Blood Orange Smoothie Madeleines

New and improved! 

A while ago I saw a recipe for madeleines from one of my favorite food bloggers, A cozy Kitchen. I worked from this recipe to create madeleines that were tea infused but they were a bit of a mess, especially since I didn't have the proper pan!

I received some blood orange smoothie tea from The Tea Spot in my recent Sipsby box and knew that was the best tea to use! This blend has red rooibos tea, orange peel, hibiscus, rosehips, safflowers, rose petals, natural orange & vanilla flavors. 

In A Cozy Kitchen's recipe she uses "browned butter" which you can read a bit more about in her post. Instead, I used the normal infusing method of melting the butter and throwing the tea in here. You want to add the melted butter to your batter before it congeals!

One of the tweaks I made was to add the zest of lemon to the recipe as well. I think lemon paired well with the other ingredients like rosehip and hibiscous. 

You do want to let the batter cool slightly before putting it into a piping bag! If you use a bag that's fine but you can also just use a ziploc bag with the tip cut off. This makes it easier to fill the molds on the pan. One lesson I learned: even if you have a non stick pan, use either butter or flour or both on the pan before putting the batter in. 

My pan was non stick but it was a bit difficult to get the madeleines out without breaking them! 

I was really excited about how they turned out! Nice and plump! Remember to touch the madeleines to see if they spring back a bit. You do want them to get a bit golden but not too much so you don't burn the bottoms! 

It's my personal opionion that these taste best warm!

Glaze is totally optional but I wanted to try it and it helped cover up some patches from some of the madeleines I butchered :) I made an orange glaze by simply mixing fresh orange juice and confectioner's sugar! 

OMG. SO. GOOD. If you don't like orange, stay awayyyy! My mom actually called me to tell me how good these were. 

100% will be making again! 

Matcha Pumpkin Pie

Green Pie.

UPDATED NOTES: I baked this recipe again recently and one way to stop it from cracking it seems is to crack the oven in the last 15 minutes to allow for the pie to slowly cool. It turned out great! If you do this, make sure to keep an eye on your pie!

I'm in full fall mode. I'm already thinking about the leaves changing, what costume to wear for Halloween and going to the pumpkin patch! This means that I'm also brainstorming about all the fall recipes! I want to start baking a bunch of pies and naturally I decided to start with pumpkin.  

This pumpkin pie has 2 twists. First, there isn't a regular crust! The crust is made from crushed up biscoff cookies and held together with melted butter...mmmm. 

The second twist is, AH it's green! This is kinda perfect for Halloween too don't ya think?! So why is a pumpkin pie green you might ask? Matcha matcha matcha!!! I recently restocked my matchaeologist matcha with their culinary grade Midori (*Affiliate link*). I got a huge tin so that I can bake all fall and winter.  

I love the taste of matcha and I think it goes well in a lot of things but I'll be honest, I wasn't sure how this would come out. Pumpkin is a strong flavor and is pumpkin pie really a pumpkin pie if it isn't that beautiful deep orange color? Oh well, this is a tea blog and we will bake with tea! 

I figured if all else fails, the biscoff crust would totally save the entire pie because they are so incredibly delicious! A quick note about the crust, I don't have a food processor currently so I crushed them up by hand and they were a little chunky. If you have a food processor I would use that so that they can get crushed well. That will make it easier for the butter to hold them together!

This pie has the same texture and consistency as pumpkin pie but it's green! As far as flavor, it is true to the spices you taste in a pumpkin pie but the flavor of matcha is definitely present! 

You can also control how green the pie gets. What I did was mix the condensed milk and pumpkin together and then added the tablespoons of matcha one at a time. One table spoon of matcha still makes the pie green but not as green as it is here. I hadn't added the eggs yet at this point you can also taste the pie to see if there is enough matcha flavor in it yet. 

Something I learned about baking time: Make sure that the pie is set all the way through! When the top of the pie set and there was no wiggling left I thought this was done. I'm not sure if the matcha had anything to do with it but I think there was a false sense of the pie being done so make sure to use a toothpick and check the middle of the pie as well.  

