Lavender Loaf

Recently I bought a small tin of very fragrant dried lavender flowers. Use them to make some tea with other tea leaves. Concurrently, I'm also looking for some recipes that use dried lavender in bakes. Borrowed some cookbooks from the library and here's sharing this Lavender Loaf, recipe adapted from the cookbook :
Classic Artisan Baking by Julian Day

My slight modification made with notes in blue below.

Lavender Loaf
Size: 500g loaf pan
I'm using a medium size loaf pan: 21.5 × 11.5 x 5.5cm.

Ingredients
130g salted butter, softened
130g caster sugar  (I reduced to 80g)
2 eggs
Grated zest of 1 lemon
35g ground almond
100g All-purpose flour
40g self-raising flour
3 teaspoons dried lavender flowers

Method:
Grease and line the loaf pan with baking paper

Preheat the oven to 170ºC.
Sift the flours and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with the electric mixer until pale and fluffy (about 4 minutes on medium speed).

Add the eggs one at a time beating between each addition then stir in the lemon zest, followed by ground almond and flour and beat to a smooth batter (about 2 minutes on medium speed).

Lastly, add the dried lavender flowers and stir well to combine. Pour the mixture into the tin, level the top evenly with spatula and bake for 40 minutes or until firm and golden brown. Test with a cake tester or skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf should come out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan for 30 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This cake is best eaten on the day of baking, but will keep for up to 4 days in an airtight container.

Baked this loaf for our afternoon break so we couldn't wait to have a slice even though it's still slightly warm.

My son commented that it tasted abit dry. I find it's texture is crumbly and slightly dry. But it tasted better the next day as we had kept some for our brekkie. It's slightly moist. Love the fragrance of lavender and a hint of lemon too that stays till the next day.

Happy baking ! ^-^ Have a great week ahead!

Link-up this post to Cook Your Books #24 

Hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours