3 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk 8 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
1 cup sugar, divided
1/3 cup lavender honey
1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out
1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers
Heat oven to 325 degrees
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream, milk, lavender honey, vanilla bean and dried lavender. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cool
until tepid. Pour through a strainer into a bowl, discarding the vanilla bean and the lavender flowers.
In a bowl, whisk together the 1/2 cup of sugar, egg yolks and eggs until well blended. Add the cream mixture to the eggs a little at a time, whisking constantly to blend.
Line a baking pan large enough to hold 6 1/2-cup ramekins with a dish towel or two, to form a thick base. Pour in enough hot water to thoroughly dampen the towels. This will hold the ramekins steady.
Pour the custard into ramekins through a sieve. Place ramekins in the baking pan, setting them firmly and level on the damp towels. Add more water so the ramekins are about half submerged in water and damp towel.
Place in oven and bake about 1 hour, until custard is set around the edges but still a bit loose in the center. Remove ramekins and refrigerate an hour.
Top custards lightly but evenly with sugar (you might not need the full remaining half cup). Using a kitchen torch, caramelize the sugar. Or, place under a hot broiler until sugar caramelizes. (Using a torch is more fun, and melting the sugar is more controlled.) Serves 6.