Peach Matcha Cake

Peachy Cake.

Are you sick of the matcha recipes yet? I don't think I ever will be! Something new I've come across is flavored matcha! The Matcha Reserve provided some peach matcha to experiment with. 

I was a little skeptical at first about flavored matcha. Matcha is known for it's health benefits so the idea of adding flavor worried me a bit. I was pleased to find out that the flavoring is natural and sugar free! What the flavoring did do was add a wonderful fragrance and taste.  

I used a very basic cake recipe here because I wanted the peach flavors to come through really well. I placed almonds on top of the heavy cream in the center and on top but that could easily be replaced with fresh fruit to pair with the peach flavor!

My parchment paper wasn't smooth around the edges to give the cake a little texture. If you want them perfectly round you can follow this tutorial on cutting the parchment paper or simple butter and then flour the pans, making sure to tap off excess flour. 

As you probably can tell I'm very fond of almonds. As mentioned before, I think fresh fruit would also go well in the middle. The cake was very tender and what the almonds do is give the cake a nice crunch. 

On top, I was more delicate with the almonds. I tried to sprinkle them gently and some ended up sticking up which I really liked the look of. This matcha is so good I sifted some extra powder on top of the cake. Not only does this give you an extra punch of matcha but also a lovely aroma of peach for the whole cake!

The heavy cream was not super binding but it did the job. It almost turned out like a matcha sandwich! 

What I really enjoyed about this flavored matcha was that the peach flavor wasn't overbearing. It lightened the taste of the matcha which is nice because matcha can often have a heavy flavor. Peach flavor is such a wonderful summer flavor and as summer approaches, you want this cake in your oven! 

The matcha reserve has 8 different flavors to choose from. You can find flavors from peppermint to blueberry! I think any of their flavors would taste great tn this cake! You can use code NAZANINMATCHA for 15% off your purchase on the matcha reserve website. 

Puerh Raspberry Jam

Tea Jam. 

I always get a lot of questions about how I choose my recipes. Sometimes it's a random guess or an experience I've had before but most of the time I look at the ingredients in the tea. One thing I love about the Sips by box is that it came with a card that describes the teas, their flavors and sometimes what they go well with!

The rain butter tea as notes of macadamia and hazelnuts and for some reason I thought that would pair well with raspberries! 

I had continually seen people making jam on The great British Baking Show and wanted to give it a try. My favorite fruit and jam flavor is raspberry. Jam is pretty simple to make so I decided to use the brewed pu'erh tea as the "water" that I add to the fruit. 

The result was delicious! This is not very sweet jam although you can make it sweeter by adding more sugar. I like how rich the flavor is. The tart raspberries and the tea make the perfect jam that is right in the middle on the sweet and savory scale. 

Mr. Tea Thoughts likes to put jam in his oatmeal and LOVED this flavor because it was still sweet enough to cut the oatmeal but not super sweet. 

Very simple recipe and one that you can make over and over to fill your summer with jam! 

Matcha Old Fashioned

Matcha Cocktail. 

If you've been reading my blog or follow me on instagram you probably know that I love whiskey! I usually take my whiskey or bourbon neat but if I'm going to have a cocktail I love the simplicity of an old fashioned. I decided to try to incorporate one of my go to teas into one of my favorite drinks!

The Matcha Reserve provided this ceremonial matcha and a peach matcha that I will be baking with soon! 

You always want to sift the matcha. In a cake or something with a lot of batter you can probably get away with not doing it but when you don't have a lot of liquid it needs to be sifted so it doesn't clump. 

This is a tip for making an old fashioned that really helps with the taste. I like to let the sugar and the bitters sit for a minute so that they really combine well. When the sugar is completely soaked in the bitters the flavor and overall quality of the old fashioned is better !

A word about the orange twist. I think these turn out best when you cut the peel with a pairing knife and slice off any thick white rind so that it twists more easily and soaks up your drink better. Feel free to use the twist as a garnish but I like to drop it in the drink so that the drink gets a little orange flavor. 

My final drink is pretty dark in color. The Bulleit bourbon I used is dark and so are the bitters. I also used brown sugar. If you modify any of those or use less matcha then the drink will come out lighter.

So you're probably wondering...what does it actually taste like?! In all honesty, if you don't enjoy an old fashioned this is not the drink for you. It takes the potent and delicious flavor and enhances it with matcha!

Here's my take: at first sip I got that punch of bourbon flavor and then the matcha comes right after. It was a little strange when I first tried it but after a few sips I LOVED IT! It's totally going to be a drink I make more often. I think that if I plan in advance and let the bourbon and matcha to sit and infuse each other for longer the flavor will be even better!

