I preserve more herbs and other foods in salt than in sugar, but if you have a sweet tooth, you might do the reverse. As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, sugar, like salt, absorbs moisture and oils and inhibits spoilage. In high concentrations, such as in jams made without pectin, sugar traps enough water that microorganisms can’t grow. Once unsealed and refrigerated, such jams last longer than low-sugar jams, and mold usually forms only on the surface and only after weeks of air exposure.

As sugar absorbs natural oils from herbs and spices, it also picks up their flavor. Vanilla sugar is a simple example—and a fantastic way to repurpose a vanilla bean pod once you’ve scraped out the seeds for jam, buttercream, or a sweet sauce. You get the same effect when you infuse sugar with herbs, edible flowers, and other botanicals. You can use these in any recipe that calls for sugar, but they have the most impact when used to sweeten whipped cream or frosting, sprinkled on baked goods, baked into simple ones like shortbread, or stirred into a beverage.

Learn more about flavoring sugar and get the complete recipe for Herb-Infused Sugar in my column.

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Twice as Tasty

I often infuse fruit syrups, shrubs, and sorbet with herbs and edible flowers. Although these clearly pick up a botanical’s flavor, they don’t really preserve its original form. Compound butters do a better job of that, but there’s a limit to how much flavor the fat itself can absorb, especially when refrigerated or frozen. In contrast, sugar picks up more flavor from the herbs and flowers crushed and buried in it the longer it sits.

Herbs that we consider savory give surprisingly delicious flavor twists to sweet treats like Fresh Pear, Goat Cheese, and Rosemary Galette. The basil buttercream recipe I’ll share in next week’s column is one of my favorite frostings for Buttery Jam-Filled Cupcakes. Thyme-infused sugar is a delicious addition to sugar cookies, apple crisp, and Golden Baked Custard.

If you’re feeling less adventurous, start with a vanilla sugar infusion and use it to make decorative buttercream for a layered Chocolate Pudding Cake glazed with ganache. Infuse sugar with lavender and use it for Homemade Caramel Sauce or a floral buttercream cupcake frosting. Create lilac-infused sugar and use it to flavor whipped cream for scratch-made strawberry shortcake.

You can also learn more about preserving herbs in salt and creating herb-infused salts in this blog post.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.