Cooking with Tea

The uses of tea are endless! It's not only a warm, comforting drink but it can be used for beauty, health, baking, and more.

In this post, I want to inspire you to not just drink tea, but to cook with tea!

Here are four different recipes and ways to incorporate tea into your everyday cooking .

1) Earl Grey Sugar Cookies

You can add crushed tea leaves to many different things. One very common use of crushed tea leaves is in butter cookies.

Find my recipe for Earl Grey Sugar Cookies here: http://lexalexrecipe.blogspot.ca/

2) Darjeeling Mousse Tart 

Another way to use tea is to steep it in any liquid ingredients. If you're making pancakes, steep tea in the milk. Likewise, if you're baking a cake you could steep tea leaves in the cake batter. In this particular recipe, I steeped Darjeeling in the cream before I made it into mousse.

Find the recipe here: http://lexalexrecipe.blogspot.ca/





3) Jasmine Tea Rub Ribs 

I'm sure you've heard of coffee rubs but there's also such a thing as tea rubs! These amazing ribs are made with jasmine tea leaves. You could use tea rubs in all sorts of meat recipes.

Find this recipe here: http://thewoksoflife.com/2014/07/jasmine-tea-rub-ribs/

(photography from http://thewoksoflife.com)

4) Miso Green Tea and Ginger Tofu Soup

One last way to use tea is in soups. You could steep a bag of tea in almost any kind of soup. Peppermint and green tea would pair lovely with many types of soup. 

Find this recipe here: http://www.sheknows.com

(photography from http://www.sheknows.com)

Daisies & Tea

You know it was a good morning when all you did was pick flowers and drink tea 

I highly recommend this new tea- Pear Delight Organic by Ambrosia Herb 

The tea contains white tea, anise star, and helichrysum. It not only tastes delicious but it is good for your skin and teeth! 

You can purchase the tea here: http://www.ambrosiaherb.com

GF Star Fruit Custard Tart

GF Star Fruit Custard Tart

Fine gluten-free crust recipe here: https://simplygluten-free.com/blog/

Filling:
1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 Tb tapioca flour
1 1/2 Tb arrowroot powder
pinch of salt
1/4 and 1/8 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 Tb butter


1) whisk egg yolks until thick and pale - set aside
2) Mix tapioca flour, arrowroot, salt, and sugar together in bowl - set aside
3) Mix milk, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla into sauce pan
4) Heat milk mixture on medium heat until steaming
5) Add flour/sugar mixture to milk mixture and stir on medium heat until bubbling
6) Slowly pour hot milk into egg yolks while stirring constantly
7) Pour eggs yolk and milk (now fully mixed together) back into sauce pan
8) Put sauce pan on medium heat and stir constantly until mixture thickens and bubbles
9) Pour mixture back into a bowl and stir in butter
10) Cover with plastic wrap and leave custard until room temperature
11) Pour room temp custard into cooked tart crust
12) Leave tart in fridge for at least 4 hours (preferably overnight), allowing custard to set
13) Decorate tart with starfruit and any other fruit of choice

(this filling recipe makes enough to fill one small tart crust - double or triple the recipe for a large tart)

GF Darjeeling Berry Mousse Tart

GF Darjeeling Berry Mousse Tart 

Find crust recipe here: https://simplygluten-free.com/blog

Filling:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tsp second-flush darjeeling 

2 cups frozen berries

1/2 cup sugar (you can add more or less to taste)

1/4 cup of cold water
1 teaspoon gelatin

(I got my darjeeling from: http://www.teacampaign.ca)

1) Measure heavy whipping cream into a bowl and add darjeeling to steep (set in fridge for at least an hour)

2) Defrost the frozen berries and strain juice into sauce pan - set aside

3) Add gelatin to cold water and let sit 

4) Put berry juice on medium heat and add sugar 

5) Once juice is steaming, add in gelatin and remove from heat 

6) Transfer juice to bowl and set in fridge until thickened 

7) Strain darjeeling tea leaves from cream 

8) Pour cream into mixer and mix on high until small peaks form 

9) Add berry juice to whipped cream and carefully mix together 

10) pour mousse into cooked tart crust and set in fridge 

enjoy!

(this filling recipe makes enough to fill one small tart crust - double or triple the recipe for a large tart)