Vanilla Simple Syrup

One of my favorite treats when I'm out and about are those delicious tea lattes from that ubiquitous coffee chain, but I also love recreating the experience at home for a fraction of the cost. This is the secret ingredient, and it's super easy to make. You could also use this syrup in coffee, hot chocolate, or even in a cocktail recipe! 

Vanilla Simple Syrup

Ingredients:

3 Cups of Sugar
3-1/2 Cups of Water
1 Vanilla Bean

Cooking:

Take the vanilla bean and slice it in half, lengthwise. With the tip of a paring knife, scrape the seeds from the flesh. In a saucepan, pour in your water and sugar together, then add the vanilla bean halves and the seeds. Whisk over medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove the bean halves and pour into a resealable container. It will be good for a week or two, but if you have a sweet tooth in the morning, like I do, it will be gone before then! 

Earl Grey Shortbreads

One of the many things I love about food blogging is the welcoming community of other food bloggers. Last month, my friend, Kristina,  who is a fabulous blogger and crafter, told me about the GIANT food blogger cookie swap happening this year. Julie of The Little Kitchen and Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil collaborated on organizing one of the largest cookie swaps ever, with over 22,000 cookies being mailed out! I really wanted to be a part of something that big! It was such fun to develop a recipe, come up with some cute packaging and send out a dozen cookies to each of these fabulous bloggers: Bibberche, Snack Time Munchies, and Sorelle e Cibo. In return, I received some chocolate biscotti dipped in peppermint candy from Shannon The Cookie Monster, some sprinkled chocolate thumbprint cookies from Natalie of Oven Love, and I also received some great hazelnut cookies, but I'm not sure who they were sent by!
I am a huge fan of tea, which you may already know, so I am constantly coming up with things into which I might incorporate tea flavors.  This recipe idea came to me from a Food and Wine Magazine recipe for Green Tea Sables. My recipe is a little more complicated, though, because with Earl Grey, you have to steep the tea into the butter to infuse the flavor. I feel it's definitely worth the extra effort!  The Bergamot in the Earl Grey gives these buttery cookies just the slightest floral note, perfect for an afternoon snack.

Earl Grey Shortbreads

Yield: 36 Cookies

Ingredients:

3 Sticks of Butter, at Room Temperature
3-1/2 Tablespoons of Loose Leaf Earl Grey Tea
2-1/2 Cups of All-Purpose Flour
1-1/4 Cups of Powdered Sugar
1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon of Salt

Cooking:

In a saucepan, put in the 3 sticks of butter and melt on low, careful not to let it boil. When the butter has completely melted, add in the tea. Remove from the heat. Let the tea steep in the butter for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Line a dish with plastic wrap and pour in the melted butter through a fine mesh sieve. Press the the tea leaves to squeeze out any remaining butter. Place the strained butter in the fridge and let cool until solid. (This can be made ahead.) Remove the butter from the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature. In a mixer, whip the room temperature butter until light and fluffy on high speed. Add in, slowly, the sugar. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Next, with the mixer on slow, add in the flour mixture. Continue mixing until the butter mixture is incorporated into the dry. Remove from the mixing bowl and bring together two disks. Wrap in plastic and allow to cool for 20 minutes in the fridge. Preheat the oven to 325. Remove your dough and roll out the mixture on a lightly floured surface to approximately 1/4 inch. The dough will be slightly crumbly, but as you roll it out, it should begin to stick together. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 inch by 2 inch strips. Place on a greased cookie sheet or a silicone baking mat with about 3/4 inch space around each cookie. Bake for approximately 14-16 minutes. The cookies will be just very, very slightly golden at the corners. Let them cool completely before removing them from the cookie sheet.

Green Tea and Dark Chocolate Scones

I have a weakness for all things British, especially proper tea time. I think there is something lovely about breaking the day just before evening falls with a light snack and some caffeine. The caffeine part is probably not the best habit for a good night's rest, but I do love strong black tea! 

Scones are a traditional offering for tea, the soft crumbly texture goes down very well with a strong cuppa. These scones use the same ingredient in a Starbucks Green Tea Latte, Green Matcha. Matcha is a finely ground high grade green tea, and you can find it at tea stores, or online. I got mine here and you can use it to make green tea lattes at home, as well as scones! A little goes a long way and the flavor is more intense than with the whole leaves. 

In this recipe, the bitterness of the chocolate perfectly offsets the sweet, fragrant green tea and helps keep the scone a little more moist. I also think that chocolate makes everything better! 

Green Tea and Dark Chocolate Scones

Ingredients:

2 Cups of All-Purpose Flour

1/3 Cup of Sugar

1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

6 Tablespoons of Cold Butter, Chopped into Small 1/2 inch Cubes

1 Ounce of 70% Dark Chocolate, Chopped into Small Bits

1 Large Egg

1/2 Cup of Heavy Cream, plus 2 Tablespoons

2 Teaspoons of Green Matcha

Cooking:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and whisk together. Put in the cold butter cubes and with a pastry blender or a fork, mash the butter into the dried mixture until the mixture is crumbly with pieces no larger than a pea. Put the chocolate into the dry mix. Meanwhile in a saucepan, pour 1/2 cup of the heavy cream and the matcha powder. Whisk the two together on medium heat. Remove the cream from the heat as soon as it starts to bubble. Whisk occasionally until the cream comes to room temperature. Whisk the egg into the cream. The cream must be room temperature or it will cook the egg. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir with a spatula until the dry ingredients are moistened. Take your hands and gather the dough into a ball against the bowl. When it is coming together in one piece, roll or flatten the mound out on a lightly floured surface. You can use your hands to flatten the dough. It needs to be about an inch thick. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into wedges. Place on a greased cookie sheet or a silicone sheet. Brush the tops with the remaining heavy cream. Bake for 10-12 minutes. They cook very quickly. You want the edges to be just lightly browned, but no more than that as they will get very dry. Remove and allow the scones to cool before serving.

Lavender Chai Tea

With the advent of fall, I start thinking of amazing warm drinks. A fantastic blog, called Three Many Cooks, wrote a post in January this year called Spiced Chai Concentrate. It's one of the best tea recipes I've ever tasted, and you can make it at home! It's better than any chain-coffee-store chai that I've tried. It's also very adaptable! I don't particularly like the orange flavor in my tea, so the recipe I used below leaves that out. While I was in Chicago this summer, my friend, James, introduced me to another awesome version of chai, Lavender Chai. Inspired, I decided to take the Spiced Chai Concentrate recipe and add my own lavender twist. While chatting with one of my foodie friends, Paul, he suggested infusing the milk with lavender. Brilliant! 

Spiced Chai Concentrate  

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons of Strong Black Tea (I prefer Darjeeling or Ceylon, but if you don't have loose leaf tea, use 5 Twinings English Breakfast teabags)

4 Cups of Water

2 Cinnamon Sticks

10 Cloves

5 Allspice Berries

2 Star Anise

1 Teaspoon of Fresh Ginger

A Pinch of Fresh Nutmeg 

1 Tablespoon of Honey

1 Tablespoon of Vanilla Extract

1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar

Cooking: 

In a stock pot, pour in all of your ingredients except the honey, vanilla and sugar. Bring this to a boil, then immediately remove from the heat and cover for 15-20minutes. In a pitcher, pour in your honey, sugar and vanilla. With a mesh strainer, pour in your steeped tea into the pitcher. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. I like to store my tea in a resealable bottle. This will keep for at least a week, but I bet it won't last that long!

Lavender Cream

Ingredients:

4 Pieces of 3" Long Fresh Lavender

3/4 Cup of Half and Half

Cooking: 

In a saucepan, pour in your half and half. Bring it to just barely simmering. Remove from heat and stir in the lavender pieces. Let sit until cool, then strain and store.

Lavender Chai Tea

Preparation:

Pour in the Spiced Chai Tea Concentrate to the Lavender Cream in a 2 to 1 ratio. Warm in the microwave or the stovetop. Enjoy! 

*I want to add a note to this recipe. I'm aware that lots of the spices above can be expensive, but I recommend going to the Dekalb Farmer's Market for your spice source if you're in the Atlanta area. The spices are very affordable there! Also, all of these spices are great to have on hand if you like Indian food! If you don't have the whole spices in your cabinet, don't panic. I have made this using the ground versions with great success, you just need to strain it through a bit of cloth*