Bolder Strawberry Iced Tea

Strawberry Cake Iced Tea.

You may be wondering why I started with strawberry cake. A while back I got this tea from The Tea Spot and baked with it. The aroma and taste were so rich and sweet like cake that I was referring to it as cake tea! 

If I already have a tea that is cake flavored, why not make it a strawberry cake ??! Strawberries add a fresh and light component to this dark tea. 

This blend is so interesting because it combines different black teas, pu'erh and chocolate flavoring! See? Sounds like a cake doesn't it ?!

You can look up different tutorials to cut these roses. The way I did it was first inserting the toothpick into the bottom so that you have something to hold it by. Then take a pairing knife and make 4 slices all the way around the bottom. The slices should go down far but not far enough to cut the pieces of strawberry off. Then go around the strawberry and make one cut between two of the bottom petals. Continue to do this all around then split the top of the strawberry. Voila!

I like to put the honey in while the tea is hot so that it dissolves! I really enjoy the honey flavor in this tea specifically because it goes well with the overall sweet flavors. If you choose to not put in any sweetener I would suggest brewing a little less tea so that it isn't as strong. 

The raw honey I used has bee pollen on the top and I love how the little specs stayed in the tea as I let it soak up the strawberry flavor. 

This is a strong black tea which I love iced! The strawberry flavor comes through well, especially if you put slices in the tea while it's cool. 

Strawberries remind me of summertime so they are perfect with this iced tea. Even with the strong black tea, when iced this is a refreshing drink! 

Mini Tea Bundt Cakes

I like little bundts. 

Another installment of teas in my Sips by box! These were a special addition to my normal samples. I won't lie, I'm used to drinking and baking/cooking with loose leaf tea only. I'm sometimes a little snobby when it comes to loose leaf vs. tea bags BUT to each their own!  I would normally use the milk or butter to infuse the loose leaf tea but since the tea in the bags is already ground I decided on a cake that I could thrown all of the tea into!

I recently found mini bundt pans at marshalls and thought that they would be the perfect way to make a cake but have it be special in it's own way. 

I'm not a fan of licorice but the combination of these two flavors really have a wonderful fragrance which comes through wonderfully in the cake while it's baking and when it comes out of the oven. 

This tea was pretty well ground but if you open the tea bags and there are any large pieces make sure to crush them up so that you're not getting a lot of crunch factor in your cake. You want the tea to be there visually and for taste but not to physically chew it up. 

An important note for using these pans, you have to do something with them or the batter will stick. I've seen people use parchment paper but I opted to use my misto to spray with olive oil and then flour them. Make sure to knock off excess flour because it will stick to the cake. 

Most things I bake taste pretty good but they're not always "magazine ready." This is a perfect example lol. I filled my tins almost to the top because I wanted to get as much cake as I could. They turned out fin but they don't really have a flat bottom so if you care about that make sure you don't fill the tin too high. 

See the white on my cakes, that means I needed to knock off a little more flour. It didn't interfere with the flavor but here is a lesson! Especially if you're over concerned with how they look, make sure to have a thin layer of flour. You can however always cover it with glaze :) 

I made my glaze pretty thick but thin enough to drizzle. If it's too thin it won't solidify but this part is completely up to you. I put 2 cups of confectioner's sugar in my recipe but use as much as you want to get desired consistency. MAKE SURE YOUR BUNDTS ARE COOL BEFORE GLAZING!!! Or else it will melt into your cakes. 

These tasted fine the next day but oh my gosh they tasted SO GOOD warm. The cake is thick but soft and the tartness of the glaze goes so well with the licorice and cinnamon in the cake. 

I want to get all sorts of bundt pans and try these! Do you have a favorite bundt pan?! 

Matcha Swiss Roll With Almond Cream

Matcha Roll. 

Another matcha recipe, are you surprised ?! So, I've been hooked on The Great British Baking Show recently and it's been giving me all sorts of recipe inspiration. One of the first episodes they made a "swiss roll" which is essentially a cake rolled around delicious cream! We get these all the time from the Iranian bakery near my house and I've always referred to them as roulette. These have so many styles but the essential idea is the same! 

The trickiest part about this roll as I saw on the show and experienced when baking it, is getting it the right size, thickness and texture. On the show they referred to the roll as a "sponge." Well, I felt the pressure of the baking show when I made my first sponge because it was HORRIBLE! It didn't really rise and was not spongy at all. 

