Ladies of the Rose Tea

Within the medieval group I play with, there is a group of women that have served previously as Queen. They are know as the Ladies of the Rose, and their symbol is a yellow rose. I suggested to the current queen that I'd like to do a tea for these ladies. She thought this sounded like a great idea.

Now, there is nothing remotely medieval or renaissance about a formal tea. It is a Victorian invention. However, our group has strong roots in Victorian Gothic Romanticism. I don't think it is a great sin to acknowledge that. Besides, how cool is it to sit in the shade, nibble delicacies, and chat the afternoon away?

The Queen expressed a preference for leaning toward savory. I tried to pick a menu that reflected that.

For the savory course, we made two items. For the first, I did a riff on the classic BLT. When shopping at the El Cajon Farmer's Market, I found a little local company, Jackie's Jams. She had a tomato jam, and I just had to try it. It was really good, and I bought a jar. I thought it

would be a great idea to build a BLT around the jam. We got some good, crusty sourdough bread, and I toasted it on the grill. I then cut it into squares. We spread a thin layer of tomato jam on the bread, place a piece of bacon the size of the bread on top. We put a little dab of jam on the bacon, to act as glue for the chiffonaded bronze leaf lettuce that went on last.

The second savory item was a lettuce cup with curried tuna salad. The intent was to use all endive, but the head we bought didn't have quite enough leaves, so I used some heart of romaine as well. The tuna is a simple mix of canned tuna, mayonnaise, curry powder, and hot curry paste.

For the scone course, I decided to keep it simple, and I made just one kind of scone, the cream scones I made for the Princess Tea, the only difference being that I did not sprinkle the top with sugar after brushing them with cream.

I also made some gluten free scones, as we had an attendee that was gluten intolerant. The gluten free scones were made with Bisquick Gluten Free Mix. I followed the biscuit recipe on the box, but substituted heavy cream for the milk, to get a richer scone.

We then made a choice of four toppings, two savory and two sweet. For the savory, I made a chili lime butter, and a pesto butter. For the sweet, I made kiwi curd and the spouse made mock Devonshire cream. The kiwi curd was sweeter than I'd expected, and set up a little soft, but it seemed to be popular.

For the sweet course, the spouse made rose tea shortbread cookies, and I made safflower infused white  modeling chocolate roses.

I wanted to make yellow roses, and I'd hoped to use natural color to do it. I originally planned to use saffron, but realized I was out, and couldn't find any on short notice, but safflower was easily available. I couldn't get a deep enough color, so added some commercial coloring paste. The safflower added a bit of a savory note to the rather sweet modeling chocolate. Modeling chocolate is just white chocolate and corn syrup.

I included instructions for making a modeling chocolate rose in this post.

Recipes

Curried Tuna Salad

3 cans tuna, drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. curry powder
1 1/2 tsp. hot curry paste
salt to taste

In a bowl, mix all ingredients until tuna is well moistened.

Chili Lime Butter

8 oz. by wt. butter, softened
1 ripe jalapeno chili
zest of 6 key limes
juice of two key limes
kosher salt to taste

Char outside of chili over open flame. Remove skin, seeds, and inner membranes. Mince.

Mash together butter, chili, zest, juice, and salt until well blended.

Pesto Butter

8 oz. by wt. butter
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. minced garlic
kosher salt to taste

Place all ingredients in  a food processor. Run until butter is smooth.

Kiwi Curd

1 cup sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup kiwi fruit puree
pinch kosher salt

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until curd thickens, about ten minutes.

Strain curd. cover surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Chill in freezer for 20 minutes, then transfer to refrigerator to finish cooling.

Mock Devonshire Cream

8 oz. by wt. cream cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip cream cheese until fluffy. Add rest of ingredients, whisk until stiff peaks form.

Rose Tea Cookies

1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp. Scottish Breakfast tea
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. water
1/4 tsp. rose water
1/2 cup butter

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix together rose water and water. Set aside.

 In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together flour, sugars, salt, and tea leaves until tea is well incorporated.  Add vanilla, 1 tsp. of the diluted rose water, and butter. Pulse until a dough forms.

On a floured surface, roll dough very thin. Cut out cookies, place on an ungreased sheet pan. Bake until crisp, about 10 minutes. Cool on a rack.

 

Safflower Infused Modeling Chocolate

1 cup corn syrup
1 cup safflowers
10 oz. by wt. white chocolate

In a microwave safe bowl, combine corn syrup and safflowers. Heat in microwave until syrup just begins to boil.

