Coconut Chocolate chip cookies- My OWN Recipe!
Recipe by me!
My step father's mom is an excellent cook AND baker. Grandmere makes a MEAN rhubarb pie. One summer day she asked me if I wanted to help her make rhubarb pie for dessert that night and I've been hooked on baking ever since. It's such an amazing process, like a chemistry experiment and it brings so much joy to the people I share it with.
I've always wanted to make up my own recipes but never knew where to start. There are so many recipes that I've made over and over again where I don't even need to look at the proportions because I know them by heart. I decided to start small with a twist on chocolate chip cookies!
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 F
- Put the chocolate chips and coconut aside to use at the end
- Combine all the dry ingredients in a small bowl
- Cream the butter and sugar in a larger bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla
- Beat in the dry mixture into the larger bowl
- Add chocolate chips and coconut
- Place tablespoon size or a bit larger balls on the baking sheet a few inches apart
- Bake for 7-9 minutes or until golden brown
These have a slight coconut taste, not overly saturated.
American Tea Room- Caramel
I discovered American Tea Room on Instagram. Btw, if you're not following @teathoughts on Instagram you should! Back to American Tea Room, I can't wait to visit. The next time I'm on the west coast American Tea Room will be my first stop. Not only do they have a wide variety of teas but it seems like such a cool place! Do I sound like a fan girl even though I haven't even visited? oh well.
Probably the coolest thing is their Tea Zone, I dig anything that gets people learning about tea.
Fragrant.
I finally got around to buying tea from American Tea Room and decided that I've been branching out so much that I've forgotten about different black tea blends. Black tea is my favorite and It was time to be adventurous.
I purchased their caramel tea which is a black Indian tea with real chunks of caramel! Don't believe me?
Now that you believe me, back to fragrant. You know that smell at a carnival? That sweet, delicious smell of caramel on different snacks? The one that takes you back to your childhood? That's the wonderful smell that filled my nostrils when I opened the bag.
After I brewed the tea and poured it into my glass the smell was even more powerful, engulfing my entire apartment! Heaven!
The taste was wonderful, it was different than the black tea I've been drinking in most recent years but is so familiar to me. I believe one of my relatives used to have this type of black tea at their house when I was younger. The caramel doesn't make it too sweet but definitely gives a candied taste to the tea. Upon putting some honey in the brew, it was perfect.
Seriously if you're near this tea room I'm jealous but Ill keep trying teas until I can visit. Did I mention they sent me a free sample? Complete surprise but a yummy one!
Oops these beautiful buds go in my way :)
Tea Party Cookies!
It's time for a tea party.
I ordered a 3 pack of tea cookie cutters from amazon, thanks Wilton! I got a teapot, a teacup and a muffin. I decided to make sugar cookies and decorate them a bit :)
Preheat Oven to 400°F. Cream the butter with sugar in a mixing bowl until it's light and fluffy.
Beat in the egg along with the vanilla and orange or almond extracts.
Add the flour and salt one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Do not chill the dough and divide into two. On a floured surface roll out each ball. Make sure to cover the cookie cutters in flour before using.
Place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.
Tea history, terroirs & varieties
Iranian New Year came early this year.
Today was a beautiful spring day so with the sun shining and breeze blowing I set off to enjoy the weather. I walked to my mom's house, it's only about two blocks away by the way. I went over there for a little visit because surprisingly as busy as life is I don't see my mom, stepdad and younger siblings as much as I'd like even though we're so close. Anyway, Iranian New Year is the first day of spring but my mom surprised me with a tea book!
Of course the nerd in me was so excited and I came home and started reading it on my balcony (again, it's gorgeous outside). This book is really cool because I've always loved tea but I didn't really know much about the origins.
One thing that I always wondered was about what word is used for tea. In the US and much of Europe, the word for tea starts with a "t." English is Tea, French is The etc. In the eastern part of the word the word for tea starts with "Ch." Chayee in Farsi, Cha in Chinese. The reason for this is a no brainer but one I didn't know. The difference is based on whether tea was delivered by sea or by road and therefore the word was different because of the different influences of the language of the transporter. Cha is tea in Mandarin and so the countries that are closer and received tea through a ground route adopted this sound in their vocabulary for tea!
Reading about the different plants variations and how they are cultivated. Excited to share more information with you as I read!
More green tea!
My aunt generously sent me some more green tea and it is so beautiful. It has a different shape then the other one.
The first green tea I tried that she sent was curiously similar to the regular black tea that I drink, not in smell but in both taste and look. This one is more similar to the type of tea you might drink at a Chinese restaurant.
As sad as I was that my honey from Capital Bee Co was finished it makes a great container!
A tea and chocolate filled Valentine's day!
Baking up a storm.
I decided to make a bunch of heart shaped treats for my family this valentine's day. I used silicone baking cups to make the mini heart shaped brownies. Marshalls provided an excellent decorating tool! I used all sorts of sprinkles and shapes. Check out what I made!
For breakfast I made my sweetheart some loving breakfast :)
I went with a group of couples to Max Brenner's chocolate bar after dinner and had the most delicious treats! I tried a white chocolate chai tea which is essentially chai tea with white chocolate ganache. Although I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate this tea was so delicious. I highly suggest it!
