Vanilla-Lavender Scented White Chocolate Custard: It's Game Time

When I saw that Jamie of My Baking Addiction and Katie of GoodLife {eats} were hosting a virtual Holiday Recipe Exchange, I was excited to participate.

Then I saw that there were prizes. Yes, prizes. This just got real, folks. Competition. It’s on. With that...Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Beanilla.

And make sure you GO VOTE.

For this week, the knock-out competition, er, exchange, was to involve recipes featuring vanilla. Although vanilla is used in many dark and milk chocolate creations, it’s difficult for it to really shine through against the strong flavor of chocolate.

Enter: white chocolate.

Bringing you soft cocoa butter and sugar to deliver whatever flavors you desire. Including vanilla. Or, if you are trying to do something special, vanilla AND lavender. In custard form.

Vanilla-Lavender Scented White Chocolate Custard Ingredients

2 cups of heavy cream

12 ounces white chocolate, chopped (suggest Callebaut)

4 egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla paste

½ tablespoon lavender extract

Purple powdered sugar for decoration

Since the theme of this week’s exchange is vanilla, I tried to make sure that the ingredients included a sufficient amount of vanilla, with the lavender extract added in for some extra interest.

First, though, it was time to heat the cream to a simmer, and then add the white chocolate chunks. After I let that sit a bit, I stirred the mixture until the white chocolate was all melted and then added the vanilla paste and lavender extract.

I pre-heated my oven to 350° F, and let the mixture cool slightly before whisking in the egg yolks.

Now it was time to get baking. This recipe will yield about 28 fluid ounces of custard, and I poured four ounces into an eight ounce glass dish.

You can divide the prepared custard into dishes however you like; just be certain that the center is fairly firm before removing the custard from the oven. In this case, I baked the custard for 20 minutes to achieve this firmness.

It needs some visual sprucing up, though. Enter: purple powdered sugar.

This is easy to make. Just put a bit of powdered sugar and a few drops of purple food coloring in a food processor.

Whirl away until you have purple powdered sugar.

Sift it on top of your custard to help visually signal that there’s lavender in there to compliment the vanilla.

Then eat.

Enjoy the vanilla with the hint of lavender, carried by sweet, creamy white chocolate custard. If you really like it - go vote for me at My Baking Addiction.