Remove from microwave. Let cool to room temperature. Strain.

In a double boiler, melt chocolate to 100 F. Add 1/3 cup of the safflower infused corn syrup. Mix with a spatula until smooth and shiny. Let stand at least 4 hours before using. If kept refrigerated, good for up to one month.

 Combine with rubber spatula until smooth and shiny. Let sit 4 hours to over night.
Happy Eating!

 

Princess Tea

The spouse and I are seriously contemplating starting a business doing party planning and catering. As kind of a dry run, we did a princess tea party for a friend's daughters' birthdays. The spouse did a great job with all the party stuff. She made custom handmade invitations, extravagant goodie bags, table settings, and came up with interesting, fun games. I focused on the food.

I made a modified afternoon tea. There were tea sandwiches, scones, and cupcakes. There was a mock Devonshire cream to go with the scones.

The tea sandwiches were fairly boring. They were what the girls wanted, however. There was peanut butter with strawberry preserves, American cheese, and turkey. The kids seemed happy, however. I had sandwiches for fourteen, and the eight kids ate all of them. They were cut in cute shapes, so that may have helped.

The kids had asked for three kinds of scones; plain, chocolate chip, and caramel apple pie. I think I have implied that the scone recipe I got from Chef James Foran is a good basis to riff on. So, I want to explicitly state that his cream scone recipe is the best I've ever tried. I will be including the plain recipe here, so that you can play with it yourselves. The chocolate chip scones are the same, with six ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips added just before the wet ingredients. Any dry garnishes, like dried fruit, candy, chips, or nuts can be added without changes. Moist or wet ingredients may require adjusting the liquid to maintain the same texture.

The plain scones were dusted with pink sanding sugar, in keeping with the pink and purple color scheme of the party. For the chocolate chip scones, I garnished the top with mini chocolate chips. I cut them round to evoke a chocolate chip cookie vibe. The caramel apple pie scones are the same ones I served at the Black Hat Tea, with the exception that I used two granny smith apples instead of one gala.

The cupcakes were chocolate marbled. I used different recipes for the yellow and the chocolate
batters. The yellow cake recipe is based on this one. I like this recipe. It is quite moist, and lighter than most yellow cakes. I attribute that to the use of cake flour over all purpose flour.

The chocolate batter was based on this recipe. I essentially used the ingredients, but re-arranged the process to bring it more in line with my understanding of the creaming method. It makes a much more fluid batter than does the yellow cake recipe.

To make the marbled cupcakes, I alternated batters in the cupcake liners for four layers (yellow/chocolate/yellow/chocolate) then used a fork to give one or two big swirls through the batter.

I can't take any credit for the decoration, that was all the spouse. She is much better at that sort of thing than I am.

We also made a couple of little cakes, so each birthday girl had one to blow the candles out on. One was chocolate marbled, the other plain yellow cake. Again, the spouse gets complete credit for the decoration.

I used to think that the whole cake/pastry/all purpose/bread flour thing was a scam. My experience in the pastry class has convinced me otherwise. All purpose does live up to its name. It does an adequate job for either pastries or breads. However, if you want the best pastries, a lower gluten flour will make a lighter, moister product. Conversely, for bread, a higher gluten flour will rise better, and provide for a chewier mouth feel. Cake and bread flour are both more expensive than all purpose. So when baking, you have to decide if the improvement in quality is sufficient to justify the added expense.

Recipes

Basic Scone Recipe

1 lb. 3 oz. all purpose flour
2 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. baking powder
3 1/2 oz. by wt. sugar
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
6 oz. by wt. chilled butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
16 oz. by vol. cream

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut in butter until it resembles course meal. Add cream. Stir until dough just comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out to one inch thick. Cut into desired serving size and shape, and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Brush with cream, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a 375 F oven for 12 - 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

For chocolate chip scones: Add 6 oz. by wt. semi-sweet chocolate chips just before adding cream. Brush tops with cream, sprinkle with miniature chocolate chips.

Yellow Cake Batter

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar                                                    

8 egg yolks                                                    

3/4 cup milk                                                                     

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract                                                                     

2 cups cake flour                                                                     

2 tsp. baking powder                                                                     

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add egg yolks, one at a time, allowing each yolk to be fully incorporated before adding the next. Add vanilla, allow to mix in.

 

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mix in three stages, alternating with the milk in two stages.

 

Chocolate Cake Batter

2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1/2 cup hot water2 tsp. instant espresso powder
4 large eggs

 

Dissolve espresso powder in hot water. Set aside, let cool to room temperature.

