An Earl Grey Possett for your Valentine's perhaps?

A divine Earl Grey Possett...swoon....sigh......

ELIZABETHAN POSSET:

OED definition is: Drink made of hot milk curdled with ale, wine etc (sounds charming....) formerly used much as a remedy for colds. In the Elizabethan era it became the recipe you see below...a more refined pudding in the truest Blighty tradition.

OK I’ve said some of my other desserts/puddings here were simple but this beats them all….4 ingredients (you can even make it 3 if you want to exclude the tea flavouring and just have it as a Lemon Possett) and 3 minutes of cooking and a really impressive and divine dessert results!! Sure to impress your beloved on Valentine’s Day!!

INGREDIENTS:

Makes 4 servings.

 

3 1/2oz/ mounded half cup sugar (I used organic slightly brown sugar but if you want your posset the palest of colours then use white)

1 1/2 cups/12 fl oz heavy/double cream

1 tablespoon of the best, most perfumed Earl Grey tea you can find
(it doesn't have to be Earl Grey - it can be any tea you like but Earl Grey is so romantic!)

3 tablespoons lemon juice (from one lemon) - organic preferably, so you can use the peel for glacee'ing (is that a word?) if you'd like. 

METHOD:

1. Put cream, sugar and tea in a heavy bottomed pan.

2. Warm to just barely boiling

3. Simmer very gently for 3 minutes and stir occasionally to prevent stickage.

4. Strain into a bowl, some flecks of the tea may go through the strainer - that's OK - it looks quite pretty - then gently and slowly whisk in the lemon juice dribble by dribble…be in awe as the mixture starts to thicken - you can stir instead of whisk but as I found when you whisk it gives you a nice bubbly surface on the creams as they set and when served in a teacup look like a frothy cuppa as seen below :)
5. Pour into small, ½ cup containers and allow to cool then pop

into the fridgerdator (tee hee) for about 4 hours until completely set.

6. I still am in awe of how this dessert sets with just the lemon juice.

WHAT a sublimely delicious, smooth, luxurious treat this is....PLEASE do try it sometime.

I embellished mine with candied/glaceed lemon peel:

which is simply a combination of peel, water and sugar:

as I have my wood stove cranked during this period of Arctic bleakness and vast episodes of heavy snow I utilize the heat to make candied/glaceed peel from any and all organic oranges and lemons that come through the house - I simply save the peels and then boil, boil, boil them in a simple syrup of one cup of water to one cup of sugar in a small pan and keep adding water and sugar as I see fit when the mixture reduces down, I let it boil down maybe 4 or 5 times to a thickish syrup then fill again with water - not at all scientific but eventually the peel softens, becomes translucent, tastes really good when you fish out a piece and allow it cool - beware this stuff is screaming hot -  and when the syrup boils down to a bubbly thickness after you decide it is ready - keep your eyes peeled on the pan as if it burns the house will smell for days and you've lost your lovely peel -  then I strain and roll the peel in more sugar and leave on a plate on a shelf above the stove to dry out - doesn't usually get much chance to do so as James and I are both rather fond of this and it disappear quite quickly.

 I save the sugar syrup from the straining in a jar to help start the next batch off in good stead.

In the background of these pics are my fabrics EUROPA and BLUE RHAPSODY - click on the names to go to my online shop - Thank YOU!!!

Meanwhile outside in Maine:

The snow has been piling up....

and the sculpture has been disappearing:

          As of this Valentine's evening we should be seeing yet another 1 or 2 feet of snow arriving and settling on top of the already 4 feet we have right now - I love a good blizzard and can't wait to cosy down and eat my possett!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!

Earl Grey Tea Chocolate Truffles and Biscuits - for the New Year!

Earl Grey Truffles and Earl Grey Biscuits/Cookies - very subtle and sophisticated!

