@criticalbakes Week 3 - Caduceus Clay London Fog Tea Cakes
For Caduceus, what could be better then (dead people) tea cakes? How about London fog tea cakes and a big mug of earl grey? Tea cakes are my favorite cookie but I decided to play with them a little bit by adding tea directly to the dough. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out! These little guys fall somewhere between a cookie and a cake in texture and have a lovely balance of honey, vanilla, and earl grey flavor. Since it is our favorite gardener’s week I thought I would feature Simon the Sage plant who I am currently nursing back to health.
Ingredients
- 1 C softened unsalted butter (2 sticks)
- 1 1/4 C granulated sugar
-1/4 C honey
-2 eggs, brought to room temp.
-2 1/2 tsp. vanilla paste or extract
-3 C All Purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
-1 tea bags worth of earl grey tea*
-1/2 tsp. salt
Process
1) Beat together the butter, sugar, and honey using a stand mixer or a beater on medium high speed until butter is light and fluffy. This typically takes between 3 and 5 minutes.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together salt, baking soda and salt. This can be done while the butter is beating.
3. With the stand mixer or beater on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time until combined. Add the vanilla and the earl grey. Mix until homogeneous.
4. Turn the mixer to low and add the flour to the wet mix in 3 batches. A stiff, but still fairly sticky dough should result.
5. Cover the dough and chill in the fridge for at least one hour, and up to 24**
6. When the dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 325F/165C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet.
7. Measure out 21g portions of dough (about a tablespoon) and shape into balls, then flatten into a disk with the heel of your palm on the cookie sheet. They should be about a 1in. disk.
8. Bake for 9-13 minutes or until you can just see golden brown around the edges of the tea cake, but the top is still pale.
9. Cool and then serve with a cup of tea.
* You want to make sure that the tea that you use is really fine. It should look like the flecks that you see in vanilla ice cream. I used cheap bagged earl grey in this recipe, because it tends to be that fine already. If your tea is to large grind it up with a tsp of the sugar and a spoon in a bowl. Or chuck it in a coffe grinder :)
** Tea cake dough freezes really well if you don’t want to bake them right away. Just shape the dough into pucks and put on a sheet tray to freeze. once they are solid, into a baggie they go! then whenever you want tea cakes, cook a few up as directed above.
