Lavender Honey Lemonade

During one of the stops on our trip to the Kitsap Peninsula last weekend, at the Poulsbohemian Coffeehouse, I had this great Lavender Honey Lemonade. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I found a recipe for lavender lemonade from a local lavender farm and tweaked it to recreate what I had over the weekend:

Lavender Honey Lemonade

1 cup honey
1 tablespoon dried culinary lavender (or 1/4 cup fresh lavender blossoms)
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, strained
Ice cubes
Lavender sprigs for garnish

Combine honey with 2 1/2 cups water in a medium pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the honey.

Add the lavender to the honey water, cover, and remove from heat. Let stand at least 20 minutes (and up to several hours).

Strain mixture and discard lavender. Pour infusion into a glass pitcher. Add lemon juice and another 2 1/2 cups cold water. Stir well.

Pour into tall glasses half-filled with ice or refrigerate until ready to use.

Lavender Chocolate Mousse Pie

Last month's lavender flowering resulted in some lovely dried culinary lavender. What better way to enjoy it than to couple it with chocolate?

My husband makes this wonderful chocolate mousse pie, so we adapted it to include a lavender infusion with the cream. It turned out aromatically heavenly.


Lavender Chocolate Mousse Pie

Crust
21 organic Newman's Own chocolate sandwich cookies (or Oreos)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted organic butter, cut into pieces, room temperature

Mousse
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped *
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
3 3/4 cups chilled whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons dried culinary lavender

For Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a 9-inch diameter springform pan with 2 3/4 inch high sides. Finely grind cookies in food processor. Add butter and process until mixture is evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture onto bottom and up sides of prepared pan to form thin crust. Bake crust 5 minutes. Transfer crust to rack and cool completely.

For Mousse:
Combine chocolate (* we like Callebaut - you can get it at Whole Foods), vanilla and salt in food processor. Bring 1 cup cream and 2 tablespoons dried lavender to boil in heavy small saucepan. Strain cream mixture to remove lavender buds. With processor running, gradually pour hot cream through feed tube and process until chocolate is melted and smooth. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Cool to room temperature stirring occasionally.

Beat 2 cups cream and sugar in large bowl to still peaks. Fold into chocolate mixture. Pour mousse into prepared crust. Chill until set, about 6 hours.

Serves 8. Errr, 5?