Earl Grey Chocolate Truffles adapted from the book "Chocolates and Petits Fours" by Beverly Sutherland Smith

Start this recipe at least 4 hours before you want to serve the truffles as the chocolate needs a good amount of time to harden after melting - this is a very subtle flavour which greatly depends upon the bergamotiness of your chosen Earl Grey tea.

INGREDIENTS:

Ready for truffling - off we go!!

TRUFFLES:
6oz semi-sweet chocolate - chips or block your choice - if you use block break it into small pieces to assist in quicker melting.  
2oz/1/2 stick butter cut into small pieces
6 fluid ounces  heavy/double cream
1 large egg  yolk
2 tablespoons strong Earl Grey tea (made from 2 tablespoons of loose tea and two tablespoons of boiling water - leave to steep for five minutes and drain - squeezing out the liquid from the tea -  for use in the truffles) from preferably loose tea which tends to have a better, deeper flavour  

COATING:
3 heaped tbsps unsweetened cocoa powder
3 heaped tbsps confectioners/icing sugar
1 tablespoon Earl Grey tea ground fine in a coffee grinder

1. Put cream and butter in a small pan and warm gently until butter melts and cream bubbles around the edges.
2. Add a couple of tablespoons of the hot liquid to the egg yolk and blend thoroughly – add a couple of tablespoons more and then whisk the egg yolk and liquid carefully back into the cream and butter mixture – reheat to just almost boiling whisking all the time to heat the yolk through and make sure nothing curdles.
3. Take off the heat and put chocolate into the mix and stir until it’s all melted.
4. Add the 2 tablespoons of liquid Earl Grey tea and blend.

Lovely chocolatey Earl Grey yumminess ready to cool for at least a couple of hours.

5. Chill until firm – this can take at least a couple of hours if not longer – chocolate takes quite a long to ‘set-up’
6. When truffle chocolate is set - it sets to a hardness like soft cookie dough - sift cocoa, icing/powdered sugar and ground tea together and spread on a small plate.
7. Form chilled truffle mix into small balls and roll in the sugar, tea, cocoa mix.

You can replace the Earl Grey liquid tea with 2 tablespoons of a liqueur of your choice - Brandy, Rum, Grand Marnier, Frangelico - they all would taste good - if you choose to do this then leave out the ground tea in the truffle and also in the coating too.
Ta Dah – you have delicious subtle truffles - they are very rich and the ones you see pictured below could actually have been half the size I made them here -  I would go for a size a little bigger than a hazelnut.

Hello my little truffle!!

and now for -
Earl Grey Tea Biscuits/Cookies from a recipe by Claire Robinson on the Food Network.

These need to be chilled for at least 1/2 hour before baking so factor that into your timing. 

 
INGREDIENTS
10 ozs white flour
2 heaped tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea ground fine in a coffee grinder 
4oz icing/ confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8oz butter at room temperature – I always use salted butter but you can use unsalted and then add a dash of salt to the recipe

DIRECTIONS: Makes about 24 biscuits/cookies
1. Mix together the flour, ground tea, and salt until the tea is just spotted throughout the flour.
2. Add the confectioner's sugar, vanilla and butter and either rub together by hand until it sticks together (as I do as I love to use my hands and not machines - makes a nice break from using the computer!) or pulse in a food processor until it holds together and a dough is formed.
3. Place dough on a sheet of waxed paper and roll into a log, about 2 inches in diameter. Tightly twist each end of wrap and chill in refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
5. Remove dough from fridge and slice the log into 1/3-inch thick disks.

I know this is Earl GREY tea but I didn't think the dough would look so grey!

 6. Place disks 12 each on 2 baking sheets - about 2 inches apart.
7. Bake until the edges are just brown - the recipe said about 12 minutes but now I think 10 would have been better for mine as they looked great at 10 but I couldn't resist putting them back in for another 2 minutes and they came out overdone - so start checking at about 8 and see how you go - they should look like the picture below not like mine which are too brown.

GOOD colour for the biscuits!

My biscuits/cookies - they are too browned :(((( - they still tasted good though! and a nice texture too.

