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homage to hot tea month

January 22, 2013

National Hot Tea Month

Did you know January is National Hot Tea Month?  When I happened upon this fact, I wanted to create a dessert as an homage to the occasion.  I am a little obsessed with Food Network, so, with Kitchen Stadium in the back of my mind, I attempted to create a dessert using tea as the secret ingredient.

Earl Grey is my favorite tea, so I knew that was the starting point.  My first impulse was to make a cookie…the wonderful flavor of the rosemary shortbreads I made over the holidays was fresh in my mind.  Earl Grey shortbread?  Seemed a little too obvious for Kitchen Stadium.

Ice cream?  Creme brulee?  My final idea:  a cream puff filled with Earl Grey infused whipped cream.  To finish it off; a lemon glaze…it is tea after all…lemon should pair well.

cream puffs infused with Earl Grey infused cream

A photo of pleasure in simple thing’s homage to National Hot Tea Month. Cream puffs filled with Earl Grey infused cream and topped with fresh lemon glaze.

After a few experiments, I found that six Earl Grey tea bags were the amount that gave the result I was looking for.  I heated up whipping cream and used the tea bags to infuse the cream.  Then, I put the cream in the fridge overnight…okay, in kitchen stadium I would need to use the blast chiller.  Anyway, I chilled the cream.  That way, I was able to get the Earl Grey flavor into the cream.  After I made a standard cream puff, I filled it with the cream and added a simple lemon glaze.  Perfect!  I think I was pretty successful in creating my homage to National Hot Tea Month!

Probably everyone has a cream puff recipe, but I will include one here with the cream and glaze recipes, for your convenience.

Earl Grey Infused Cream

  • 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons of confectioners sugar
  • 6 Earl Grey teabags

Heat the cream until very hot, but not boiling.  Steep 6 Earl Grey teabags in the cream for a good 15 minutes, until the cream turns a beige color from the tea.  Squeeze the excess cream from the tea bags before discarding them.  Cover the cream and put in the fridge overnight (or the blast chiller for a short time ;) ).  When you whip the cream, add the confectioners sugar gradually.  Don’t whip the cream too far ahead of the serving time.

Lemon Glaze

  • 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • grated lemon peel (optional for garnish)

After cream puffs are filled, mix the sugar and lemon together and spread over the top of each puff.  Sprinkle with grated lemon peel, if desired.

Cream Puffs (Choux Paste)  18 to 20, medium-size

  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 cup flour
  • 4 eggs (plus 1 additional egg for glaze)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Lightly grease a baking sheet and set aside.  In a pan over medium-high heat, bring water, butter, salt, and sugar to a boil.  When butter melts, remove pan from heat, add flour all at once, and beat with a wooden spoon until well blended.  Reduce heat to medium.  Return pan to heat and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture forms a ball and leaves sides of pan.  Remove pan from heat and let mixture cool for 5 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating mixture after each addition until smooth.  Let batter cool for 10 minutes before shaping.

Use two spoons to shape the cream puffs.  With one spoon, scoop up about 1 heaping Tablespoon of batter.  With other spoon, push batter off first spoon and drop in a mound onto prepared baking sheet.  Place mounds about 2 inches apart.

In a small dish or cup, beat 1 egg with 1 teaspoon water.  Brush egg glaze lightly over tops of puffs, being sure it doesn’t drip down sides and onto baking sheet (preventing proper rising of puffs).

Bake in upper third of preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake for 5 more minutes.

Cut a slash in lower side of each puff and continue baking for 10 minutes or until puffs are firm, dry to touch, and golden brown.  Let cool on wire racks.  Use within 24 hours; or wrap airtight and freeze.  Makes about 18 – 20 medium-size puffs.

When ready to fill, carefully cut the top (upper third) from each puff (scoop out moist , doughy interior if desired).  Shortly before serving, fill with a heaping Tablespoon of the whipped Earl Grey infused cream and spread top with lemon glaze.

Cream Puffs filled with Earl Grey infused whipped cream and topped with fresh lemon glaze.  How do you think they would fare in Kitchen Stadium?

Served with a cup of tea…what better way to celebrate National Hot Tea Month?

Thanks so much for visiting, Jackie

I am sharing at the Inspiration Gallery at Craftberry Bush, Blissful White Wednesday at Timewashed, and Well Crafted Wednesday at The Well Crafted Home

3 comments

the original sweet & salty

April 29, 2012

easy sweet recipe using saltines

Long, long,  ago – when I started my first serious full time job, the woman I worked for brought in a dessert that she had made from saltines crackers.  At the time, it seemed very mysterious and unusual.  Looking back, it was the first time I really enjoyed the combination of sweet and salty.  With salted caramels being so trendy, I was reminded of the old favorite saltine recipe.  It is one of the few dessert recipes I have committed to memory, because the measurements are so easy to remember.  A nice thing about the recipe is that it only uses four simple ingredients.  More recently, I made it for my twenty-something son and he went nuts over it.  Makes sense….when I think about it, I was his age when I first went nuts for it.  The recipe:

2 sleeves of saltines, 1 stick of butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 2 cups of chips

Ingredients

  • 2 sleeves of saltine crackers
  • 1 stick of butter (I use unsalted)
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Cover a cookie sheet with a piece of aluminum foil and give it a light coat of cooking spray.

Arrange the saltines on the foil, covering all the space.

Arrange crackers in a single layer to cover all the space on the pan…you may need to use a couple broken ones to fill in all the spots.  Take 20 of the crackers you have left and seal them in a zip-loc bag.  Use a rolling pin to crush them up and set the bag aside.

Use a rolling pin to crush 20 of the saltines in a zip-loc bag

Put the butter and brown sugar into a medium size saucepan and stir until it is boiling strong enough that it can’t be stirred down.  Then, pour it slowly over the crackers, covering them the best you can.  I use a dull knife to carefully spread the mixture evenly, trying to cover most of the cracker layer.

Bake in the oven for 5 minutes..the topping will be bubbling.  Remove the pan from the oven and let it sit for about a minute.  Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the top.  After a minute or two the chocolate will be soft and you can use a dull knife to spread the chocolate evenly over the crackers.  Then, take the bag of crushed cracker crumbs and sprinkle over the top of the hot chocolate.

Let cool slightly, then put the cookie sheet in the refrigerator to set.  After about 45 minutes or so, remove the cookie sheet and break the crackers into irregular pieces.  Store in a plastic airtight container in the refrigerator…enjoy!

 

 

4 comments

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