Brandy tuiles with Lavender cream

My garden is showing signs of winter approaching, I am always amazed at how tenacious and hardy the lavender bushes are. Come rain or sunshine, they always fill the garden with a lovely aroma and bursts of purple. So while I was plodding along in the garden, I got an idea to try some Lavender in a dish, but had no idea what to do. I then remembered that I saw a recipe for Brandy Snap baskets on "I cook almost everything at least once", and I was inspired.
I love going to Haalo's site...the photography and recipes are a treat.

So courtesy of Haalo here is the recipe for the Brandy Snaps (she made baskets and opted for the tuiles.)


Brandy Snaps

½ cup golden syrup
100g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon brandy
½ cup brown sugar
80g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat the oven to 160°C and line tray with baking paper.

Combine golden syrup, butter and brandy in small saucepan over moderate heat until butter has melted. Stir to mix but do not boil. Sift dry ingredients into bowl then make a well and pour in liquid. Stir until smooth.

For this recipe I'm making these into small baskets so I'll only use 2 tablespoons of the mix to make each Brandy snap. Naturally if you'd like to make large brandy snaps just use 3-4 tablespoons of the mix.

Place the 2 spoonfuls of mix on the baking paper and spread the mix out to form a circle trying to create an even thickness. Leave plenty of room for spreading. I recommend if making large ones to limit yourselves to only 2 biscuits per tray - with the smaller version you can probably handle 4.

Bake for about 7 minutes - you want the mix to get a dark toffee colour. Don't be tempted to pull them out early - they just won't harden or form any shapes.

Once you've pulled them out of the oven, wait about a minute to give the brandy snaps a chance to begin to harden. Peel them off the paper and mould them over the base of a small cup (if you are wanting to make baskets) otherwise you can drape them over rolling pins to create the more traditional curved result.

When completely cold, store them in an airtight container. These biscuits do have a limited life, 1 - 2 days before they start to soften. Only fill them an hour or so before you intend to serve them.

For the filling

250 ml cream, whipped with 2 Tbs caster sugar.
Fold in about 1 Tbs Lavender flowers. Use your piping bag and fill the tuiles with the cream. Be careful not to use too much lavender....it is very pungent.