Time for....some tea inspired baking with Piacha tea

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're having a tea-riffic day.

Today I am sharing with you a little recipe that made me very happy. You may remember that we discovered the fabulous tea from Piacha a while ago - Pia has so many delicious blends on offer, but Black and Cherry is one of my favourites. It's a sweet tea, that I find very refreshing. For ages now I have been trying to include this tea in my baking - always focusing on cakes. But they always fail - with hardly any flavour carrying through to the cake.

Tonight however I decided to try something different - I had seen teabag shaped biscuits all over the Internet (Ok - mainly on Pintrest....the place I seem to spend most of my time!!) and it struck me that maybe I could include Black and Cherry in a biscuit. A lot of the teabag biscuits I came across were flavoured with green tea (often using Matcha powder) but then I came across a couple of recipes which included earl grey tea. After doing a bit of research about whether you can actually eat tea leaves, I decided to give it a go and worked on a recipe using the Black and Cherry tea leaves.....and I'm so glad I did....

Black and Cherry tea bag biscuits
from Tea With Me and Friends

These biscuits are light and crisp and have a beautiful cherry flavour that will make you smile. Plus, they are super simple to make!

You will need:

1.5 heaped tablespoons of Piacha Black and Cherry loose leaf tea

130g plain flour

50g caster sugar

20g icing sugar

100g unsalted butter

splash of water

100g chocolate - optional

A straw for poking holes

Bakers twine (or other thread)

This will make: 16 teabag biscuits

Preheat your oven to:

200c or 180c (fan oven)

To make the biscuits:

• First you need to grind up the tea leaves as small as you can - either in a food processor, with a pestle and mortar or like me in a bowl with the back of a spoon.
• Now combine all your dry items (so that's the tea leaves, flour and both sugars) in a bowl, mixing them well
• Next you need to add the butter - rub this into your dry ingredients so you end up with a bread crumb like mixture. Don't worry if it starts to combine together at this stage,
• Now add a splash of water and carrying on combining the mixture to make a dough. At this stage less is definitely more - you don't want a sloppy dough
• It's time to chill your mixture - this is important to stop the dough expanding when baking in the oven. Roll your dough out, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
• Once chilled, we get to the fun part - making the teabags! First put flour on your clean work surface, then roll out the dough until its about 0.5cm and then cut out your little teabag shapes. I used a straw to make the hole at the top of each teabag.

Use a straw to poke holes in the top of your biscuits

• Once you've cut all your teabags, place them onto a cold baking tray and place in your preheated oven for 12 minutes or until the edges of your biscuits turn a golden colour.
• Remove your biscuits from the oven and allow to cool

Tea bag biscuits in the making!

• Once cool you can thread your twine through the holes in the top and dip your biscuits in melted chocolate. Don't forget if you go down the chocolate route you'll need to leave the biscuits to dry before you can tuck in.
• Enjoy with a cup of tea!

Teabag biscuits....perfect with a cup of tea!

To be really honest these biscuits don't really need the chocolate dip - the light cherry flavour is sweet enough. However, if you do add the chocolate it doesn't ruin them either!

These biscuits make a lovely gift for a tea loving friend.....or just gobble them all up yourself (like I did!).

I'm sure this simple recipe will work well with other tea leaves, so if you don't have any Piacha tea at home why not experiment with your favourite tea - just remember to grind up your leaves! If you try a different tea yourself, we'd love to hear what you baked - leave us a comment or send us a photo!

To find out more about Piacha teas and the fabulous tea bar in London pop by the Piacha website!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

The Friday Review....Silver Needle tea from Ahmad Tea

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends.

It's Friday....and since the crazy festive season has finished normal service has returned and we're back with a Friday tea review! Last year we were sent several teas from the Ahmad Tea range to try.....

Just look at all those teas! 

Ahmad Tea is a UK-based family tea business, drawing on four generations of tea blending and tasting experience. Since Ahmad Tea kindly sent us so many teas, we decided to spread our reviews over several different posts (to prevent tea fatigue - if there is such a thing!).

So let's start our tea adventures with the Silver Needle tea in the beautiful caddy....

A silver needle tea is a delicate, fresh tasting Chinese tea made of soft, plump young 'needles', or immature leaf buds, covered in tiny silvery hairs. As this tea is very light and mellow it makes it particularly enjoyable to drink in the afternoon.

To brew this tea use 1-2 tsp per 200ml cup using water temperature around 80°C. Infuse the tea for just 2-3 mins - this will leave you with a really pale yellow liquor, a little reminiscent of a glass of champagne (without the bubbles)! 

Enjoy without milk or sugar.

The flavour of the tea is light and delicate, with the smallest hint of nuttiness about it. It's a very refreshing cup of tea, perfect to enjoy with a slice of cake or something sweet.

We're looking forward to trying the other teas that Ahmad Tea sent us - in the meantime if you'd like to find out more about the Ahmad Tea range pop by their website.

We'd like to thank Ahmad Tea for sending us this lovely selection of teas, but please remember that this kind gesture has not affected our taste buds and all opinions expressed her are our own.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for Tea.....Manor Farm Tea Room, Seale

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends....we hope you've got your cup of tea and you're ready to see some more scrummy scones!

Last weekend I visited Manor Farm Tea Room in Seale with my lovely friend Alexandra. The tea room is part of craft centre complex, which includes a couple of little shops (including Lyddy-Lou's gift shop and Seale Craft Shop) and is set in the courtyard of former dairy buildings. The village of Seale is situated just south of the A31 Hogs Back in Surrey, with Guildford to the east and Farnham to the west. It's tucked away, but if you are in the area it's well worth a visit.