The cutest superbowl sweet treats
Football shaped brookies.
Oh my. Do you ever have trouble choosing between cookies and brownies? Brookies are here to save the day!
Check out yet another amazing recipe from A Cozy Kitchen! Am I a fan girl? Kinda. Yes.
After putting a mound of batter on the parchment paper I simply took my fingers and shaped it into a football. Not to worry, the batter isn't as solid as you'd like but even if the shape looks messy they still come out pretty well!
I let these cool completely before taking some store bought icing (I know shame on me) and made little football designs.
These are super rich, sweet and delicious!
The Superbowl wouldn't be complete without plenty of beer! Flying Dog is a local MD brewery and they just keep knocking it out of the park with their new beers! These two were exceptionally good.
Send me a comment with your favorite superbowl treat or drink!
The most fragrant Rooibos
Fruity.
Here's another tea from Rumi Tea & Spice called "provence". A first glance this doesn't even look like tea!
This is rooibos base and laden with fruits! The smell of dried apricot is abundantly apparent but there are definitely dried cranberries and blue berries as well.
With the addition of lavender seeds and other flower petals, this truly smells like perfume. I had the pleasure to enjoy this tea with Rob's (my bf) mom who is South African. She taught me a few important things about the centrality of rooibos in South African culture.
"We put flowers in everything"
Maryke, Rob's mom asked me if I had a special pot for rooibos. Confused, she elaborated that in South Africa many people are particular about their tea and that they have a special pot only for rooibos. Many people cringe at the thought of their rooibos being brewed in the same pot at other teas...as if it will taint the flavor! This was such a delightful piece of tradition I learned, I hadn't even thought about brewing different teas in the same pot.
Being particular about tea is nothing new to me. This reminded me of how many Iranian homes have a specific type of teapot to brew and other teapots won't do. I talked about this in a previous post...the samovar! My dad laughed when he read the post about how I like my cast iron pot better :D
Maryke also told me that her mother's taste was so keen on the rooibos that she could taste if it had been brewed in a pot with other teas!
As far as taste, I was not a fan of this rooibos. It smelled beautiful but upon tasting it really did taste like I was drinking perfume. I much preferred the red chai rooibos I tried previously!
Tea has always been a passion of mine so learning traditions and particularities of other cultures is thrilling!
Do you have any similar stories like this? I wanna hear them! Please comment below or email me teathoughtsandsweets@gmail.com
Rumi Tea & Spice
The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere they're in each other all along
~Rumi
A few month before I started my blog I came across a lovely tea shop near my work called Rumi Tea & Spice. I saw the sign for the store and was intrigued. Upon entered and greeting the shop owner I found out that the store was in fact named after one of my favorite poets!
The shop is owned by a delightful Persian family who shares my passion for Rumi's words, as do many Persian people. My initial visit consisted of buying some essential spices and herbs, namely dill and turmeric which I use almost daily in my cooking. I saw that they had an incredible selection of teas as well.
I needed to get new teas to try so I went back to visit Rumi Tea & Spice.
One of the teas I bought was a Ti Kuan Yin Iron Goddess of Mercy oolong. The tin the tea comes in (which is free!) has brewing instructions. I brewed two teaspoons of this tea for 7 minutes. The tea dried has an herb like aroma, not like most teas I've tried!
It came out a golden yellow color. The flavor of this tea was smooth and sweet! Legend has it that the goddess of mercy told a farmer to nurture this single tea plant to bring his village prosperity!
The tea also looks really cool once it's been brewed. Dried, the leaves are tightly bound and they expand when brewed.
If you're local to Bethesda, check out this wonderful tea shop! If you aren't local you can order online! I think it's very important to shop local and support small businesses!
Miso White Chocolate Chip Cookies - Baking Failure
Sometimes I fail.
I took an interest in baking back in middle school. At the start, I failed all the time. I soon discovered that baking is a lot like chemistry, you have to be precise. There is a reason to add baking soda versus baking powder or both etc. Once I got the hang of it I usually did well, except last night. EPIC FAIL :)
The last time I remember messing up was making my mom a raspberry torte. It was an extremely complicated recipe and I did not bake the genoise correctly, it was delicious but it was no genoise.
I had come across A Cozy Kitchen's miso white chocolate chip recipe and was intrigued. Not really a fan of white chocolate but in cookies it's usually YUM. I have also never baked with miso before. The recipe was simple enough but in the process of baking I messed up.
The bottom of the cookies kept burning. Thankfully the batter was a large batch so that I could experiment. Here is what I tried and what finally worked.
-First I tried doubling up on the parchment paper...burned bottoms
-I tried lowering the oven temp to 300 from 350 and bake the cookies for 10 minutes instead of 12...burned bottoms
-I kept the above changes and moved the baking rack down a notch. This was the closest I got so far, the bottoms were browned instead of burned but the cookies weren't the right shape.
-FINALLY, on my last batch I increased the size of the balls I was putting on the sheet and flattened them a bit. I checked them after 8 minutes and left them in for 9 total I believe. They finally came out right, on the last batch :(
Of course it was frustrating to fail so many times but humbling as well. I took a few pictures to show you the process and difference in cookies!
The ones on the right were still yummy yummy but a bit too browned.
Lesson learned.