We have an abundance of lilac bushes in our backyard right now and since the fragrant flowers don’t last long we wanted to start using them in drinks and homemade baked treats! Working with fresh flowers is amazing and what is even more exciting is that they are edible and you can indulge all of your senses. The taste is pretty subtle when baked and brewed, so if you’re looking for a big punch of lilac flavor then add some fresh flowers as garnish directly onto your cookies, and into your glass.
In this blog we will be sharing a vegan sugar cookie recipe, using lilac sugar. You will need to make the lilac sugar ahead of time. If you want make the lilac sugar fast so that you can start baking, dry it outside within hours on a sunny day, on a baking sheet directly in the sun. Otherwise it will take a few days to dry the flower pedals inside.
At the bottom of this blog you’ll also find two different ways to brew up lilac tea, a cold brew and hot brew method.
We hope you enjoy these lilac recipes as much as we do!
Vegan Lilac Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (112g) Vegan Butter
3/4 cups (150g) Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 cups (250g) All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
3 Tbsp Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1/4 to 1/2 cup of lilac sugar (sprinkle as much as you’d like!)
Lilac Sugar
Before you can bake the cookies, prepare the Lilac Sugar:
Creating the lilac sugar takes at least an afternoon in the sun, or two days inside to dry! So you’ll need to plan ahead and do this step first before creating these lilac cookies!
Ingredients:
sugar - 1/2 cup
lilac flowers - roughly 1 cups of flowers stems removed
We like to double this recipe to have leftovers for another time,
Direction
Cut fresh lilac from the branch, one cluster should be good enough.
Wash the flowers well. Shake dry.
Cut the flowers finely, or Process them in a food processor.
Lay the lilacs onto parchment paper that is in a tray or pan, and sprinkle generously with the sugar. Making sure the flowers are laid flat, and spaced out if possible.
Allow it to air dry completely in direct sun on a hot spring or summer day, for quick drying. It will take a full afternoon. Or you can allow it to dry inside over 2-3 days.
Make sure you check on it, flip it over and breaking up clumps occasionally.
The dry time will vary, when dry transferred it to an air-tight container.
Baking the cookies:
Prep Time: 15— 20 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Yield: 2 dozen
Diet: Vegan
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C)
In a small bowl cream the sugar and vegan butter together and then add the vanilla extract and stir well.
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the baking soda and salt.
Add the wet ingredients to the larger dry mixing bowl and mix it all together with a wooden spoon or you fingers, it should be crumbly still but a bit like wet sand. .
Add soy milk and mix it by hand until you create a big ball of dough. If your mix is too crumbly, add in a little more soy milk..
Put out parchment paper onto a table, or a baking mat and flour it Lightly.
Transfer the ball of dough to the baking mat or parchment paper.
Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to around 1/4 inch thick.
Use your cookie cutter of choice and press it into the dough to cut out your cookies. We made moon phases cookies!
Transfer the cookies to a parchment lined baking tray.
With the remaining dough, form it into a ball and then roll it out again and repeat the process of cutting out the cookies.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow them to cool.
Add icing to the cookies, if desired.
Add the Decorating Frosting:
1 cup (120g) Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Tbsp Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
lilac sugar sprinkled (3 tbsp or more)
Some fresh lilac leaves for garnish
Creating the Icing:
Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and soy milk to a bowl and stir until it is smooth. If you aren’t good at hand stirring really fast, use a hand mixer or an electric mixer. You want it to be smooth, silky, thick and sticky.
Sprinkle in some lilac sugar and gentle mix
Decorate the cookies however you want, with a piping tool or a knife.
Sprinkle fresh lilacs on top!
Lilac Lemon Tea - Cold and Hot
3-3 Lemons
2 lilac bunches - 2 cups
4 cups of water
1/2 cup of granulated sugar - or less if preferred.
Instructions:
Cold brew process:
Mix liquid sugar (add sugar to a bit of hot water to dissolve), with the rest of the water to a jug and stir.
Add two bunches of washed lilac flower directly to a water jug.
Add the lemon juice from two lemons, squeezed with a lemon squeezer, making sure there is no seeds.
Slice up a third lemon and add a few pieces directly into the water.
Allow it to sit for a few hours in the fridge to take on the lilac flower.
Serve with some ice or in its own, straining it as you pour it into each glass.
Hot brew process:
1. Add the water and sugar together in a pot.
2. Stir it while bringing it to a boil. 3. Once the mixture is at a boil, add the washed (rinse with water) lilac flowers, then simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.
4. Strain it into a jug, using a cheese cloth in the strainer. 5. Let it cool for about twenty minutes.
6. Add the lemon juice from one lemon (2 if you want it more lemony), squeezed with a lemon squeezer, making sure there is no seeds.
7. Place it in a jug in the fridge to chill.
7. When you are ready to serve, slice up some piece of lemon and add them directly into the the jug, or on the side of your glass or into your glass with some ice.
Follow the same instructions above for hot tea but don’t let it cool, drink it while it is still hot! - Add the lemon juice after you strain the tea.
The hot brewed tea turns out looking like you just brewed a pot of black tea, Then when you add the lemon juice it turns a bit more orange and sometimes even pink!
We used white and purple lilac for this lemonade and soaked it for two hours to infuse a gentle lilac flavor, soak longer for stronger results. Strain while you pour.
The cold brew tea turns out a light yellow colour, with hints of pink.
We hope you enjoy these lovely lilac recipes, and have fun baking and cooking with such a fragrant ingredient! If you make these yummy lilac treats and want to show us, tag us on Instagram at @acorns.and.aprons . We might share it to our blog, or to our stories and Instagram feed!
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