 

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder, set aside.

 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, allowing each to incorporate before adding the next. Mix in vanilla.

 

Combine espresso and milk.

 

In three or four stages, add dry ingredients, alternating with milk mixture, letting each addition fully incorporate before adding the next. Start and end with dry ingredients.

 

To Make Marble Cupcakes:

Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Alternate layers of yellow and chocolate batters until liners are 2/3 full. Use a fork to give batters one or two good swirls.

 

Bake in a 350 F oven for 25 - 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

 

Happy Eating!

Pastry Class: Apple Pie and Dried Cranberry Almond Scones

Update(2/15):

Picture of the pie added!

Black Hat Tea Recipes: Part II, Scone Course

This is the second post containing recipes for the Black Hat tea. Part I, with the savory course recipes, has already been posted. These are the three scones, Cilantro-Pepita Pesto, Brown Sugar-Pecan with molasses butter, and Caramel Apple Pie. I hope you enjoy.

Recipes

Cilantro-Pepita Pesto Scones

For the Pesto:

1 cup cilantro leaves
2/3 cup pepitas
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt

Place everything except olive oil in a food processor. While processor is running, slowly dribble in olive oil until pesto is smooth.

For the scones:

3 1/4 cups flour
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup pesto
3/4 cup butter, cut into small cubes
1 tbsp. sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut butter into flour mixture, until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add buttermilk and pesto, stirring until just mixed. Dough should be soft. Turn onto a floured surface, knead just until dough holds together, and is not sticky on the surface. Pat to about three-quarters of an inch thick, cut out in three inch diameter circles. Place scones on a well greased sheet pan. Bake until golden brown, between 10 and 12 minutes.

Brown Sugar-Pecan Scones with Molasses Butter

For the scones:

4 cups flour
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. coarse sea salt
1 cup butter, cut into small cubes
1 3/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups chopped toasted pecans

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut butter into flour mixture, until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cream and pecans, until mixture is just moistened. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead just until dough holds together and is not sticky. Pat flat until about 3/4 inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut into 2 inch squares.Brush tops of scones with additional cream. Place scones on a well greased sheet pan. bake until golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes.

for the butter:

Beat together 1/2 cup butter with 2 tbsp. molasses, until well combined, and butter is fluffy.

 

Caramel Apple Pie Scones

for the caramel:

1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

In a heavy sauce pan over medium-high heat, whisk together water and sugar until mixture is combined and starting to boil. swirl occasionally, until mixture turns amber. Whisk in butter. Remove from heat, wait three seconds, then slowly whisk in cream. Let cool, set aside.

for the glaze:

1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. apple juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

In a microwave proof bowl, heat butter and juice just until butter is melted in a microwave. Whisk in sugar and vanilla until smooth.

For the scones:

 1 gala apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1/4 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
1 ½ cups butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup buttermilk

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl, toss together apple, lemon juice, and spices, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut butter into flour mixture, until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add in apple mixture, stir until well combined.

In a measuring cup, mix together buttermilk and juice. Pour a little liquid at a time into the flour mixture Fold the liquid in. Do this just until all dry ingredients are brought in. You may not need to use all the liquid.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead just until dough holds together, and is not sticky. Pat to about 3/4 inch thick;. Using a sharp knife, cut into triangles. Place scones on a well greased sheet pan. Bake until golden brown, about  15 - 20 minutes.

Remove from oven, place on a cooling rack over a sheet pan. While scones are hot, brush with glaze.

Let cool. Just before serving, drizzle lightly with caramel.

As always, Happy Eating!

Black Hat Society Tea

Last year, the spouse started a tradition of doing a tea for Halloween. Riffing on the Red Hat Society and their penchant for teas, she decided there needed to be a Black Hat Society tea for witches. The picture to the left was the inspiration for the party. We borrowed a friend's new place, which is a retired firehouse, to have room for 30 people. The ladies wore a great variety of hats; witches' hats, top hats, classic ladies' hats, and more.

For the food, we wanted to focus on fall flavors. Last year, we made pumpkin the theme, with a pumpkin dish in each course. This year, we chose apple as the theme flavor.We followed a traditional order of courses; savory, scone, and sweet. In this post, I will put up pictures and descriptions of the items, detailed recipes will follow in additional posts.

