Lots of rosemary

I got an order of rosemary in my Carolina Grown box last week. It sure smells wonderful! But, given the small amount of it needed in most recipes, I'm wondering what to do with it all. I found a few uses below, but if you have any good suggestions, please pass them on!

I decided to make some rosemary sugar - very easy - just put a few sprigs of rosemary in a jar with some sugar, and let it sit for a week or so. The question, of course, is what will I do with all that rosemary-infused sugar?


You can do the same thing with pretty much any spice - vanilla would be great, as would lavendar or roses. Not sure what else.

Next I made a rosemary loaf cake from the same cookbook as the chocolate-orange cake - How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I've wanted to make this one for a while, but never got around to it.

Cream up the softened butter until it's nice and fluffy, then add the sugar and cream it again until all combined and cloud-like.

Stir in some good vanilla....

Then, you're going to add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. After each egg is incorporated, stir in a healthy spoonfull of the flour mixture. Once all of the eggs are in, stire in the rest of the flour.

Now the key ingredient - add some chopped rosemary. I had a helping hand :-)

Finally, thin the batter with the milk. Pour it into a greased and floured loaf pan. The recipe says to grease and line with parchment paper, but I've found that this works just as well for loaf cakes and is a lot easier. Bake for about 45 minutes. Keep an eye on it - don't let it overbake - the recipe said an hour, and I probably could have pulled mine out even earlier than 45 minutes.

The finished product is a simple, but delicious, rosemary-scented golden cake. The rosemary flavor is not at all overpowering - if you really like rosemary, you could even bump up the amount a little. This cake is yummy by itself - warm or room temperature. The recipe also suggests that it's good served with cold apple compote. If that's too fussy, I think it would make a great dessert just slightly fancied up with some freshly whipped cream.

This one is definitely worth sharing:

Rosemary Loaf Cake

From How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

Ingredients:

• 1 cup plus 2 Tbs soft unsalted butter


• 3/4 cup sugar


• 3 large eggs


• 1 1/3 cups self-rising cake flour


• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• About 2 tsp rosemary, chopped small, but not too fine


• 4 Tbs milk


• 1-2 Tbs rosemary sugar or granulated brown or white sugar

Butter and line with parchment paper a 9x5-inch loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350.

Cream the butter, adding the sugar when it's really soft. Cream both together until pale and smooth and light. Beat in eggs one at a time, folding in a spoonful of the flour after each addition. Add vanilla. Fold in the rest of the flour, and then the rosemary. Thin the batter with the milk, and pour into the pan.

Sprinkle the top with a little sugar and cook for 1 hour (or less, depending on your oven).

Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Unmold when completely cool and wrap well in foil until you're ready to eat it.