Earl Grey Tea Biscuits Recipe

What’s better than dipping a biscuit in your tea? A tea flavoured biscuit, that’s what. DOUBLE Earl Grey. If you can’t get enough of your favourite tea then this is the ideal accompaniment and if you’ve a friend who goes mad for a particular blend this is such a thoughtful gift! When making biscuits for dipping, I always slightly over bake for a crisper edge so they don’t completely disintegrate on entering the mug… Remember though that these will harden while cooling so they will still be soft when they come out of the oven. Golden brown edges are enough for these little dudes. Sprinkle with caster sugar while cooling for friends with a mega sweet tooth… 

Makes 10

Ingredients:

250g salted butter

3 or 4 Earl Grey teabags

50ml milk

140g caster sugar

325g plain flour

1 egg, beaten

1tsp vanilla paste

Recipe:

1.   Melt the butter in the microwave and empty 2 or 3 of the tea bags into it. Stir to distribute evenly and then leave to set in fridge. Warm milk gently in microwave and add a teabag to infuse (not opened!) Once both are cooled you can bake!

2.   Rub together the butter and the flour until you have a fine breadcrumb like texture.

3.   Stir in the sugar and vanilla paste and then the egg. Add the milk until the dough comes together. Cling film and then chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

4.   Roll out until a thickness of about 2cm and cut out whatever shapes you fancy- tea bag shapes welcome!

5.   Chill in the fridge to harden up again (to keep their shape) while the oven preheats to 160c (180 fan). Bake for 10-12 minutes until they’re golden brown. Leave to cool and harden on a baking tray

6.   Dip in TEA!

Morning After Friday Night Frittata Recipe

We’ve all been there. Blood turned into beer, or at least it feels like that come Saturday morning where your body clock still wakes you up at 8, despite you only crawling into bed a few hours previous. This is a true fridge-raid and you can totally make it your own. I’ve used more traditional Full English ingredients but I’ve also been known to stick leftover takeaways in a pan of eggs so don’t limit yourself! This is even better when its made for you, so ask nicely and promise to keep the restorative teas coming all day… 

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Around 500g any veg or protein you’ve got leftover from the week e.g.

100g halved cherry tomatoes

200g boiled/baked potatoes

6 rashers of bacon

100g chopped mushrooms

100g chopped red pepper

handful spinach

5 large free range eggs, beaten

Recipe:

1.   Grill bacon. Fry mushrooms and pepper in a glug of olive oil. Add tomatoes and potatoes to get some colour on them.

2.   Chop the bacon into the pan and add the spinach leaves to wilt a bit.

3.   Add all this to the bowl of eggs to cover it. Add salt and pepper and return to the pan.

4.   Cook over a medium heat for 8-10 minutes. Transfer to the grill if you’re pan has a metal handle- if not, flip out onto a plate and slide straight back into the pan to cook the other side.

Great hot or cold

Gin and Tonic Cake Recipe

This uses a very special gin from Heston’s Waitrose collection but of course any wonderful gin will do. The freshness of lime in this cake gives a zestiness rarely found without tropical flavours so here it is really allowed to shine. To get the best from your zest, use a microplane to get just the brightest green zest from your limes. If you don’t have one (although I highly suggest you buy one, they are seriously a game changer…) you can finely grate them but make sure you don’t get the white pith- this will make it bitter rather then fragrant.

This cake actually gets better with time so don’t panic that you can’t finish it in one sitting, it will be equally delicious- in fact more so, a few days after baking if kept in an airtight tin. 

Ingredients:

225g butter

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

225g self-raising flour

4 shots Earl Grey gin

2 limes, zest

Icing:

25ml tonic water

8 shots gin

150g granulated sugar

2 limes, juice

Method:

1.   Preheat oven to 180. Grease and line loaf tin.

2.   Beat butter, lime zest and sugar together until very pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and beat completely in to mix between each one.

3.   Fold in the flour, add the gin and then bake in a loaf tin for 45 minutes.

4.   Mix icing ingredients together.

5.   When cake is out of oven, poke holes all over and pour over icing.

6.   Leave to cool properly until a crust forms then slice and serve!

Boozy Mini Eccles Cakes Recipe

Eccles cakes improve any afternoon tea spread and with the addition of brandy, these spiked ones are certainly a hit with grown ups! The fruit filling is similar to that of a Christmas cake or Christmas pudding but without the festive spices. Of course, it it ‘tis the season, then please do add some mixed spice or nutmeg to give them a wintery warmth, however just as is with a hunk of cheese is my absolute favourite way of enjoying them. 

Makes 12 mini’s or 6 large

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

250g block of butter (frozen)

350g plain flour

pinch of salt

ice water

For the cakes:

In addition to the above pastry or 1 pack shop bought puff pastry

200g sultanas

50g mixed peel

75ml brandy

juice and zest of 1 orange

zest of 1 lemon

100g soft brown sugar

1 tsp each of ground cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger

50g butter

50g brown sugar, plus 2tbsp extra for scattering

Recipe:

1.   The night before wrap the butter in foil and stick in the freezer. Pop your sultanas and mixed peel in a large bowl and let soak in the brandy and orange juice overnight too.

2.   The next day, grab a large bowl and sift the flour and salt in. Keeping the butter in the foil to keep it cold, grate it into the flour. Dip the end in the flour occasionally to make it easier. Take a knife and start to mix the butter and flour together. Sprinkle a tbsp. of water over and still using the knife, add a couple more to bring the pastry together. Finally use your hands to squish it into one mass. Cling wrap and stick in fridge to harden.

3.   While waiting for pastry to harden, melt the butter for the cakes and stir it into the sultanas and peel. Add the sugar and spices. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

4.   Preheat the oven to 200c. Roll out the pastry and cut out circles. Dollop a spoonful of the fruit mix in the centre and pinch up the sides. Place on a baking tray, pinch side down and slit the tops.

5.   Bake for 15-20mins or until golden brown and then scatter with sugar. Delicious warm with a cuppa or cold with a hunk of Wensleydale.

Jaffa Cake No Bake Cheesecake Recipe

Hybrid things seem to have been all the rage in patisserie over the past couple of years and this is a particularly good one. Although only a hybrid in flavours, the texture of this no bake cheesecake balances so well with the orange jelly. Chocolate orange has to be one of the most famous combos out there and this would certainly be improved by some chocolate dipped candied peel on top or for total chocaholics, skip the shard making and just pour the melted choc all over the top and leave to set. If you do this be sure to use a hot knife to cut it so that it melts right through the choc. 

8 large slices

Ingredients:

15 Digestive biscuits

100g melted butter

grated zest and juice of 4 large oranges

400g full fat cream cheese

300ml double cream

150g sifted icing sugar

150ml orange juice (from the zested oranges)

1 sachet powder gelatine or vege-gel

150ml water

350ml orange juice (from the zested oranges)

75g caster sugar

dark chocolate

decorations (popping candy, gold leaf, anything fun!)

Method:

1.   Smash biscuits up and add melted butter. Push into a tin and flatten. Chill until hard for about an hour or so.

2.   Whip up the cream cheese, double cream, icing sugar, orange zest and juice until thick. Smooth onto the biscuit base. Chill for 4-6 hours.

3.   To make the jelly, put the water and sugar in a pan to heat until it dissolves. Sprinkle the gelatine over the top and stir to dissolve. Add the orange juice and then pour over the top of the cheesecake. Chill overnight.

4.   Melt the chocolate and the spread out on to a baking tray. Cut into shards when cold and adorn with gold leaf.

5.   Release cheesecake from tin and stick chocolate shards in the top!