Earl Grey Tea Cookies

I didn't realise I've got 3 boxes of earl grey tea sitting in my cupboard and since I have Martha Stewart's recipe for the longest time, I made these for tea.

It tasted more like shortbread than cookies and has this melt-in-your-mouth texture.   I used Emborg butter and it came in 200g.  Recipe calls for 220g and I was lazy to measure and cut out more butter so I just left it as it is.  Also, I used only 3 tea bags instead of 2 tablespoons (approximately 6 - 8 tea bags) as I was worried the cookies may end up too bitter as I've reduced sugar slightly too.  It has a nice mild earl grey taste but if I were to make them again, I'll probably use 4 - 5 tea bags.

Due to my camera setting, I get 2 different colours of these cookies.  The actual cookies actually look more like the first 2 pictures posted.

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

(adapted from Martha Steward)

Makes about 8 dozen (I cut them into triangles and had 60+ cookies)

Ingredients

2 cups (250g) plain flour

3 tea bags finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt

220g butter, softened

45g icing sugar

1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

Method

1. Whisk together flour, tea, and salt in a small bowl; set aside.
2. Put butter, sugar, and zest in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; slowly mix in flour mixture until just combined.
3. Divide dough in half. Transfer each half to a piece of parchment paper; shape into logs. Roll in parchment to 1 1/4 inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log and force out air. Transfer in parchment to paper-towel tubes; freeze 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 180C. Cut logs into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Space 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.
5. Bake until edges turn golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Earl Grey Tea Muffins

I'm still struggling with blogger...  For every recipe posted, I will create a shortcut under individual category so it's easier for viewers to search for recipes but after upgrading to the latest version, I'm unable to do so, kept getting "Error Page".  I'm an IT IDIOT but that does not deter me from blogging.  I hope I can find a solution to it fast.

I was trying to finish up my earl grey tea bags so I made some muffins.  Instead of using raisins, I replaced them with currants.  Also, I reduced the sugar slightly but it was still a bit too sweet.  Nevertheless, it tasted great! 

Earl Grey Tea Muffins
Makes 12
Ingredients
450ml boiling water
2 Earl Grey tea bags
120g currants
2 eggs
110g butter, melted
375g all-purpose flour
2 tbsp double action baking powder
Pinch of salt
170g castor sugar

Method

1. Pour the boiling water over the tea bags; infuse for 10 minutes. Strain tea onto currants and set aside to soak for 1 hour.
2. Strain the tea into a measuring jug and make up to 300ml with additional water, if necessary.
3. Preheat oven at 200 degC. Line muffin tray with paper cups.
4. Sift flours, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Add sugar into the flour mixture. Use a whisk to lightly blend the mixture.
5. In another mixing bowl, combine eggs, tea and melted butter.
6. Make a well in the middle of dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and mix just until all the flour is moistened. Fold currants into batter. The batter should look lumpy. Do not overmix.
7. Divide batter into 12 muffin cups. Reduce temperature to 180degC and bake muffins for 25-30 minutes or until well risen.
8. Transfer to wire racks to let cool.

Earl Grey Tea Cream Puffs

With my leftover earl grey mousse, I didn't want it to go to waste so I made some choux pastry. I've heard so much raves about Florence's choux pastry and decided to try it. The choux pastry does not deflate even when it's cooled. But this recipe is slightly more time consuming than my regular recipe. If you have time to stand in front of the stove, do give this recipe a try. It's definitely worth the effort.


I have some leftover mango mousse so I just filled them up into the choux pastry.

Choux Pastry
Ingredients (8 puffs)
85ml water
50g butter
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
50g bread flour
20g cake flour
2 eggs (lightly beaten)

Method

1. Cook water, butter, sugar and salt in a saucepan till bubbling hot. Turn the heat to low.
2. Add in the flour mixture in one go and mix with a wooden spoon till a dough is formed.
3. Still on low heat, cook the dough for 1 - 2 minutes till a thin white film is formed at the bottom of the saucepan.
4. Transfer dough to a mixing bowl and beat till it is lukewarm.
5. Add in egg by thirds and mix till well blended and smooth.
6. Place batter into piping bag and pipe it onto a lined pan in rounds of about 5cm in diameter. Spray some water on it.
7. Bake at 200C for 25 minutes then 180C for 8 - 10 minutes or till dry and golden brown in color. Turn off the oven and let it cool in the oven for 30 minutes.

Earl Grey Mousse Cake

I remember I have this Grey Mousse Cake recipe somewhere in my harddisk but I just can't find it. Then I recalled, it was in my old PC, where my harddisk died on me and all my precious recipes were gone. I googled but couldn't find any relevant recipes. As a novice in baking, I'm not adventurous to tweak recipes because I'm afraid of failures. But I love Earl Grey tea and I just want to eat Earl Grey mousse cake!

With that, I attempted to try out the recipe from the Mango Mousse Cake and substituted mango puree with earl grey tea.

The balance cake base from my mango mousse cake was stored in the fridge with cling-wrap so I thought the cake would have "shrunk" a little, thus I didn't bother to trim the sides of the cake. Apparently, this is not the case. The mousse didn't flow down to cover the whole cake :-(

I wanted to do a chocolate crumble topping but I have time constraint so I tried to shave some chocolates but it was a disaster. Thawed the chocolate slightly and tried shaving with a peeler/spoon. Think the weather in Singapore is just too hot as the chocolate melted really fast and it created such a mess. Thank goodness I was wearing a disposable glove and the chocolate only stained the glove. After some struggle, I gave up and make do with whatever shaved chocolates I have. Maybe I should have just used a knife and chop, chop, chop!

