

With this Fit Approach involvement, it seemed like a good time to organise the way I approach exercise-related topics on this blog. My goal? From now on, once a fortnight on a Friday, I will do a fitness-related post. These are likely to be varied and linked to whatever activities I've been doing or thinking about over the previous 2 weeks. The activities may be formal or informal, exercise in the high-intensity sense or just a walk or cycle outdoors somewhere.



Today, I thought I'd share some of what I've been reading lately about running stride or cadence. I've never thought a lot about how many steps I take each minute when I run - I pay attention to how far and how fast, but not my specific stride rate.

It turns out, there is a remarkable amount written on 'optimal' cadence, where cadence is the number of steps you take per minute. It is accepted that everyone is going to run slightly differently, but striking around 180 steps per minute, 90 on each foot, is believed to be more efficient than lower stride rates, and to reduce the likelihood of injury whilst also increasing running performance. Not surprisingly, therefore, it is a cadence that is common to elite runners.

To clarify what 180 strides per minute feels like, in one second you would need to have your left foot hit the ground, then your right food, and then your left foot again. In other words, it is quick! Most people don't run at that rate naturally, and doing so requires your legs to stay close to your body and for each step to make contact with the ground only briefly. This, in part, is what accounts for the lower injury rate with this quicker stride.

I was curious to know what my 'natural' cadence is, so I set out to count my strides on a treadmill this week. My most comfortable speed when running is 11 km / hour (6.8 miles / hour), and so I set the treadmill to that speed and counted my foot strikes for a minute. I did this a few times and counted about 160 quite consistently. 

I then adjusted my stride to make three steps to one second, and was able to run at a cadence of 180 without too much difficulty. It did feel odd, but manageable. And the impressive thing was, it also did feel better. I had to shorten my steps quite noticeably, but it felt lighter and smoother and I could imagine running that way over long distances. I'm not sure how I will go without the timer of the treadmill to guide me, but it is definitely something I'll be paying attention to. If it can help my knees and hips stay uninjured, it will certainly be an adjustment that would be worth the effort!

If you run, do you know what your stride rate is? Or had you heard of 180 steps being a recommended number?

I'd also love to hear your thoughts on how these fortnightly fitness posts unfold. If you have suggestions or ideas, please let me know!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Lavender biscuits with lemon and yoghurt, for a refined afternoon tea

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When I experimented with vegan cheesecake earlier this year, you may recall that lavender and lemon was one of the flavours that I settled on became obsessed with making. So much so that when I couldn't find culinary lavender, I picked some lavender from a neighbour's garden and used that instead (!).

This lavender focus came, in part, from seeing recipes around the web for raw lemon and lavender cheesecakes. However, there was another contributing factor too. Back in 2010, Mr Bite and I stopped at The Lavender and Berry Farm cafe near Pemberton, in the south-west of Western Australia. The cafe offers Devonshire teas and one of the scone flavours available is lavender.


When we visited, I am afraid that neither of us was adventurous enough to try the lavender scone. It did intrigue me though, and in the way that things sometimes do, lavender has been lingering in my imagination ever since.

Lavender garnish, but no lavender scone...

After my vegan cheesecake post, I was fortunate to receive an email from Lavender World in the UK, a company that ships culinary lavender worldwide. They offered to send me a complimentary packet so that I could enjoy lavender products without needing to raid neighbours' gardens. They also explained that culinary lavender is slightly more subtle in flavour than the freshly picked variety, and less likely to provide a bitter aftertaste.


As you might imagine, I was delighted by this offer and was grateful to receive a packet by mail shortly before we went to Exmouth.


Given my memory of the lavender scone that never was, I had intended to try out the culinary lavender in lavender scones. At the last minute, though, I changed my mind to biscuits. I like scones best when they are fresh, and with a house full of chocolate and leftover birthday cake, a product that didn't need to be eaten quickly seemed like a more sensible choice.


There is a recipe for lavender tea cookies in Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Vegan Table; effectively a shortbread recipe with the addition of lavender and some lemon. I'm not a big fan of shortbread biscuits, so I adapted Colleen's recipe to reduce the butter, add yoghurt, and also use lemon juice instead of lemon zest.

The result?


I was blown away by these biscuits. Absolutely smitten. For someone who doesn't even like biscuits very much, these drew me in and captured my tastes completely. The lavender flavour was detectable, but also subtle - I could tell the difference from when I used fresh flowers. The lemon provided contrasting undertones and the biscuits themselves were dense, but slightly less rich than shortbread.

Mr Bite enjoyed them too and these will definitely, definitely, be biscuits that I'll make again.



Lavender biscuits (cookies) with lemon and yoghurt

Subtle, delicately flavoured biscuits that are perfect for serving to guests...or for keeping to yourself
Makes about 24 small biscuits
Vegan if you use non-dairy yoghurt


Ingredients
1/2 cup non-dairy spread or butter (I used Nuttelex)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbsp dried culinary lavender
1 tsp lemon juice
1 1/4 cups plain flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
Pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp plain, thick yoghurt (I used non-fat, pot-set, dairy yoghurt)

Method
Cream the non-dairy spread / butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the lavender and lemon juice and stir to combine.

Add the flour, cornstarch, salt, vanilla and yoghurt to the creamed sugar mixture. Stir well to combine. The mixture should come together as a thick dough.

Wrap dough in cling wrap and place in the fridge for ~30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 170'C and prepare two baking trays. Distract yourself as you see fit (kitchen dancing is optional).

Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper, to approximately 6mm (1/4 inch) thickness. Cut into shapes using cookie cutters or a small glass. Place on baking trays lined with baking paper and bake for 18 - 20 minutes, until the biscuits are just turning golden at the edges.

Cool on the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.


I promise you, these biscuits will make your heart sing.


I can see lavender scones on my horizon soon too!

Thank you to Lavender World for providing the culinary lavender used in this recipe. Whilst they provided the lavender for free, the opinions are of course my own.

Have you baked with lavender? Or tried lavender scones?