Always Drink Tea

Tea-Infused Honey Cookies

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 02:00:00 -0500

Hello, my lovelies! I know I’ve been away for quite some time. I come back, hanging my head in shame, and bearing delicious offerings before me.

My friend Elizabeth goes to school in NYC, and she graciously offered to bring me back some tea! I’ve never been to Argo Tea before, but I’ve coveted their website, and there were definitely some things on there I wanted to try - one of them being the Carolina Honey.

On its own, it’s a black tea blend with honey and lemon, and it packs a serious punch. It’s heady and rich, and it’s delicious with milk and - you guessed it - a bit of honey. I was in a baking mood tonight, so I decided to whip up some tea cookies featuring this lovely blend.

Recipe under the cut.

Tea-Infused Honey Cookies

Ingredients:

~1 1/4 c unsalted butter

1/2 c Carolina Honey tea (or any tea you choose)

1 1/4 c white sugar

3 egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp honey (opt - if you’re making Carolina Honey cookies)

~3 tbsp coarse or colored sugar

Milk by the tablespoon (optional)

Infusing the Butter

First, you’re going to want to infuse the butter with the tea. At the stove, set the 1/2 cup of tea and a stirring utensil. You want these close at hand so the butter doesn’t burn.

1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter.

2. Just after it’s melted, pour the tea in.*

3. Heat 5 minutes on low heat, stirring.

4. Remove from heat. Let sit 5-10 minutes, until the butter is noticeably colored. The longer it sits, the stronger the tea flavor will be. I left mine about 9-10 minutes.

5. Strain into measuring cup. 1 1/4 c solid butter converts to about 1 cup infused butter, but if you find that it’s less, you can re-steep the leaves with more butter until you have 1 cup of infused goodness.

6. Bring to room temperature. I poured mine out into a wide dish, and then put it in the freezer for ~10 minutes until it had solidified.

*I recommend not trying a T-sac and filtering out the leaves afterwards, as the T-sac will turn to mush and get in your butter.

Making the Cookies

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar. It should be creamy, not soupy. If your butter is soupy, put it in the fridge until it solidifies a bit.

3. Beat in 1 egg yolk at a time, along with the vanilla and honey.

4. Beat in about half the flour, and the rest of the dry ingredients.

5. Beat in the rest of the flour. Your dough should be crumby, but not dry.

If it’s too dry to roll into balls, add tablespoons of milk until the texture is right. I did not need to add milk to mine.

6. Roll into little balls about 1 inch around and coat in sugar. Set them about 2 in apart on ungreased baking tray.

7. Bake ~10 minutes or until cookies start to crack.

8. Let cool before moving so that the warm cookies don’t crumble. Eat the crumbly cookies. Enjoy!

"Tea is the act of creating leisure in a chaotic world."

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 16:47:34 -0400

“Tea is the act of creating leisure in a chaotic world.”

- Ms. Wang.

"A cup of tea would restore my normality"

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 12:49:20 -0400

“A cup of tea would restore my normality”

- Douglas Adams

Rebloggable chai cookie recipe

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 10:26:00 -0400

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp chai tea (or any kind you want)
1 cup softened butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cups chopped walnuts (if you so desire. I didn’t use them)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 deg F.

2. Crush tea into a powder. If you have a food processor, great. If you have a mortar and pestle, great! If you have neither of these, you can try a blender. I myself used a makeshift mortar and pestle with a ramekin (small bowl) and a metal ice cream scoop. It worked well, but took about 30 minutes and gave me a very sore arm.

3. Sift flour, tea powder, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl.

4. Beat butter, sugars and vanilla extract until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each egg.

5. Gradually beat in dry ingredients.

6. Using a spoon, stir in chocolate chips (and walnuts, if you swing that way)

7. Roll into balls about 3/4-1 inch across and place on a baking sheet, or a parchment-covered pan.

8. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. You definitely want to take them out as soon as they’re golden so they don’t get hard!

Hello :), I was just wondering if perhaps you could post the recipe for the chai cookies. They sound delicious!

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:06:00 -0400

YES.

They were, in fact, delicious.

I’ll post the recipe under a cut because it is a bit long.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp chai tea (or any kind you want)
1 cup softened butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cups chopped walnuts (if you so desire. I didn’t use them)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 deg F.

3. Sift flour, tea powder, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl.

4. Beat butter, sugars and vanilla extract until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each egg.

5. Gradually beat in dry ingredients.

6. Using a spoon, stir in chocolate chips (and walnuts, if you swing that way)

7. Roll into balls about 3/4-1 inch across and place on a baking sheet, or a parchment-covered pan.

8. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. You definitely want to take them out as soon as they’re golden so they don’t get hard!

And that is that! It’s a pretty delicious recipe :)

A few weeks ago, I cohosted a tea party with another tea loving...

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 16:37:00 -0400

Overview of the table

A few weeks ago, I cohosted a tea party with another tea loving friend of mine.

The teas served were

Lichee Black

Sencha (in honor of one of the guests’ beautiful Japanese regalia)

and Rooibos de Provence,

and the chocolate chip cookies are actually made with chai tea!

It was great fun!

Hosted a tea party today!

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:35:27 -0400

Hosted a tea party today!

"I am still; I drink my tea; I listen."

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 02:53:16 -0400

“I am still; I drink my tea; I listen.”

- Bonnie Johnston

Improvisational Gong Fu Tea

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:01:44 -0400

Improvisational Gong Fu Tea:

Really cool video about gong fu without all the equipment!

New theme, and I've added Twitter!

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:12:28 -0400

How’s it look?

A quick update from the road! I love how the Adagio...

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:48:17 -0400

A quick update from the road!

I love how the Adagio ready-to-drink bottled teas fit into the little square slot on the side of my car door.

Moroccan Mint Received in a swap - no information given as to...

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:00:01 -0400

Moroccan Mint

Received in a swap - no information given as to the company. It’s easy enough to make, though. It’s about a 2-1 ratio of gunpowder green tea to spearmint, although it can be tweaked to one’s personal preference.

In Morocco, it’s traditionally drank hot with lots of sugar, but I’ve iced this with a bit of honey. It’s a great refreshing drink for summer.

Paradise Found Hibiscus is listed first in the ingredients, and...

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:00:38 -0400

Paradise Found

Hibiscus is listed first in the ingredients, and unfortunately, it’s blatantly obvious. It smells great - tropical and fruity and warm - but all I can taste is hibiscus. Brewed hot, it’s undrinkable. Coldbrewed, about 3tsp for 24oz, it’s less tart and drinkable, but it’s still overwhelmingly sour.

Perfect Pear This surprisingly light-colored tisane matches the...

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 07:35:13 -0400

Perfect Pear

This surprisingly light-colored tisane matches the shade of the inside of a pear. It’s delicious both iced and hot, but when poured over ice the vanilla-pear flavors come to the forefront.

Tea-Rex Because even dinosaurs enjoy a nice cup of tea.

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:53:00 -0400

Tea-Rex

Because even dinosaurs enjoy a nice cup of tea.

Rooibos Lemon Cloud with Caramelized Pear Both of these are...

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 07:48:54 -0400

Rooibos Lemon Cloud with Caramelized Pear

Both of these are rooibos-based blends, and they compliment each other surprisingly well.

Earl Grey Bravo with Caramel and Hazelnut I don’t make...

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 16:00:00 -0400

Earl Grey Bravo with Caramel and Hazelnut

I don’t make lattes often enough, mostly because I’m lazy. But despite the hot weather, I was craving one today. The dark, nutty hazelnut adds another dimension to the Earl Grey, and the caramel washes over it and surrounds the entire flavor in creamy sweetness.

Perfect Pear The tisane smells enticing and fruity - it’s...

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 13:21:09 -0400

Perfect Pear

The tisane smells enticing and fruity - it’s filled with sweet pear and tart apple.

I just placed a huge order from Adagio.

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 22:43:16 -0400

Right now, in honor of Sherlock Holmes week, they’re doing a promotion - 20% off all of Cara McGee’s BBC Sherlock inspired teas.

I started off placing an order for The Woman and The Mind and the Heart.

Then I added some Honeybush, because I want to experiment with that - it’s just the thing for another one of my Doctor Who teas.

Then I added some Hibiscus because that’s hopefully going to work in a different Doctor Who tea.

Then I caved in and added some iced teas (oolong, green and white)

And then my friend Elizabeth wouldn’t stop talking about the Mycroft blend (which admittedly I’ve been ogling for awhile), so I tacked that on as well…

This tea addiction needs to stop!

Anyway, if you also want to take advantage of either the Sherlock promotion or just any of Adagio’s lovely teas in general, here’s a $5 off coupon, good for your first purchase: 6670451286

i think you had misunderstood my question, i had meant if you empty a tea bag and use the tea from the tea bag as loose leaf tea, would that work?

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:33:35 -0400

Ah, the other way around!

Tea that’s found in teabags is called “fannings.” It’s basically the dust left over from the production of loose tea. It steeps really quickly because of the large surface area, but it generally has a one-dimensional flavor profile and doesn’t allow for re-steeping.

This is the main problem with bagged tea. It’s not the bag that makes it a lower quality; it’s the fact that it’s made with the byproducts of loose tea production. So no, if you empty the fannings into a cup to steep as loose leaf, it wouldn’t change the quality of the tea at all.