Give tea a chance part 2

Remember my last post on that lovely tea pack that I got for Christmas? Give tea a chance? Well this morning I had tea with Martin Luther King Jr.! Here’s a photo of him steeping away. Every time that I have one of these teas I smile. Hope your all having a fabulous weekend and drinking lots of tea!

Give Tea a Chance

Every time I make myself a cup of tea, I smile. When I steep myself this tea however, I can’t help but smile from ear to ear. One of my Christmas gifts this year was this package of  “Give Tea a Chance” teas.

Attach to bag of classic black tea is a hand-painted hanger of a peace-maker or a revolutionary. Famous people like Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa and Ghandi. So you can say, even today, that you’ve had tea with Nelson Mandela. How cool is that? You can buy these cool tea bags at Lost Marbles, or you can order them directly from the German company that produces them by following this link. I guarantee that they’ll make your morning tea that much happier. 🙂

http://www.neatoshop.com/product/Give-Tea-A-Chance-Tea-Bags

Oatmeal Molasses Bread

You use to have to bake bread yourself if you wanted a piece of toast in the morning. Times have changed though, and now you can buy a loaf of bread at the grocery store for $1.90. That doesn’t mean that the whole world should stop baking bread though! Homemade bread can taste even better than that store-bought bread. It can also give you something that the store bought bread can’t–a sense of accomplishment.

As a recreational baker, I often stick to baking easy things like muffins and cupcakes. Sometimes though I like to challenge myself by baking goodies like meringues and . And bread. For bread you have to knead it quite well, it takes an afternoon to bake and the yeast could be dead. Bread is tough. I’ve tried twice to perfect the art of baking bread, and I’ve finally succeeded! Well…sort of.

In the recipe book Earth to Table there is a recipe for oatmeal molasses bread. Advertised as a sweet yet hearty loaf of bread I was determined to make this recipe the moment that I read the recipe through. I had found my next baking challenge. The first time that I tried to bake this bread it was a complete failure. The bread didn’t rise at all and it didn’t bake all the way through. This didn’t dishearten me though; I’d just try again. The second time that I baked it the bread rose, but the yeast had died making the bread very dense. So close, and yet so far. Third time’s the charm? I tried again recently and it turned out beautifully. Houston, we have a success.

They didn’t look as beautiful as the picture in the book, but that didn’t really matter in my eyes. The bread tasted good and that’s what mattered. Both loaves rose and the yeast didn’t die. The taste made my taste buds sing. I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud of a loaf of bread in my life. I don’t really know why the loaves don’t look beautiful–maybe it’s my molding skills. Regardless, I’d suggest trying this recipe out. The trick is to knead it continuously for those 12 minutes suggested in the recipe. Set the timer and get to it! Your muscles may be sore after, but you’ll be happy in the end. Challenges are meant to be conquered. When you hit an obstacle on your way to beating that challenge, don’t let it stop you. Just keep on going, or in this case, just keep on baking. I know I’ll be. 🙂

Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 1/4 cups quick-cooking rolled oats, divided
• 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup mild (light) molasses
• 6 cups all-purpose flour (approx.), divided
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon dry instant
• 1 large organic egg, whisked with 1 tablespoon water

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine boiling water, 1 cup of the oats, butter and molasses; let cool until lukewarm.
2. In another bowl, whisk together 2 cups of the flour, brown sugar, salt and yeast. Add to the oat mixture, stirring well to combine. Using a spoon, gradually work in the remaining flour until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
3. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 12 minutes. Place in a large greased bowl, turning dough to grease all over. Cover with a tea towel and let rise in a still oven, with light on and door closed, until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
4. Punch down dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half and press each half into a 12- by 9-inch rectangle. Starting at a narrow end, roll up into a cylinder and pinch along the bottom to smooth and seal. Cover with tea towels and let rise in still oven until dough no longer springs back when lightly pressed, about 40 minutes. Brush tops with egg wash and sprinkle with the remaining oats. 
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake loaves until they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom, about 50 minutes. Turn onto wire racks to cool. 

Sweet and Salty Popcorn

Sweet and salty popcorn is the best snack food in the world. I have yet to chow down on something better during a game or anything else for that matter. This classic combo just seems to taste a billion times better on popcorn. Don’t get me wrong though, other sweet and salty combinations are just as good: turkey and cranberry, chocolate covered pretzels…nothing comes close to sweet and salty popcorn though.

The only problem though is that sweet and salty popcorn form the grocery store contains a colossal amount of calories and, well, sugar. So my dear mom went on a quest to make her own sweet and salty popcorn. And she succeeded! Our dear friend fincooking.com has this fantastic recipe for sweet and salty popcorn. Mom halved the recipe and it still made enough popcorn to almost fill a stockpot! You can imagine how much popcorn would’ve been made if she made the whole recipe.  The sugar content is way less too. Only 3 tablespoons for 1-1/2 cups of popcorn.

