lemon lavender bread

It has been a whirlwind 8 weeks since baby boy was born! He's healthy, strong, full of smiles and super cute but I still feel like I'm in survival mode! I am admittedly finding it more difficult than I thought I would to get my new content on here (hence, this is my first post in 8 weeks!), but we're still moving forward!

Lavender is an ingredient that used to intimidate me because it sounds so fancy in a recipe.  I'm here to tell you that it is very simple, accessible and it totally elevates a dish and gives it a little something different. I was first introduced to lavender lemonade at one of my favorite New England restaurants, Pickity Place.  This restaurant is incredible with seasonal, rotating menus on a monthly basis and they grown all of their own herbs on site.  Their lavender lemonade is like drinking a spa day.  I picked up a container of their culinary lavender in the gift shop and since then I've made lavender brownies​, vegan lemon lavender sugar cookies and today I've got a simple bread for you that is a perfect dessert, tea time treat or would be incredible to serve at a bridal or baby shower.

Lavender can be potent and a little bit goes a long way in a recipe.  I've used 2 tablespoons of culinary lavender in this bread recipe as the lemon is also quite a strong flavor and can over power; however, you can easily dial the lavender up or down a notch by increasing or decreasing the amount you add to the sugar.  In this recipe, you will create a lavender sugar by processing the lavender with the sugar in a food processor or high powered blender.  It takes only seconds and then you mix it into the recipe as you would regular sugar.

Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients

For the bread
-2 TBS culinary lavender
-3/4 cup sugar
-2 eggs
-1/2 cup olive oil
-zest of 1 lemon
-juice of 1/2 lemon
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 1/2 cups flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-1/2 cup whole milk

For the glaze
-1/3 cup powdered sugar
-juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions
Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Add the lavender and sugar to a food processor or high powered blender.  Process/blend until the lavender breaks down in the sugar (you will still see flecks of lavender but both the sugar and lavender will be more fine in consistency.  This typically takes less than 30 seconds).

Zest and juice the lemon.  Reserve 1/2 the lemon juice for the glaze.  In the large bowl for a stand or hand mixer, combine the eggs and lavender sugar.  Cream together until combined.  Add in the olive oil, vanilla extract and lemon juice/zest.  Mix together until fully incorporated.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt.  use a fork to stir the dry ingredients together on top of the wet ingredients before mixing.  Mix the dry and wet ingredients together until a thick batter forms.  While slowly mixing, pour in the milk and mix until combined and batter thins out a little bit.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 50-55 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 20-30 minutes before inverting and transferring the bread to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Prepare the glaze while the bread cools by combining the powdered sugar and the reserved lemon juice.  Whisk together until it forms into a smooth glaze.  Once the bread has cooled, top with the glaze, slice and enjoy!