 8. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks and cool to room temperature.

Ta Dah now you have Earl Grey Biscuits/Cookies to go with your Earl Grey Truffles – I have to be honest and admit the flavor of the Earl Grey in the cookies isn’t very pronounced and if I make these again I would figure a way to get the flavor out with boiling water as I did for the truffles above but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet as adding liquid will probably mess with the end result cookie/biscuit which is actually very nice!!.

Darkness has fallen and once again there's a little snow falling in Maine.

HAPPY BAKING AND TRUFFLING - let me know how your biscuits and truffles come out and 

HAPPY NEW YEAR - here's to a fine and dandy 2012.

Banana Raisin Tea BreadCake...so goood!!

Does my puppy really think she's getting a slice of this divine Banana Raisin BreadCake...I think not!! - especially so as raisins can be lethal to our furry dog friends...but that aside this is a really divine cross between a teabread (a sweet loafy thing with yeast) and a fruit cake...it's really just a light fruitcake with bananas in to be honest and it  is absolutely delicious.

The ingredients above and the cake pictured here don't have nuts in but the second one I made...and the third and now for sure the fourth had either walnuts or pecans in to round out the tooth and flavour...it's great without nuts but even better with and be sure to lightly toast the nuts first to elevate their flavour.
 
Adapted, ever so slightly, from "The Food for Thought" cookbook by the restaurant of the same name in Covent Garden, London....a wonderful vegetarian eatery.

Firstly soak your dried fruit in hot tea for a couple of hours to plump before using in this recipe.

I try to give measurements for cups and weights but I always do weights myself as it makes for a much more reliable recipe and for consistency when you make it again so I would recommend weighing if you can.

 Set your oven to 325F when you're ready to start the recipe

INGREDIENTS:

4oz/1 stick softened butter (I always use salted in desserts..I just like the flavour)
 

8oz/1 cup sugar
 

4 fl.ozs/1/2 cup strongly brewed tea - I used Earl Grey and it was excellent!!
 

4oz/ 5/8 cup raisins
 

4oz/1 cup walnuts or pecans lightly toasted first until they are fragrant...allow to cool and then crumble to smallish pieces.
 

4 fl.ozs/1/2 cup liquid combination of whole milk (I used Elderfower Farm unpasteurized in glass bottles from Lincolnville, Maine) and the tea

strained from the fruit
 

2 goodly sized bananas mashed smooth
 

1 teaspoon bicarb of soda/baking soda
 

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I LOVE nutmeg but you can use ginger or cardamom or a combination)
 

8oz/2 cups unbleached white flour
 

1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract

METHOD:

1. Soak raisins in hot tea for a couple of hours then drain and reserve the tea....add milk to tea to make 4 fluid ounces/1/2 cup.
 

2. Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour and fluffy.
 

3. Beat in the tea/milk, bananas and vanilla...it will be sloppy and kind of curdled looking like below but not to worry!! Then stir in the drained raisins...

4. Sift dry ingredients together.
 

5. Gently fold dry ingredients into banana/butter slush until well combined.
 

6. Pour into a lightly buttered and floured cake tin...mine is 6 x 3 and it is a perfect size for this recipe...which can be doubled and made in a 9" pan.

7. Bake in 325F oven for about 40-60 minutes. The cooking takes a long time and you may have to check a couple of times to make sure it is cooked in the centre...my first one you see here was a little undercooked in the middle...but then I cooked longer the next time...just make sure a skewer slipped into the centre of the cake comes out clean and your cake is done. If your cake is getting too brown put a little aluminium foil cap on it until it is done.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before unmolding and allowing to cool on a cake rack...if you leave in the pan to cool or cover before it is completely cold it will sweat and become soggy...we don't want that do we??

 I could happily eat a slice of this cake every day for the rest of my life...I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!

Happy Baking...Patricia

This post is part of the Tea Time Treats at Lavender and Lovage and What Kate Baked