Earl Grey...my love affair with it started more than 3 months ago at a chocolate buffet with free flow of tea. I picked Earl Grey then and the flavour endeared to me ever since. There are so many possibilities with this variety of tea, I can imagine making entremets, chiffon cakes, cookies and macarons with it...all bearing its signature intoxicating scent. For a start, I made Earl Grey Sables - a buttery, crumbly cookie with a light Earl Grey scent.
I love the texture of these cookies, and how it's not too oily nor too sweet. The Earl Grey scent was really light, you can smell it, taste it, but to me it's a little faint. On my next try, I'll be sure to bump up the amount of tea used in here. Nevertheless, my darling loved the cookies, and I felt instantly reassured by that sweet remark :).
Inspired by a previous trip to Antoinette (which has a good selection of French sables), I decided to whip up a batch of Orange Chocolate Sables as well. This batch has an irresistible citrus scent! I love how the addition of orange zest and a few drops of lemon extract made the citrus flavour really pop in the cookies. Coupled with Valrhona Caraibe chocolate bits, I totally adore this flavour combination.
Both flavours were made using the same basic recipe from the Rose Cranberry Cookies recipe. I made some simple tweaks, by adding ground Earl Grey leaves and orange zest with chopped chocolate for the respective flavours. I'm thinking of doing a Lemon Lavender as well as a Chocolate Fleur de Sel version to fill up my cookie jars too!
In the meantime, I have one FULL cookie jar worth of sables to enjoy for now :). Can't wait for the next opportunity to bake again!
saw the pics on fb and was waiting for u to post it here! hehe. woah that's creativity! adapting same recipe by using diff ingredients hee. which earl grey brand did u use? TWG? im still on a search to find a brand tt has a strong taste when used in baked goods cos the ones ive used so far are so subtle even when i use more than twice the amt called for!!
ReplyDeleteEarl grey's one of my favourite teas and I've been meaning to make an earl grey infused butter cake for a long time but can never resist the aroma scent of the tea leaves long enough to make the cake.
ReplyDeleteThis certainly has me intrigued- I really have to get down to make that cake and these cookies soon! :)
@Michelle: Hey babe, I used Twinings! I think the Earl Grey flavour wasn't that strong...TWG might work better I think. I just made a batch of macarons using 3 full tea bags of Twinings earl grey and I think it helped quite abit with the increase in quantity of tea used!
ReplyDelete@thecoffeesnob: Oooh earl grey butter cake sounds really good! Haha, I'm just like you...super in love with the scent of this tea. Do try this sometime!