I love herbs! I wish I had a fabulous herb garden, but I don’t. But I do have a fabulous pot with as many herbs as I can squeeze in there. This year I planted basil, chives, oregano, parsley and lavender. After I planted them and stood back and admired my very green thumb handy work I smiled. The pot looked beautiful-a yellow Italian ceramic pot filled with beautiful spring things. I walked in the house to wash my hands and turned around and the damn new dog had dug them all up. So you judge me for drinking at 3pm, but seriously doesn’t that deserve a big olé glass of wine? The herbs were planted a grand total of 5 minutes. But, don’t worry I replanted them and hoisted the massive pot onto the counter outside and that is where it has lived. And I use my herbs everyday!!
So lavender is a new herb for me, but I love it!! The smell is just heavenly and I wanted to come up with some uses for the purple buds in recipes. I wandered around the kitchen hoping that I would get an inspiration and wouldn’t you know I saw my beautiful bowl of Meyer lemons. Yes, the Meyer Lemon again! I had to find another use for them and I wanted to use the lavender… So I came up with a Meyer Lemon and Lavender Créme Bruleé.
Another twist to this traditional French recipe is that I made it family style. I could not find all my ramekins so I made one large créme bruleé and holy moly it was amazing!! My family loved it!!! And it was pretty darn easy.
Meyer Lemon and Lavender Creme Brulee
Makes 6 Servings
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons dried culinary lavender buds
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
6 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar plus 3 Tablespoons for topping
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
Preheat oven to 300°
In a medium saucepan over medium heat combine cream, lavender and lemon zest. Heat until bubbles form around the edges. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Once cream mixture has cooled strain through a mesh sieve and discard lavender buds and zest.
In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar. Once combined slowly whisk in infused cream.
At this point you can either pour the custard into 6 ramekins or 1 large 9" pie plate.
Place the ramekins or pie plate into a large baking pan. Slowly add enough warm water to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Creating a bain marie or water bath.
If baking small ramekins, bake for 35-40 minutes.
If baking one large dish, bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the center of the custard jiggles just a bit.
Remove the custards from the baking dish and water. Let cool and transfer to the refrigerator for 2 hours.
When ready to serve, sprinkle the 3 Tablespoons sugar evenly over the top of the custard. Place the custard dish(s) under the broiler for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar becomes golden brown. It will harden once it cools.
Notes:
1- You can make this up to 2 days in advance and store in the refrigerator. Just do not sprinkle the sugar on top until ready to broil.
2-If you have a fancy blow torch use that instead of the broiler.
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