Lovely, Lavender, Lulls Lori

Yes, I am silly. I think I am punch drunk from being busy having fun and weeding the jungle, er, I mean garden. My DH is outside at this moment finishing up. It was so bad, it's downright embarassing.

I planted lavender in my garden last year. (Yes, that garden needs weeding too so don't look too closely). I love lavender. The scent is so lovely. I recently found out that lavender, in a study, was shown to reduce anxiety. The study says that it has a calming effect on the nervous system. Of course it has been known for a while that it helped people to sleep but now they have confirmed that it reduces anxiety. Check out the article here. Now that I have a ton of it in my garden, I can dry it, and put sachets all over the house!

A couple years ago I had lavender in some lemonade. I tasted it at the County Fair. I really liked it. I was kind of hesitant about it because in an instant it can go from a lovely taste to an overpowering, perfumey taste.
I have been drying some out, so I added it to these tarts. I added some lemon curd and I think they were a nice little treat. I took most of them over to a friends house. (I hope she liked them.)
Lemon Lavender Tarts

the tarts:
adapted from Tartelette's recipe

8 tablespoons butter, room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn starch
pinch of salt
lavender buds ( a smidge)

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, takes about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the egg and mix until incorporated. In a measuring cup mix together flour, salt and cornstarch. Lay a piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface. empty contents of mixer onto the wrap. Gather it up into a disc and refrigerate for an hour or more.

Once the dough has been chilled, it's ready for rolling. Use plastic wrap to roll it out.

* I used pie weights on a large tart I made. With the remaining dough I made five mini tarts.

Press lavender buds into tarts before baking. Bake at 350F. Bake until lightly golden on edges.

Lemon Curd

5 yolks
1 cup sugar
juice and zest of 4 lemons
1 stick of butter (4 oz.) cut in eight pieces

Combine yolks, sugar, juice and zest of lemons in a stainless steel bowl. Whisk until combined. Place bowl over boiling water. (You could also use a double boiler). Stir with whisk constantly. You want to heat it until it sticks to the back of a spoon. When you run your finger through it, it makes a trail. This usually takes anywhere from eight to ten minutes.

Take off the heat and whisk in pieces of butter one at a time until melted. Place in a glass or ceramic container and refrigerate. You can store this for about a week. It freezes well and defrosts rapidly.