There are several easy ways to make these versatile sugars. They can be used to flavour cookies, cakes, puddings, teas (either herbal or regular varieties), icings, fruits; used as garnishes…your imagination can run wild as your culinary skills advance. A drop or two of a suitable food coloring may be added for an added visual impact.
Two simple general recipes are following, along with specific uses for Mint Sugar and Vanilla Sugars included in betweenclosefriends.com blog along with recipes for interesting desserts (Tomato Ice Cream, Lavender cookies), how to recipes for cream cheese, cottage, yogurt, etc…).
Herb Sugar
1. Add a few leaves of any sweetly flavored herb—such as lemon balm, mint, lavender, or rose geranium—to ½ cup granulated sugar. Blend on high in blender until herb and sugar are one. A drop or two of suitable food coloring may be added. Wonderfully refreshing in teas and for delicately flavouring cookies or puddings.
2. Keep a range of superfine and confectioner’s sugars in small, lidded jars and flavor them with mint, rose petals, rosemary sprigs, bay leaves, lavender flowers, scented geranium leaves, and sprigs of thyme. The amount of herbs you use will depend on the quantity of sugar, and the intensity of the specific flavour (either sweet or savory) that you require. Experimentation to ‘find your own level’ or ‘personal sugar signature’ is one of the exciting joys of creative cooking in your kitchen!
Before using your flavored sugar made by the second method, ensure that you sift it through a large-holed wire strainer to filter out any stray petals or larger pieces of the leaves, in particular the lavender or geranium.
These tasty herb sugars can be packaged in small tight-fitting lidded jars, decorated with a brightly coloured ribbon, add a little note relating to the specific sugar contained within and its suggested uses, then gifted as a wonderful reminder of summer’s bounty. Friends and family will delight in your thoughtfulness of sharing your gardening expertise and culinary skill.
Tags: colorful sugars, gifts from the kitchen, herb sugar, herbal gifts from the kitchen., how to make flavored sugars, how to make flavoured sugars, how to make herb sugars, lavender sugar, lemon blam sugar, lemon sugar, mint sugar, rose geranium sugar