I think the matcha adds a nice rich and bold flavor to the pumpkin that will make a great addition to a fall party! 

Green Tea Passion Fruit Cupcakes W/ Ginger Buttecream Icing

Spicy Frosting.

I had a bunch of these pique tea packets left and they were so fun to work with, I decided to try another recipe! Last time I made this cocktail with them. I knew this tea would be great in a cupcake, all I had to decide what kind of frosting to create with it!

I know what ginger is a fun flavor with green tea and I thought, ginger buttercream? Why not?! I'm not blogging to be boring, I want to be adventurous!

All you have to do is mix the pique tea crystals with the milk in the recipe. I encourage you to use whatever amount you think is best but I honestly like to have a strong flavor so I used 4 packets in the 1 1/4 cup of milk! Do this step first before starting the recipe and place your tea infused milk into the fridge until it's time to add it to the batter. You don't need to heat your milk, but you can if you'd like!

I tried  a little experiment using mini cup cake papers but honestly I wouldn't do it again. Use full cupcake liners, you'll make less than is what is shown here but they will have a better shape.  

This tea has fragrance has such a wonderful and it's apparent in both the batter and when they're baked!

You may have seen the "spicy frosting" heading at the start of this post. I won't lie to you, with 2 tablespoons, this frosting had a KICK. If you want the ginger flavor with less of the kick I would mix everything together and gradually add in ginger to your taste. 

But let me tell you something about this spicy frosting...IT IS AMAZING. I thought it would be a bit strange but I really liked the spiciness contrasted by the sweet cupcake and the flavor of green tea! 

Yes, cupcakes were harmed ...I mean eaten...in this process!

Another note about the actual cupcake. These are THICK. If you want them to be a little less thick you can add a tiny bit more milk, try a few additional teaspoons. I actually loved how thick they are because they are a perfect for pairing with tea! I wanted to add this note though because not everyone likes cupcakes to be this way. 

As always, I suggest that you enjoy these cupcakes with tea :) 

You can check out Pique Tea here and see all their teas! These last a while because there are a bunch of packets in one box and I think theyre great for on the go tea without sacrificing the flavor! 

Homemade Matcha Sprinkles

Tea Sprinkles.

One of my favorite food bloggers is Adrianna from A Cozy Kitchen and the other day she posted a recipe for homemade sprinkles! She made them these beautiful  colors and I got to excited at how simple the recipe was so I decided to make my own! 

When I look at a recipe that I want to incorporate tea into I look for butter, milk or water to infuse the tea into. This recipe only has a few tablespoons of water so I decided to use tea in powder form, aka MATCHA! wooohooo!

I used Adrianna's recipe as inspiration but cut it down quite a bit. It still made a lot of sprinkles!

I also refrigerated them overnight but I'm sure letting them set for several hours will be ok as well. I used Adrianna's advice and used a wilton #2 tip. The tip is small so the sprinkles are the perfect size but it's VERY tiring to pipe it all out!

I know that white chocolate and matcha is the common pairing but I honestly don't like white chocolate very much! I made this fudge frosting for a roasted blueberry cake and the matcha tasted SO GOOD !

Depending on what your piping skills are like, you could make all sorts of shapes with this mixture! 

Now, a word about the matcha usage. I used Matchaeologist (warning: affiliate link!) I used two tablespoons in the mixture and that gives them a very STRONG matcha flavor. If you want something more subtle use less and the color will also be lighter green. 

These are very elegant sprinkles that can be used for fun or a great gift! 

Darjeeling Pusheen Pops

Pusheen Pops!

If you've followed me on instagram you probably know that I'm a pusheen fan! In the summer pusheen box, I got a bunch of cool items including super cute popsicle molds! On the same day I also go my monthly Sipsy by box and knew that I HAD to create another popsicle recipe. I love the way black tea popsicles so I chose this Darjeeling from Harney & Sons. 

I wanted to give the popsicles a bit of "spice" so I decided on fresh cinnamon and to sweeten them a bit I also added rock sugar. This is an optional part of the recipe and you can put as little or as much as you'd like depending on how sweet you want the popsicles. 

