Ode to Lemon Verbena

Well shoot! I haven’t been very regular in my blogging have I? Winter has come and gone, and now we’ve blinked and it’s nearly summer. Cakes have been made, brownies and cookies have been shipped, road trips have been planned and the website has even been updated.

At our local farms, it is baby goat season. Actually, it’s just baby season! And we’ve been loving impromptu farm trips to see the baby chicks, ducks, and goats and to collect some fresh goat milk and eggs.

This baby had me CRACKING up back in April

Lately, when I haven’t been baking, I’ve been sitting in my ever-growing garden. This season I have quickly evolved (or devolved) into a “Plant Lady.” I’ve spent ages just watching the garden grow. We’ve even had quite a few harvests!

today I want to tell you about my favorite underrated garden titan. Lemon Verbena.

I have long held the belief that if plants had personalities (FACT: they do.), Lemon Verbena and it’s super buddy Mint would be “bros.” They’re the dudes in the garden that ask the other plants “Bruh, do you even lift?” They are so sturdy and, honestly, freakin powerful. As soon as you pinch them back or harvest their herbaceous goodness, they come back hard! Lemon verbena is so hard to kill that my first year growing it, I just left it in the container OUTSIDE over a midwestern winter. Come April, it sprang back to life, thus growing its way into my heart. But it hasn’t been until this year, six years later, that I’ve decided to give it another go. And this time, I’m determined to really use it.

Besides being an excellent insect repellent (buggies don’t like the citrus smell), verbena has proven to be more versatile than I thought. It’s leaves are not as melt in your mouth as basil, so I’ve used it to infuse flavor into my foods and beverages. It can definitely be finely chopped and incorporated into sauces, marinades, and salads for a lemony-herby kick, but the majority of the harvested verbena has gone into custards, syrups, and drinks. It has a lemony-citrus botanical taste. In fact, whenever I bake with it, I can hear the upbeat tempo of The Great British Bake Off theme and can just hear a cheerful British voice saying “It’s botanical week.”

“It’s botanical week.”

When you rub the leaves, your hands are left with a glorious strong smell of tropical goodness.

Lemon verbena made a big splash in this lovely little apricot tart I made last week.

I used a pie shell because I had a new pie dough recipe I wanted to try. You should feel free to use your favorite pie dough or short crust pastry.

This tart was simply a creme patisserie spread over a baked pie shell, and topped with some gorgeous apricots. I love making creme patisserie because my cake batter uses egg whites and creme patisserie is a great way to use up the leftover yolks. Creme patisserie isn’t as scary as it sounds. I use Paul Hollywood’s recipe and it’s a quick process. I admittedly do not have photos of the process, since I decided to write about it well after I made it last, but I’ll lay it out for you.

First, whisk together 4 egg yolks, 100 grams of caster sugar, and 60 grams of cornstarch. Second, bring 500 ml of full fat milk to a boil (along with any of your flavor infusers-vanilla, rose, cardamom OR, of course, lemon verbena). Once the milk has boiled, remove it from the heat, and pour about a quarter of the milk onto the egg mixture. Whisk until combined. Your next step is return the egg mixture to the rest of the milk, and cook over a gentle heat until it becomes thick. Next, pass it through a sieve and stir in 40g of butter. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface so that a skin doesn’t form. Leave it to cool and then pop it in the fridge for a few hours before using it.

To infuse the flavor into the tart, I opted for a lemon verbena creme patisserie (surprise surprise!) For 500 ml of milk, I used 2-3 stems of lemon verbena. If I were to combine all of the leaves, it probably equalled 1/4-1/3 cup of leaves. I left them whole, and removed the stems just before passing the mixture through the sieve.

I also made a lemon verbena simple syrup. Paul Hollywood loves to glaze tarts and pastries with jams. And this being an apricot tart, his recipe calls for an apricot jam glaze. Instead, I made a simple syrup by boiling equal parts sugar and water with a few more stems of verbena. I boiled it down until it was a thick syrup and brushed it on top of the apricots. If I had left the syrup a little thinner, it would have been an awesome addition to a cocktail or lemonade.

Okay, folks. That’s all for me today. Up next, you’ll hear all about my strawberry rhubarb crisp and you’ll likely be subjected to a garden tour. Speaking of which, the garden calls. Thanks for reading, and I do hope you’ll come back. I want to hear about your gardens, your herby bakes, your sweet bakes, your recipes and thoughts! Share the love.

Until next time!