Each year, I experiment with Lilacs in various delicious recipes because I love this flower so much! 

These cookies are as delicious as they are beautiful. Sweet, with a bitter aspect that balances out what I find to be typically too-sweet in baked goods. They most definitely capture the scent and flavor of lilacs well. 

Tricks to the success of this recipe:
1) Planning ahead and making Lilac Sugar to use in the dough. All this involves is picking fresh lilacs about 3-4 days before you plan to make cookies. Layer blossoms and sugar in equal measure, layering to fill a jar. Cover with cheesecloth and shake each day. When the blossoms brown, pick them all out and store sugar in a dark cool place. 
2) To keep the pressed blossoms on top looking vibrant without burning them, form the dough and cookies the day before you plan to actually bake them. This is because freezing the tray of formed unbaked cookies overnight will help with that. 

Lilac Shortbread Cookies

1/2 cup Lilac Sugar
1 cup salted Butter, softened
1 cup fresh picked Lilac Blossoms
1.5 cups Baking Flour
1 tsp. Lemon Zest
Pressed Lilac Blossoms (this is optional but makes them look extra beautiful!)

Whip Lilac Sugar and Butter together to cream it nice and soft. Add in Flour, Zest, Lilac Blossoms. Mix the dough all up until everything is incorporated and the dough is...well, dough. Form the dough into a log of sorts, cover with parchment paper and refrigerate for an hour. After an hour, roll out the dough (you may need some flour so the dough doesn't stick to the rolling pin) to desired thickness- mine were about 1/4" thick. I would make them thicker in the future because they were quite fragile! Use a drinking glass or cookie cutter to form cookies. Lay cookies out onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Gently place the pressed Lilac Blossoms on each cookie. Set unbaked tray of cookies into the freezer overnight. In the morning when ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350, then bake the frozen cookies for 10-12 minutes. Ta-da! 

I've made Lilac treats every year for several years, but this year I decided to try to make proper Lilac Ice Cream- in an ice cream maker, and all. Lilac as a flavor is very subtle, but certainly special- even though it's not exactly like the fragrance. 

I made this ice cream with Oat Milk and dairy free heavy cream, and the texture was perfect. 

Picking Lilac flowers off the stems is a tedious job, but very important if you want this to be floral. 

Ingredients:

2 cups Cream (I used Silk's dairy free heavy cream)
2 cups Milk (I used Outlay's full fat oat milk) 
1.5 cups Sugar
Flowers of 2 large clusters of Lilacs (about 30 grams) 
3 Egg yolks

To a saucepan, add 1 cup of cream, 2 cups of milk, 1 cup of sugar. Heat gently until just before it bubbles. Add ⅔ of the Lilac flowers to the pot, mix it all up well. Remove from flame, cover and set aside for about an hour. (I let it sit for longer because I wanted a stronger Lilac flavor, but the result may have made it slightly bitter. Still delicious, but maybe sometimes less is more!)

Put the remaining lilacs into a small jar, fill the jar with warm water, cover and set aside.

When the hour passes, whisk 3 egg yolks and .5 cup sugar together in a big bowl.

Heat the milk mixture up again to a light boil. Add one cup of the milk mixture to the egg bowl, whisk, then add another cup of the milk mixture to the egg bowl and whisk.

Transfer the whisked mixture back into the saucepan, bring the whole thing to a light boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Strain the mixture through a sieve into a large bowl holding the remaining cup of cream (it should be cold). Mix well.

Add 3 tablespoons of the lilac infused water to the ice cream mix. Chill the whole mix in the fridge over night.

When you’re ready to make the ice cream, fill the ice cream maker with the mix and let it churn! I added a few frozen blueberries into that mix to see if it would color the ice cream a bit, but it's not necessary and didn't really work. When it reaches the desired consistency, scoop it on out into your favorite bowls, sprinkle with fresh lilacs, add some Lilac Essence for good measure and ENJOY!