The second time I changed up my ingredients and added honey. I also used cake flour which I think helped a lot. I spread it a bit too thin but it was still soft and delicious! In my directions I note to spread it but not too thin so you can have a thicker roll :) It's really important to roll up the sponge while it's hot so it will roll easier when it's time to spread on the filling! 

If you remember I made almond cupcakes with matcha frosting recently and I LOVED the flavor combo. I decided to recreate that flavor combination in a different way. Not only did I add almond emulsion in the heavy cream but I decided to toast some almonds for the top. This gives the soft sponge some crunch! The almonds can also help cover up a not so great piping job :) 

Even though I spread mine thinner than I wanted to, it was wonderfully tender. It also rolled really well!

My advice:

• Make sure your batter is well beaten and mixed before adding in the flour. The green color of the batter should get lighter. 
• Make sure that you check your roll while it's in the oven. It will spring back slightly when it's ready. If you let it go too long it will be dry. This is especially important with a matcha flavored cake because the color isn't light so it's harder to tell when it's done. 

I used some lovely culinary matcha from Mizuba Tea Co. for the roll and it was delicious! Keep your eye out for one more recipe with this matcha that I think you will love! 

The best part about this combo is that the matcha flavor comes through really well. The cake and the heavy cream together are the perfect amount of sweetness. 

Keep your heavy cream cool! It will make everything easier :) 

Have you made matcha swiss roll? What is your favorite matcha flavored sweet?! 

Sencha Ahi Tuna

Tea Tuna.

I have another fun recipe for you using one of the samples that came in my Sips by box! This recipe is for seafood lovers who want to spice up their dinner menu! I've used a sencha green tea from Yunomi to create an ahi tuna steak marinade! 

I've noticed that green and puerh teas have such a rich and often earthy flavor so they pair so well with savory dishes. If you remember my Gyokuro Shrimp recipe, this is a similar idea but with some different spices and a longer marinating time. Tuna steaks are often seared quickly both sides and enjoyed with a somewhat rare inside. The key to this recipe for me is the hours it is marinated. 

My marinade is fairly liquid due to the tea and lemon juice so the tuna is literally soaking it all up. Even if you cook these steaks to be rare or medium rare that meat will have the delicious flavor of the marinade packed into it. 

I decided that I would go with tart and spicy on this marinade with the lemon juice, peel, fresh garlic and ginger. I also used a little bit of basil to cool it down, especially if you choose to use some red pepper flakes like I did. 

I've recently been watching The Great British Baking show and one episode they had to make tea loaves. I thought this was fun because I had recently made tea infused bread (recipe coming soon). I was shocked when one of the judges said that he was impressed with everyone's bread because tea is a difficult ingredient to incorporate into baked goods and food. EXCUSE ME? If you've noticed that my blog has been dominated by recipes lately it's because I'm here to prove that notion wrong! 

When I think of a recipe, it's basically anything that includes water or an ingredient of some sort that I can either use tea as a substitute or brew the tea into the ingredient. Marinades are often liquid so I simply brew my desired tea and use some of it to marinade the tea! You can also use the entire leaves as well as the brew but it's important to pay attention to how bitter the tea will become. Give the leaves a taste before you incoporate them into the dish.   

I grew up brewing tea not paying any attention to brewing times. Persians like their tea dark, or at least my family did and it was always more about color and aroma than how long it had been brewing. Green teas are different. As a general rule, you should follow brewing times carefully so that your tea does not become so bitter, especially if you are using it for food! 

The first brew time suggested 60 seconds which is what I followed. I think that because the meat is raw, it's better if you allow it to cool before adding it to the marinade. If you add hot tea in right away you risk the heat from the tea cooking the ingredients as well as the meat while it marinades. 

Instead of plopping the tuna into the marinade I think it will turn out better if you really soak the tuna. I spooned the liquid over the meat a few times and made sure some of the spices were sitting on top of the tuna. In my directions I mention turning over the tuna during the marinade time, don't forget to spoon the liquid over the tuna again at that point. 

I think the tuna turned out delicious but I didn't SEAR it like you see in many recipes because I poured the marinade over the tuna in the pan. If you want a crisper outside, simply place the tuna into the hot pan without the liquid! 

We enjoyed these steaks with sushi rice and some baked green beans. I have made this sushi rice recipe many times and it's so easy to follow. I only suggest using 1 tablspoon of sugar instead of 3...unless you like super sweet sushi rice!

Bon Appétit !

