Monday Bake - Lavender Shortbread

What a great couple of weeks - I have loved the Olympics  - watching sports I have never watched before and shedding more than a few tears at the medal ceremonys - I can't quite believe it is all over - could it not have been on for a month?   We have had the BBC coverage on all the time we have been indoors - this morning I didn't even switch on our television - it needs a rest!  There is the paralympics to look forward to - we are going to see the swimming and we also have tickets to the Olympic Park, which we are really excited about.  

Last week we went Lavender picking at Hitchin Lavender.  We could smell the lavender as soon as we got out of the car.   It costs £4.00 per adult (children are free) and for your £4.00 this you get a pair of scissors to borrow and a plastic bag to fill with lavender. 

When we rounded the corner to the field we could just see rows and rows of beautiful lavender.  The colour is amazing, we walked to the top and the view of the surrounding countryside was lovely.

We picked our row to walk down to collect our lavender.  We saw several butterflies and the buzzing of the bees was incredibly loud, they were very busy working away.   

They advise to cut from the sides of the bushes, not the tops and we quickly filled our two bags.  

Once we had finished we headed to the cafe in the barn.  Minibakebakegirl had millionnaire shortbread and a cup of tea, hubby had coffee with a piece of toffee crisp. I had coffee with some lavender shortbread, which was lovely, the lavender flavour was very subtle.  We didn't realise until we left that you could have free refills of filter coffee - we will remember next time!

I have filled 3 vases with my lavender to dry out and bag for future crafty projects, such as my knitted lavender heart or my lavender hanging bag.  While we were having tea a huge bee came in the living room - we heard him before we saw him.  Hubby said it was obviously attracted by the lavender!

I had never made lavender shortbread before so I googled some recipes.  I chose this one from the Good Food website.  I made the lavender sugar a few days before, I used 250g of caster sugar and 1 tsp of lavender flowers and stored it in a jar.  I found this a good recipe as it makes one baking sheet of biscuits - not too many at once.  It can also just be made with plain or vanilla sugar. 

Thanks for visiting, next week my blog post will be from Edinburgh :o)

Bakebakegirl

Todays top three Spotify songs.

1. Freedom - George Michael 

2. West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys

3. Rule The World - Take That