Adding Subtle Flavors to Flours and Sugars

When people think of adding flavors to flours and sugars they usually think about just mixing them with herbs or spices. That process is adequate for most types of cooking, however if you are interested in creating more complex flavor structures in your food adding subtle flavors to flours and sugars just may be of interest to you. When people think of adding subtle flavors to other foods Lavender Sugar will mostly likely come to mind. Subtly flavoring foods can go beyond Lavender Sugar and lead to all types of extreme culinary experimentation.

Four Types of Sugar

By Romain Behar (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The way in which we can add subtle flavors to flours and sugars is a simple process, however it is a slow process. For purposes of a explanation of this process we will first look at how a person makes lavender sugar. What you will need is a few sprigs of fresh lavender, the sugar of your choice, and an airtight glass jar to hold these two ingredients. Simply put the sugar and the lavender in the jar, seal, and shake, then store the jar in a cool dry place, and give it a shake every few days. After a month sift the sugar to take the lavender out and it is ready to use. If you are not ready to use the lavender sugar in a recipe after a month just leave it in storage until needed and sift it at that time.

Anise Hyssop

By Magnus Manske (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This process used to make lavender sugar can be applied with other herbs and spices combining them with flours and sugars. A person can use mint leaves, rose petals, sprigs of bergamot, sprigs of anise hyssop, or any other edible, non-toxic, herbs, spices, or flowers. The flavors you will get will be subtle ones unlike adding extracts or whole herbs and spices directly to a recipe. For example a pie crust made with flour that has sat for a month with sprigs of anise hyssop in it will have a very subtle licorice taste that may be better than using an anise extract in the same pie crust as that would be too over-powering. Bergamot sprigs will give a subtle citrus taste to things made with sugars or flours that have been subtly flavored with them.

Cardamom

By Rainer Zenz at de.wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Other spices that are commonly combined with sugar such as cinnamon or cardamom and have a very strong flavor could be used in this type of process that only allows the slightest hint of their flavor in a recipe. Use the above process replacing a cinnamon stick for the lavender sprigs in the sugar or flour and they will pick up a slight taste and scent of the cinnamon after a month. After a month when you are ready to use simply take out the cinnamon stick. With cardamom you can take a few seed pods open them and place the seeds in the sugar or flour and let set for a month or until ready to sift and use.

Cinnamon

By FASTILY (I created this work entirely by myself.) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (<A class="external free" href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html" rel=nofollow>http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html</A>)], via Wikimedia Commons

You can use this technique with various herbs and spices adding a subtle hint of their taste and scent to all types of sugars and flours. Have fun experimenting with this technique. If you are growing the herbs yourself all the better. Try growing lavender and adding that to sugar, flour, and icing, or powdered, sugar, thus being able to make some grand lavender sugar cookies next Christmas.

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