Savory Course

We made four items for the savory course; cold apple soup,pumpkin bread with walnut butter and pear, broiled open face Swiss and Canadian bacon sandwiches, and stuffing rounds with roast turkey. The savory course was paired with Scottish Breakfast tea. This is a hearty, robust blend of black teas.

Cold Apple Soup with Apple Schnapps Creme

This soup is based on granny smith apples, flavored with moscato, cinnamon, clove, ginger, and honey. The cream is lightly whipped, with some sour apple schnapps to kick up the apple flavor. It was served chilled. The most frequent comment was that it tasted like a really kick-ass apple sauce.

Pumpkin Bread with Walnut Butter and Pear

I made pumpkin bread, which we sliced thin, and topped with a homemade walnut butter, and a slice of fresh pear. This had a great balance of textures and flavors. The crispness of the pear contrasted well with the soft bread and creamy walnut butter. The little touch of bitterness in the nut butter helped balance out the sweetness of the pear and bread.  I think this was a really nice bit of fall in a bite.

 

Open Faced Canadian Bacon and Swiss Sandwiches

This is a variation on a sandwich my grandfather used to make. The base is one half of an English muffin. A thin layer of a spicy condiment goes next. My grandfather used Mrs. Renfro's Chow Chow, but that is very hard to come by outside of Texas. For this version we used chipotle jelly. Next is a piece Canadian bacon, topped with a piece of Swiss cheese. Finally, a thin layer of spicy mustard. The sandwich is then broiled until the cheese is bubbly and a little caramelized. We  quartered the sandwiches, as the point of the event was small bites.

 

Stuffing Rounds with Roast Turkey and Cranberry Mustard

I wanted to create a taste of thanksgiving in one bite. I also wanted to continue to expand on what can be used as a base for tea sandwiches. Sage stuffing is one of my top comfort foods, and will definitely be a future post. The round is a little savory bread pudding, flavored with basil, oregano, thyme, onion, celery, and sage. It's topped with a slice of roast turkey, and a little cranberry mustard.

 

Scone Course

We made three scones for the scone course. I wanted to use the scone course to transition from savory to sweet. We started with a savory cilantro-pepita pesto scone. Next, we presented a pecan-brown sugar scone with molasses butter, and ended with a caramel apple pie scone. A friend made some Devonshire cream to go along with the sweet scones. The scone course was paired with a white tea. This is a light, delicate tea.

 

Cilantro-Pepita Pesto Scones

For this scone, I made a pesto of cilantro, pepitas, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and olive oil. This was then incorporated that into the batter for the scones. The cilantro was prevalent but not overwhelming, and gave a great flavor.

Brown Sugar-Pecan Scones

The first sweet scone was a brown sugar-pecan scone. It was mildly sweet, and very nutty. I made a molasses butter to go along with it, to get that pecan pie flavor. They were a hit. They also went well with the Devonshire cream.

 

Caramel Apple Pie Scones

The final, and sweetest, scone was a caramel apple pie scone. Made with chunks of apple, and with apple juice and buttermilk as the liquid, they were very moist. They were flavored with typical apple pie spices, then glazed with an apple juice powdered sugar glaze, and finally lightly drizzled with homemade caramel. They were a huge hit. The under ten crowd, in particular, loved them.

 

Sweet Course

We also did three items for the sweet course. These were all the work of the spouse, I can only take credit for final assembly. Continuing with the apple theme, the first sweet was a sparkling cider pound cake, followed by sweet potato tarts with vanilla whipped cream, and finishing on a light note with Lady Grey tea cookies. The sweet course was paired with a Papaya and Passion Fruit tea. We wanted something sweeter, and a little fruity, for the sweet course.

 

Sparkling Cider Pound Cake

These are a lovely cake, both flavored and partially leavened by sparkling apple cider. The spouse also added a bit of sour apple schnapps, to up the apple flavor. The spouse used a mini bundt pan, to produce delightful little individual cakes.

 

Sweet Potato Tarts

The next sweet was a sweet potato tart with vanilla flavored whipped cream. The spouse used a biscotti crumb crust on the bottom. The sweet potato was rather laboriously shoved through a sieve, to remove the more fibrous material, and lighten the tarts.

 

Lady Grey Tea Cookies

We wanted to end on a light note, so the final sweet was Lady Grey tea cookies. This is sort of a shortbread, flavored with Lady Grey tea. The more delicate citrus notes of that tea are very refreshing, and a bit subtler than Earl Grey tea. They are lightly frosted.









Recipes will follow in subsequent posts.

This was a great event, and I'm already looking forward to next year.

Happy Eating!