These molds are BPA free but they are made of plastic so you want to make sure your tea is cool before pouring teas into the molds. 

I filled these up not all the way to the top so there is space to pour some milk in later on! 

I kept checking on these and when they were semi frozen I poured a splash of milk in each one. You can kind of see the streaks of white on the pops! I added milk to give these a bit of a creamy taste so they aren't just frozen ice. 

Are these not the cutest popsicle molds??! 

Not advertising for pusheen box, I just loved what I got so much! Not pictured, pusheen ice pack, backpack, vinyl figure, luggage tag and passport holder!

Sage Rose White Rolled Ice Cream

Rose Roll Up. 

I had a familiar friend on the menu recently, Sage Rose White from Wight Tea Co! I used this tea in a post a while ago. This tea is so nice because it's light and floral thanks to the white tea and rose, it also has such a wonderful fragrance!

I know and love Wight Tea Co so much and was super excited that they are now a brand partner with Sipsby!  I mean, check out this tea. It is BEAUTIFUL! P.s. You can use code teathoughts to get 50% your first box! 

This tea is also delicate, so make sure to not over brew it. I have in my instructions to let it sit in the heated milk and cream for 2 minutes. Usually when I cook with teas, I like to increase the brewing time to make sure that the flavor or the tea can withstand any cooking but there is no cooking required in this recipe.   

A while ago I saw a bunch of videos of "rolled ice cream." The ice cream masters (this is my nickname for them) would mix your flavors of ice cream with whatever toppings on a freezing cold flat surface then spread the ice cream very thin and shave it off with what looks like a paint scraper. Of course, I thought that 1) I wanted that ice cream and 2) I bet I can remake it! 

From what I've seen this is a traditional Thai dessert so I did some research to see if the ice cream was made a certain way. I saw a bunch of diy recipes and they all seemed to look like regular ice cream ingredients so I followed suit. 

Next, I decided on salted pistachios. It took me a LONG time to decide on what to incorporate into this ice cream. The tea already has such a wonderful flavor and I didn't want to put something like cookies or chocolate into it and overpower the tea. I had some salted pistachios at home and my Persian roots decided that pistachios and rose make a lovely combo.

I've had salted caramel and also butter pecan which can sometimes have a slight salt flavor from the pecans and I love those both. I thought, why not the same thing with pistachios?! 

When you look at the recipe below you'll see that it's very simple but the rolling part was a challenge for me! I used a regular spatula but next time I want to go out and get something very thin like a paint scraper. If you look at the "roll" on the left, that was my first attempt and the one on the right is my second which came out much better! Some advice about rolling: Be confident in your roll and don't do it too slow because I think that gives the ice cream time to break. 

This is definitely an eat immediately dessert! I wanted to give a few notes about the Almond milk and cream. I used almond milk because it's what I had and wanted to test it out but the cream definitely is the main flavor. This was very creamy and delicious which I love but I think it's totally possible to substitute the cream with coconut milk to get the same consistency but with less cream and no dairy!  

In most cases I've seen the rolls topped with other ingredients like sprinkles, hot fudge etc but I decided to keep this plain and the salted pistachios are DIVINE! What flavors would you like to get on your rolled ice cream?! 

Golden Milk Tea Pops

Gold pops.

Golden milk is all the rage thanks to turmeric! Turmeric is known to have many health benefits, including decreasing inflammation within the body which is important for so many reasons. Growing up in a Persian family, I never drank turmeric as a drink but it's a central ingredients in most dishes and has always been apart of my diet. My favorite ways to cook with turmeric are including it with rice and on meat. 

Turmeric on it's own is a very strong flavor so it makes total sense to make tea blends or to make it with milk! When I got this Turmeric Tonic from the Tea Spot in my sipsby box it was a no brainer to create fun pops with it! 

This is a super basic recipe where you infuse the tea into coconut milk, freeze and tada! While the tea is infusing into the coconut milk that is your chance to put any sweetener you'd like into the mixture if you'd like any. 

To spice these popsicles up I melted a little chocolate as a topping and it was a delicious addition to the popsicles! Make sure to let the melted chocolate cool a tiny bit and that you are only putting them on popsicles right out of the freezer. The chocolate will harden on the popsicle and they are perfect to serve immediately! 