The earl grey flavour is subtle in this cake so if you want a stronger flavour, be sure to make the tea very strong by adding another 1 - 2 tea bags. The mousse didn't set very well, I'll have to increase the gelatin to 3 - 3.5 tsp instead.

I love this cake! ^-^

Earl Grey Mousse Cake

Ingredients

230ml boiling water

5 Earl Grey Tea bags

4 tsp sugar

200ml Non Dairy Whipping cream

2 1/2 tsp gelatin powder

60ml hot water

Method

1. Pour the boiling water over the tea bags and infuse for 10 minutes.
2. Strain the tea into a measuring jug and make up to 200ml with additional water, if necessary.
3. Add sugar to tea and mix well till sugar dissolve. Set aside.
4. Dissolve gelatin in 60ml hot water. Keep warm for use later.
5. Whip cream till 70% stiff or mousse state.
6. Add gelatin solution into tea and mix well.
7. Add tea gelatin mixture into whipped cream and combine well.

Earl Grey Chiffon II

I was out doing my grocery shopping and somehow ended up in the Beverages (coffee/tea) section. I don't usually hang out there unless I've received specific instructions from DH to get his regular coffee mix. While browsing through the shelves, I spotted the Earl Grey Tea and was remembered I need to replenish my supply.

After preparing lunch, I have some time and decided to bake the Earl Grey Chiffon cake again. Heeding HHB's advice, I made this with the tea leaves and I up the recipe to 4 eggs instead 3 to fit my 8" round. I think if I were to bake this again, I'll probably use a 4 egg yolks and 5 egg whites recipe to get a better height.


This cake didn't crack on me and it yields a beautiful top (eh... base when inverted).

When the cake is completely cooled, I managed to unmould it without much effort, looks like it's well baked and the baking pan is well seasoned now ^-^

If you like Earl Grey tea, I'll pretty sure you'll like this cake too :)

Below is the modified the recipe that I've made to suit my family's need but here's the original recipe if you want it.

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake
Ingredients
(A)
4 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
65ml vegetable oil
100ml water
4 satchels Earl Grey tea powder

(B)
130g cake flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
*Sifted

(C)
4 egg whites
40g caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. In a bowl, using hand whisk, whisk yolks and sugar till sugar dissolves.
2. Add oil and salt, whisk and add water. Stir well.
3. Fold in sifted flour and baking powder, mix well.
4. Add in the earl grey powder and mix well.
5. In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat till the whites are frothy. Add in lemon juice and beat till soft peaks.
6. Add in sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture using a rubber spatula till incorporated.
8. Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.
9. Pour the batter into a 8" round pan/chiffon tube pan. Bang the pan on the table to get rid of bubbles.
10. Oil a piece of aluminium foil and cover the pan loosely. Bake at 170 deg.C for 10mins.
11. Turn down the temperature to 160 deg.C and bake for 20mins.
12. Remove the foil and reduce the temperature to 150 deg.C and bake for a further 10 to 15mins to brown the surface.
13. Remove from the oven and invert the pan. Remove the cake from pan when it's completely cooled.

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

This is another chiffon cake attempt. I was surfing the net and saw HHB's Earl Grey Chiffon Cake. Since my family loves drinking this tea, I think they'll enjoy having it in a cake too.

I'm not an expert in baking, and I'm definitely a novice in chiffon making. But I attempted to modify the recipe slightly. Original recipe uses dried tea leaves in the cake but I infuse the tea bags into the water to get the fragrant instead as I wasn't sure how the cake will turn out with tea leaves in it. Will it cause the cake to become bitter? I better take this risk as I don't like failure.

While whisking the egg whites, I got distracted and over-whisked the eggs without realising. It happened too fast, just that split second and the whites were overwhipped, slightly. The top of the whisked egg whites still has it's shine. I decided to go ahead to bake the cake and luckily, the cake turned out quite alright (ie edible). The texture is still soft but slightly compact.

The family likes it so I'm definitely going to bake this again.

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake
Ingredients(makes one 18cm cake)
(A)
1 tablespoon Earl Grey tea powder (about 3 satchels)
100g cake flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
40g caster sugar
50ml vegetable oil
75ml water

(B)
3 egg whites
40g caster sugar

Method

1. Sieve flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.
2. Separate egg yolks/whites and bring to room temperature. (It is easier to separate eggs when they are cold.)
3. Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl, add in sugar, in 3 separate additions and with a manual whisk, whisk till the mixture becomes sticky and turn pale.
4. Drizzle in the oil, whisking at the same time till the mixture is well combined. Repeat the same with the water. Sieve over the flour mixture and whisk until flour mixture is fully incorporated into the batter. Add in the earl grey powder and mix well.
5. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Gradually beat in the sugar and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form.
6. Add the beaten egg white into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
7. Pour batter into a 18cm (7 inch) tube pan (do not grease the pan). Bang the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
8. Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 degC for 45 ~ 50mins or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Let cool completely before unmould. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and the center core. Release the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan to remove the cake.