Valentine’s Day is sneaking up on us! Whether you’re celebrating with friends or someone special, you have to admit chocolate is kinda a must. I came up with this recipe a couple weeks back because I, like most girls, love flowers and chocolate any day of the year. I love experimenting with floral flavors in baking recipes and this one turned out be delicious!
I used rosewater and dried lavender for the recipe. Rosewater is available in most large grocery stores usually near other extracts or sometimes in the Indian food aisle. Dried lavender is a little trickier. We have a spice shop nearby that carries it, but someplace like Whole Foods should carry it as well. You can always try your local farmer’s market too! I don’t recommend using lavender from florist, you never know if pesticides or other harmful chemicals were used. You can also try finding lavender oil at a market and using a few drops instead.
Also, I used a heart shaped pan from WorldMarket for this recipe. This produced about two dozen individual brownies. You can use a traditional brownie pan (9×13) as well.
Lavender & Rose Flavored Brownies
Prep time 30 minutes – Bake time 20 minutes
Ingredients
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1 cup + 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried lavender
1 cup of cocoa powder
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup of softened unsalted butter
3 large eggs at room temperature
1/8 tsp of rosewater
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup of milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Butter your brownie pan and then dust with cocoa power (not regular flour). This way there’s no white residue when you remove the brownies out of the pan.
Combine the flour, sugar (1 cup), baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Pinch and crumble the dried lavender and sprinkle in the flour mix. This releases the lavender oils so that the flowers are fragrant and add flavor.
Combine the cocoa power and 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick) in a large heat proof bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of boiling water (this process is know as a bain marie). Continuously stir with a wooden spoon as the butter melts and blends with the chocolate. The mixture is ready once you have a smooth, glossy bowl of melted chocolate. Remove from heat and set aside.
Add the vanilla, rosewater and 1/2 cup of sugar to the melted chocolate mixture. Next add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each one. Add the flour mixture alternating with the 1/2 cup of milk until fully blended.
Pour batter into brownie pan and fill about 3/4 to the edge. Bake for 20 minutes if using a small individual brownie pan, like this heart shape. If using a larger rectangle pan, bake for 30-40 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center. Brownies are ready when the toothpick comes out clean.
Hope you all get to try this recipe out for Valentine’s Day. Let me know what you think!