Fruity Black Tea Pops

Berry Delicious!

When it comes to tea pops, you can get really versatile! I've tried a bunch of different flavors and decided to try one of my favorites, black tea!

I was thrilled to try the liquid leaf house breakfast tea and use it in these tea pops! This tea is in tea bags so it's much easier to brew the tea and include it in the tea pops. 

When I make a smoothies I usually add in some sort of liquid or yogurt and for these pops I just replace that with brewed tea. I used two tea bags where I would normally use one because I don't want the black tea flavor to get lost in the strong fruit flavors. 

I used a blender because frozen fruit is so much easier to work with once it's blended. I love to use mixed berries and a banana for sweetener. 

This mixture comes out pretty thick and is very fruity tasting but with a hint of the black tea flavor. 

Chai Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

Dairy Free!

I'll be honest, I don't usually post dairy free or gluten free recipes because it's not something that is part of my diet and my family and I are the ones who eat the end products of these blog posts. BUT, I found an easy dairy free ice cream recipe and decided to give it a try :) 

The Chai Box sent me this blend called sweet monsoon and I was so intrigued because there are mango and coconut pieces in it! A fun twist on traditional chai. 

It's a beautiful and fragrant blend!  Opening the package I was engulfed in the sweet aroma of the blend and it was teasing me throughout the whole ice cream making process!

You may have noticed I used the entire sample of the blend in my recipe because I wanted the flavor to stick out among the coconut milk and cashews which can be overpowering! 

I don't have a fancy or high powered blender but it worked fine! I suggest crushing up the cashews a bit first then adding in the other ingredients. The cashews should be soaked overnight so they are soft and shouldn't be a problem to blend. 

Do you see the frost on the container? I like to freeze the container beforehand to speed up the process of the ice cream making. I don't have an ice cream maker to use and my process is noted in the recipe below but if you have an ice cream maker this recipe is even easier!

I HAD to roll the sides of the sandwich in chocolate chips because it reminded me of the chipwiches you get from the icecream truck! I made these chocolate chip cookies but you could easily just buy chocolate chip cookies for this purpose. 

It's best if you let these sit out for a few minutes to let them soften. After assembling each sandwich I wrapped it in plastic wrap and kept it in the freezer so when you first take it out it will be hard. Once the ice cream softens a bit it has a similar texture to regular ice cream. 

The chai adds a wonderful flavor to the cashews. If you're not a fan of cashews this may not be the recipe for you because there is definitely a strong flavor of cashews that comes through.

 Coconut and cashews is such a delicious combination, I will definitely be making this again! Have you ever tried dairy free ice cream? 

Oolong Granita

Shaved tea!

Granita is a classically Italian ice dessert that is similar to sorbet but made by hand and therefore flakier. The granita I made kinda reminded of the "shaved ice" we use to get as kids but instead of being flavored with artificial sugar color, it's flavored with delicious Shangri-La oolong from Nepal Tea! 

It's summer so the majority of my Sips by teas are going to be turned into some sort of cool treat! 

The Shangri- La oolong is described as "spicy" and full bodied so I decided to add some cardamom pods to intensify the flavor but in a sweeter way. Green cardamom pods are so easy to incorporate into teas. For a stronger flavor, crack open the pods and throw them in the brewing tea. It will get strained anyway so no harm done if seeds sneak out of the pods!

It's important to use a container that is able to go in the freezer without cracking. I bought this glass bread pan from the grocery store and it can handle both hot and cold! I let the tea cool down in this dish. 

I wasn't able to get good photos of the progress but basically if you check on the granita every 20-30 minutes you will see it starting to harden. Make sure to push the edges of the granita into the center every time you check on it. 

What this will do is start creating the flaky type texture you see here. After there is no water left and all of the granita is frozen, scoop it out and enjoy! I missed a few chunks that were larger and they froze but I was able to run a fork along the chunks to shave them down. 

Do you have a favorite summer recipe that you want me to incorporate tea into? Share with me in the comments or contact me!