I believe the tearooms are under new management, the previous owner retiring after running the tearoom for 15 years. It's a pretty tearoom, housed in a building complete with exposed beams and rustic chalk walls.

Manor Farm Tearoom, Seale

As you can see the tearoom is divided into the eating area and an open plan kitchen area - the homemade cakes are displayed along one wall and even the tea looks pretty...

The tea selection - Manor Farm Tearoom

For a small tearoom I was pleased to see a good choice of tea.....and it is loose leaf!

On this visit both Alexandra and I opted to indulge in scones with cream and jam. We could have plain scones or "ones with flies in" as Alexandra calls them! 

I decided a cup of tea was in order, while Alexandra went for coffee (I know!). The service was quick and friendly and the portions good....

Just look at the size of the scones....

I am pleased to report that the scones were fresh and well baked, not at all claggy despite the size of them! The servings of clotted and jam were generous too.

My pot of tea had three cups of tea in it and on this occasion I opted for an English Breakfast blend.

Afternoon tea scones - served the Tea With Me and Friends way!

This little lot cost me £5.00, which I thought was reasonable for the portion size and quality of the food. Alexandra's was slightly more.

All in all this is a great little find - all the staff were friendly and the choice of cake was good - there was something for everyone on their cake table, plus more in a cabinet!

Decisions, decisions!

If you happen to be in the area it's well worth a visit.

Have you visited the Manor Farm Tearoom? We'd love to hear about your experience here.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for...something a bit lighter

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends!

Today we are featuring something a little bit sweet, but perfect for those midweek sugar cravings when you don't want to over indulge too much (well they work for us!).

Have you tried...chocolate covered corn cakes? Yes, we know what you are thinking....has all that sugar and caffeine finally gone to our heads....but bear with us on this one!

Milk chocolate corn cakes - Kallo

Now these are from Kallo and come in at just 78 calories per cake making them a sensible treat (yes I know there are two on my plate!). If you haven't heard of Kallo before, they are a company who focus on food products for "sensible happy eating" - hence chocolate covered corn cakes! 

For Kallo a sensible diet should be about what you can eat rather than focusing on what you can't eat (sounds very sensible to me).

Let's take a closer look at the corn cakes....

Chocolate covered corn cakes from Kallo

These corn cakes have a thin coating of milk chocolate on one side, making them sweet enough to conquer a mild chocolate craving, but with less than 80 calories per cake they won't ruin your waistline (unless maybe you eat them all in one go!).

We were sent these corn cakes to try and if I am honest I was a little dubious at first - after all....we are all about cakes, tea and scones here at Tea With Me and Friends! I was concerned that they would be a bit like munching on cardboard. However, I am very pleased to report that there is just enough chocolate on the corn cakes to make them a very enjoyable treat.

Milk chocolate corn cakes - Kallo

For more information about these corn cakes and to see the other products in the Kallo range visit their website. 

We'd like to thank Kallo for sending us these corn cakes to try - but please remember this hasn't affected our taste buds and all opinions expressed here are our own.

Do you have a favourite Kallo product? Have you tried these chocolate covered corn cakes before? What did you think about them?

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

The Friday Review....some tea gadgets!

Hello there,

Welcome back to another Friday Review at Tea With Me and Friends...we have something a little bit different for you this week...instead of tea...we have some gadgets!

We were recently sent a couple of projects from Magisso, a young Finnish design brand who produce simple but smart products. Magisso develops products out of a need....and therefore there is a strong emphasis on usability.

The products I was sent to try were the tea cup and the tea ball....perfect for us tea lovers....

Magisso tea gadgets!

Let's start with the teacup which is a funky green colour (there are other colours available) and made from dishwasher safe, food grade plastic. The idea behind this unusual looking teacup is that you can easily brew a fresh cup of tea with loose leaf tea leaves in a cup with no mess.

Let me explain....

Magisso Teacup

The cup comes complete with a little strainer that sits neatly in the cup. Although it looks flat....this cup is actually sitting on a tilt...which allows you to add freshly brewed water to your leaves in order to brew your tea....

Here you can see the leaves on one side and the water brewing around it. Once you are happy with your cuppa you simply tilt the cup the other way....

The water is no longer touching the leaves and so you cannot over brew your cup. Once you've finished you just remove the strainer. So simple!

My only issue with the cup is that I usually drink from traditional china teacups....which are considerably smaller than this! So it took a bit of getting used to....the shape is also quite different. Saying that it was easy to drink from and probably just a matter of getting used to a different teacup.

Next lets take a closer look at the teaball....

Magisso teaball

Now this is no ordinary teaball....as its magnetic! It also has a sucker! The idea here is that once you've finished brewing your tea in your pot you can easily remove the leaves from the water preventing any over brewing.

The teaball is made from Silicone and stainless steel and comes in black or green. Once you've secured the leaves in the ball you place the sucker inside your teapot lid....

It can then dangle in the water and brew you a lovely cuppa....

I'm now wishing I filmed this for you all! Once the tea is brewed you scoop the ball out with a spoon and it magnetically hangs from the lid of your teapot....

Leaving you with a lovely pot of tea and no over-brewing!

A nice product....especially for the tea lover in your life you has lots of tea gadgets already as its really unique. The magnet works well and my ball didn't fall back into the tea....it also didn't drip everywhere and so limited mess.

I'd like to thank Magisson for sending us these products to try. To find out more about them and the other products on offer take a peek at their website. I know I mentioned at the beginning of the post that Magisso is a Finnish company....but fear not as you can buy their products directly from The Design Museum Shop.

Do you have a favourite tea gadget that you can't live without? We'd love to hear all about it!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna