Macaroons & Tea

F I WERE TO make a list of my skills, I'd put resourcefulness near the top.  Like so many other things I like to blame my parents for, my dad inspired this only-now-appreciated quality in me.  When people would come to our house they'd frequently comment on how simple and minimalist it was.  OK the actual words used were "bare" and "spartan", but I am one for a little more embellishment as it would turn out.

When I was a kid my dad would donate my toys if he thought my sister and I weren't playing with them anymore.  One second they'd be there, the next they were being driven away in the charity collection truck.  It goes without saying that I kept my toys in heavy rotation as a result, and I got to be very good at stashing objects.

Nowadays that fear of losing a precious toy has translated into hiding food not yet ready for consumption and the ability to see a recipe where some others might just see ingredients.  Case in point: my mom and I had some coconut and condensed milk left over, and almost immediately opted to make macaroons.  We adapted a recipe from Paula Deen, everyone's favorite apologetic racist/butter fiend, and the outcome was excellent.

Crowd-pleasing combo: macaroons & tea.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups shredded coconut
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/6 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 2 egg whites, stiffly beaten (foam-like eggs)
• 1 tsp cream of tartar

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine coconut, almond extract, and salt.  Mix condensed milk into dry ingredients and fold in egg whites and cream of tartar.  Place teaspoon-sized scoops onto greased cookie sheets, leaving 2 inches of room between macaroons.  Bake on 350° for about 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

Keroppi Green Tea Cookies

EMEMBER WHEN kids were crazy for Keroppi?  Neither do I.  It seems that no Sanrio character has enjoyed as much success as Hello Kitty, especially with the help of celebrities like Paris Hilton and Mariah Carey who have catapulted the feline into the limelight, eclipsing all the other adorable characters.

I personally was partial to Pochacco because I love dogs.  I was never obsessed, but then there are people like my friend Victor.  Victor loves Keroppi; he probably loves Keroppi more than he loves most people.  In fact he has a collection of plush Keroppis, each of which has its own name (obviously), and remain in their individual dust bags to ensure continued cleanliness and longevity.  I don't know when Victor's Keroppi mania started but he would murder for Keroppi if an animated frog could issue a command to kill.  If that's not love (and/or borderline psychosis), I don't know what is.

I came across a Keroppi cookie from Jen of Tiny Urban Kitchen when I was looking for something to get Victor for his birthday.  I felt like I struck gold.  I mean seriously, after seeing these cookies, are you not in love with Keroppi too?

KEROPPI GREEN TEA COOKIES (adapted from Tiny Urban Kitchen)
Makes 2 dozen cookies, prep time: 2 hours (not including time in fridge), bake time: 8 minutes.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 sticks softened butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tbsp milk
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp matcha powder
• Rainbow Chip Crunch sprinkles
• pink or red food coloring

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl.  In a separate bowl blend sugar and butter until smooth.  Add egg, milk, and vanilla into this bowl and mix.  Then add the flour mixture slowly into the sugar and butter mixture until everything is smooth.

2. Separate the dough into 2 sections, with one section roughly twice as large as the other section.  Mix matcha powder into the larger section until dough is consistent in color.   Roll each section out to about 1/4" thickness, place between non-stick paper, and refrigerate until firm (30 minutes to an hour).

3. How to assemble a cookie: Use a shot glass to cut Keroppi bodies out of the green dough.  Then shape the dough a little, as Keroppi's body is more oblong than circular.  I used cake piping tips to cut eyes out of the "white" dough, and again to cut out the green dough where his eyes go.  Fit the eyes into the cut out face, and stick Rainbow Chip crunch sprinkles for his pupils.  Use a toothpick to imprint Keroppi's smile. Finally with some of the white dough, use pink or red food coloring for Keroppi's noteable pink cheeks.

4. Preheat oven to 375° and bake for approximately 8 minutes.


Enjoy! :)

Matcha Green Tea Cookies

ATTLING THE DESIRE to gorge on sweets has become a bit problematic for me lately. Every meal has felt incomplete unless it ended with dessert. For instance, I made some green tea cookies, and as soon as they had cooled, I ate 6 of them, one after the other. The takeaway from this is that I am not to be left unattended with cookies.

Since I am embracing this physical dependence on sugar, or at least attempting to make a gradual departure from it, I made semi-healthy green tea cookies. Green tea has antioxidants, you can look it up. ;-) The first step to all of this is making little matcha chip morsels, which is so easy a task you will be dreaming of all sorts of infusions.

MATCHA CHIP INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups white chocolate chips (I like Ghiradelli)
• 2 tbsn. matcha powder

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt your white chocolate using the double boiler method (i.e. place a bowl over a pot of hot water, making sure to form an airtight seal). Once the white chocolate shows the first signs of melting, reduce the heat and stir until smooth.
2. Add 2 tablespoons green tea powder. You can purchase food grade matcha powder online. Otherwise it becomes very expensive.
3. Transfer everything into a bag and pipe chips onto a piece of aluminum foil. Put them in the freezer for about 35 minutes or until hardened.

Matcha Chips

Piles of cookies, waiting to be devoured.

COOKIE INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter (softened)
• 1/4 cup green tea (brewed 1 tablespoon green tea to 1/4 cup water)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups matcha chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Combine sifted dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt). Beat butter and sugar until well combined, then egg, vanilla, and green tea until light and creamy.
3. Using a wooden spoon, stir matcha chips into dough.
4. Place cookie dough on sheet (with cookie dough balls having 1" diameter) about 1" apart. For pillowy cookies, leave as is. For slightly flatter cookies, press down with your palm.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cookies are golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

What other teas would you like to try this with?

Enjoy!
Margaret

This with That: Dessert with Tea, Part II

LTHOUGH pumpkin pies are (by most beginning baker's standards) fairly simple, I would venture to say that most people are puzzled about what libation to pair pumpkin pie with. Liquor or coffee are good bets, but if you're not looking to get soused, a slice of pumpkin pie with a cup of pu-erh tea is the next best thing.

As with all pairings in the Dessert with Tea series, a brief background about the tea is necessary to appreciate the match. Unlike other teas which gradually lose their flavor, pu-erh can be aged for as long or as short as the drinker desires. It can be purchased either raw or ripened. Pu-erh has active bacteria that interact with the leaves and affect the taste of the tea (similar to the beneficial probiotics from fermentation found in yogurt or kefir). Technically pu-erh is considered a green tea, but the ripened pu-erh leaves and tea it produces are dark red/brown and therefore have sometimes been mistakenly classified as black tea. All of the semantics are silly to me, so let's not get bogged down by it. :) If you're at all interested in the production of wine, you may enjoy learning about how pu-erh is made... so feel free to check that out if it moves you.

left: pu-erh, right: pumpkin pie from blissfulbite.wordpress.com

Pu-erh drinkers agree on one thing though--it's not for everyone. It is rich, earthy, and very strong. Earthiness aside, it is similar to coffee. The dark, roasted elements of pu-erh pair so well with the nutmeg and cinnamon flavors in the pumpkin pie. Like most good relationships, when put together, the contrast brings out the best in each.

Enjoy!

MARGARET

This with That: Dessert with Tea, Part I

ARMALADE COOKIES, Muenster cheese, and fresh fruit--these are just a few of the things I have discovered pair perfectly with tea. Over the last year or so, Nicholas has inundated me with a data deluge of tea trivia. What I've taken away from talking about and drinking tea is that each person may experience something slightly different or perceive something that another may not--and that's totally okay!

In my mind, this makes pairing food with tea less of a science and more of an art form that is completely dependent on the taster's palate and the extent to which they are willing to experiment. Over the next few weeks I hope to share what I've found to be tasty tea and dessert couplings with you.

Apricot cookies with Oolong Tea

Apricot Cookie Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup room temperature butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup baker's sugar
• confectioners' sugar to dust cookies
• grated zest of 1 medium-sized lemon, and a tablespoon of lemon juice to the apricot jam
• apricot jam

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients except for sugar in a medium bowl (flour, salt, cornstarch) and mix wet ingredients separately (butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar). Refrigerate the dough for 45 minutes and roll out to 1/4" thick on a piece of wax or parchment paper. Freeze this for 10 minutes after placing on a baking sheet.
2. Cut out cookies and bake for 9-10 minutes.
3. After the cookies have cooled, spread a bit of apricot jam (feel free to add lemon juice) on a cookie and sandwich. Sprinkle confectioners' sugar on a cookie and eat!

Note: This recipe should make 18-20 cookies. The cookies themselves will not be very sweet, so you can add more sugar, but I like them to be relatively unsweetened; that way the jam packs more of a punch. You can also vary the amount of lemon juice you squeeze into the mix; I favor more lemon in the cookie and less lemon in the apricot jam.

And now onto one of my favorite types of tea! I have tried many types of Oolong tea and have found some commonalities as well as striking differences between the two. The Chinese oolongs taste very earthy and sweet to me, whereas Taiwanese oolongs are not as heavily oxidized and therefore richer, creamier, more flowery. I would even say that they are mildly vegetal. Both Chinese and Taiwanese oolongs initially are very strong and can be bitter, but have a smooth and much milder finish with a very sweet aftertaste.

Because of this, either type of Oolong goes very well with the cookies. The lemony citrus bite of the cookie also highlights the floral notes of the tea. I think the lightness of Oolong lends well to any cookie with a sharp flavor, which makes the Apricot filled lemon cookie and Oolong combination a match made in heaven.

Drop me a line in the comments form; I would love to hear what you think!
XO, MARGARET