The link to the recipe is below. I hope you enjoy it! Happy munching 🙂

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/popcorn-sweet-butter-sea-salt.aspx

Bacon, Egg, and Toast Cups

Every christmas morning my mom tries to make something special for Christmas morning. One year it was pancakes, another year it was cinnamon rolls. This year we had bacon, egg, and toast cups. So far, it’s the best Christmas breakfast ever. The baked egg on top of the bacon makes a delicious combo when you bite into it. For the toast my mom used some sunflower seed bread from the Harvest Bakery–this added a hint of sweetness when you bit into it. Yum…I really want to make one right now!

I’m not quite sure where my mom got this recipe but once I find out I’ll let you know. A vegetarian version of this recipe would be to replace to bacon with sauteed spinach. Another variation would be to replace the bacon with some crumbled sausage. I think anyway you try it it’ll turn out really well. It’s so delicious! 🙂

Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 8 slices white or whole-wheat sandwich bread
• 6 slices bacon
• 6 large eggs
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly butter 6 standard muffin cups. With a rolling pin, flatten bread slices slightly and, with a 4 1/4-inch cookie cutter, cut into 8 rounds. Cut each round in half, then press 2 halves into each muffin cup, overlapping slightly and making sure bread comes up to edge of  cup. Use extra bread to patch any gaps. Brush bread with remaining butter.
2. In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium, until almost crisp, 4 minutes, flipping once. (It will continue to cook in the oven). Lay 1 bacon slice in each bread cup and crack an egg over each. Season with salt and pepper. Bake until egg whites are just set, 20 to 25 minutes. Run a small knife around cups to loosen toasts. Serve immediately.

Green Tea Cupcakes

The Primrose Bakery is a bakery in the UK that bakes layered cakes, loaves and cupcakes (among many other delectable things). Founded in 2004, the bakery has already grown so popular that celebrities such as Kate Moss and U2 have bought their goods. Now there’s an I-pad app available, where people like me can use some of their recipes to bake some of our own yummy goodies. I readily recommend purchasing this app, it will definitely be worth your while!

So when I my “hands” on the Primrose Bakery App the first things that I did was look through the cupcake section. Cupcakes are the perfect dessert in my opinion. Their small, portable and often have just the right amount of sweet to satisfy my sugar craving. While scrolling through the recipes, my eye caught on one in particular. The green tea cupcake. Being the tea fanatic that I am, I just had to give these a try.

The recipe is easy and fast, although it’s a little bit expensive because of one key ingredient. To make these cupcakes you need matcha green tea powder, which costs on average $35.00 for 50g. I know, it’s crazy. I ended up just going to DavidsTea and asking for $10 worth which gave me 24g. I now have enough green tea powder for me to make at 2 more batches of these cupcakes,so if you do want to make these cupcakes I suggest getting no more than 5-10g. Another important thing to note about these cupcakes is that they are more of a savoury cupcake. Honestly, they’re more of a muffin. It’s hard to describe but really these cupcakes are not your typical sweet-tooth cupcake. I would have these for breakfast, not for dessert after a meal. So if you’re looking for a sugary cupcakes then you’ll have to look at another blog post.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 150ml milk
• 4 teabags of green tea
• 2 1/2 teaspoon green tea (Matcha) powder
• 110g butter
• 225g granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 125g self-raising flour
• 120 plain flour
• Green tea (matcha powder to decorate.

Instructions

1. Heat the milk in a saucepan over a medium heat until it just begins to boil. Remove from the heat and add the teabags. Cover with clingfilm (Saran-wrap) and let the mixture steep for 30 minutes or overnight in the fridge. 
2. When you are ready to make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees farhenheit (180 degrees celius) . Line a 12-hole muffin tray with muffin cases.
3. Remove the teabags from the milk and squeeze out any excess milk into the pan. Add the green tea powder and stir. 
4. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing briefly after each addition.
5. Sift the flours into a separate bowl and stir well.
6. Add one-third of the flour mix to the creamed butter and sugar and beat well. Pour one-third of the milk/tea mixture and beat again. Repeat until all the flour and milk has been added. 
7. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, until raised and golden. 
8. Leave the cupcakes in their tin for 10 minutes or so before turning out onto a wire rack.
9. When cool, sprinkle with a little green tea powder for decoration.

Here’s a link to the Primrose bakery website. You could waste away hours on this website. I know I probably will be. 🙂

http://www.primrosebakery.org.uk/PAGES/Welcome.php

Oh and Happy New Year! See you all in 2012! 🙂

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,800 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 30 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.