Lavender Vanilla Custard Pie

Lavender is a wonderful herb to cook with. Many people do not think of food when they think of lavender. But when used properly, it can be a very nice herb.

One of my most favorite combinations in lavender and vanilla. These two combine on the palate in such a way that the result is greater than the sum of the two flavors. Most amazing.

Today Carolyn, a friend and star of the video Distilling Lavender Essential Oil (click here to watch video) had her annual pie party. Last year I brought my other lavender-vanilla favorite: ice cream. But it is a pie party after all. So I decided to think about putting lavender into a pie. My inspiration came from a lavender vanilla creme burlee that I have heard about, but never tried. I thought, a lavender-vanilla custard pie would be a wonderful variation.

The recipe is simple. I made my tried and true crust using whole wheat white flower and organic butter for shortening. Then for the custard, it was: 3 eggs (I used eggs from my hens here on the farm), 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, and 2 1/2 cups cream, 8oz of cream cheese, a table spoon of vanilla, and of course about a half cup of culinary lavender buds (courtesy of Carmel Lavender). First I scalded the milk. While I was heating it, I allowed the lavender buds to soak in a strainer on top. This makes a lavender cream 'tea'. I allowed about 10 minutes on the stove to keep the cream hot, stirring frequently to keep it from burning, and pressing the lavender from time to time. I also put the cream cheese into the milk to let it melt. Then I mixed the sugar and salt, beat the eggs, and added the eggs to the sugar salt. Next I stirred into the sugar/salt/egg mixture the vanilla. Finally I added the lavender cream mixture and beat with an electric beater. This was poured into the pie shells and baked for about 45 minutes, checking frequently after about 20 minutes.

For my first lavender-vanilla custard pie, it came out great! I took 3rd place in the non-fruit category of the pie contest! I was actually honored. There were almost 40 pies. And they were all quite wonderful. Some were in fact amazing.

Take a look at this pie that took second in the category. This was a honey chiffon pie with an apricot marmalade glaze. The crust was a no-bake crust made from vanilla wafer cookies. They hand made each of the little bees out of dark and white chocolate with almond slivers for the wings. They made the honey comb pattern by pressing and freezing bubble wrap into the custard. Quite creative. And I must admit, it tasted fabulous. There is Wendy and Pam receiving their well deserved 2nd place prize from Carolyn.

Since I raise bees, I particularly liked this one :)

First place was a chocolate caramel macadamia nut pie that was quite intense. It is really hard to top that combination!

In the end, Chef Chaz from the Big Sur River Inn judged best of show. This went to a French apple with a walnut crust.

Now the hard part, trying to sleep after tasting so many pies! I must say, half way through the tasting, I thought I'd pass out from the sugar rush :) Night now!