I would LOVE to know if you try this recipe, feel free to leave me a comment or shoot me an email :) 

Tiramisu Truffles

Unicorn Truffles. 

If you saw my post about the Sips by subscription box, know that I have a bunch of interesting teas to work with! Although truffles are pretty simple and classic, I couldn't resist using the Pinky Up Tiramisu blend to make truffles. With black tea, cocoa, white chocolate, cinnamon and a few coffee beans, how could I not make truffles?!

These take time to make due to refrigeration time but they are so so simple! What you end up with is a perfectly chocolate packed little ball. The tiramisu tea adds that black tea flavor and the cinnamon is an excellent addition to this classic dessert.  

Lesson Learned: Chop, chop chop that chocolate up! I'm not sure what I was thinking leaving it that large. smaller pieces will melt a lot easier and your mixing arm will thank you! 

Rolling: Even though the truffle mixture had been in the refrigerator for hours and had solidified, it melted FAST! I would suggest cooling whatever instrument you use to scoop out the balls to help slow the melting a little bit. 

When choosing your rolling topping, I think you should be a little adventurous! Cocoa is a very common coating but these truffles are hardcore chocolate flavored. Adding in a different type of coating gives them more depth in the flavor department.

As you can see I used some fun sprinkles to roll the majority of my truffles. These are of course from my favorite sprinkle shop, Tiny Kitchen Treats! She not only makes fun names for all of her sprinkles but they actually TASTE good. They taste real. A lot of sprinkles I've bought from the store have a strange flavor to them. 

The tiramisu tea was excellent in these truffles, it was almost like biting into a piece of tiramisu. Flavors were more dominated by chocolate but the notes of coffee were there. This blend has both black tea and coffee so it smells AMAZING and your truffles will hold that aroma as well. Make sure that when you're heating the cream with the tea that you let it get hot enough that the cream is actually brewing the tea or the entire addition of the tea is pointless.  

If you could roll your truffles in whatever flavor you wanted, what would it be?! 

Matcha Mint Chocolate Chip Ice cream

Matcha Mint. 

Y'all. Let me tell you about the dangerous thing I just made at home for the first time. MATCHA MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM !! I'm not sure if I've shared this with you but mint chocolate chip is my favorite ice cream of all time. One time, in my teens I read that Orlando Bloom also loves mint chocolate chip ice cream so basically, it's the best ice cream flavor. 

I found a recipe for it and made some tweaks based on what I love. For example I put in almost double the matcha, I didn't use an ice cream maker, brown instead of white sugar and I used more mint that what was called for. 

There are a lot of steps but nothing too complicated. A devilishly easy ice cream recipe that can easily be molded to have different flavors? I'm in big trouble! 

My favorite part is that instead of using chocolate chips, I melted chocolate and covered the pan so as I churned they broke up into smaller chunks/shavings. 

So excited to finally use this ice cream scoop! 

The flavor of the matcha is there but there are still all the lovely charactistics of the mint chocolate chip. The fresh mint has such a wonderful flavor that makes it taste very fresh!

One thing to note, I used a glass loaf pan to store my ice cream and it worked well but it didn't have a lid. After day 2 or 3 in the freezer, even with some foil over top it froze a little too much. I would suggest getting some kind of container with a lid! I think the ice cream tasted best on day one, why not make a batch and finish it that day?! :) 

What are you favorite ice cream flavors??! 

Sips by Tea Subscription Box

Sips on Sips.

One of the best parts of joining the world of tea is realizing that I'm not alone!! Growing up a tea drinker in the US was often lonely. My friends would get so excited to go to starbucks and I would dread it because tea bags can't hold a candle to my beloved loose leaf. I've tried to like coffee, but it doesn't suit me. Then I became a tea blogger...

There are so many wonderful bloggers and businesses who are run by their passion for tea, like me! It seems like I can't even go a few days without discovering someone new. Most recently I've collaborated with Sips by and It's been awesome!

When you sign up for a Sips by account or login with facebook you will be asked about your tea preferences and what I loved about it was how comprehensive it was. It not only asks about teas but also about flavors. If you have a strong preference against a certain flavor for example (fruity for me!) you can note that and it won't be in your box. Meaning you won't get any teas you don't like! Yay!

After speaking with Staci, one of the founders of Sips by, I found out there is also a human element to the creation and choosing of the samples. The algorithm that uses your preferences to make tea decisions is just a baseline. Sips by will also look at these results and make sure they are accurate to the flavor profiles. 

As someone who loves dark sweet teas I was SO happy with my box selections! Tiramisu black tea?? Are you kidding me?? YUM!

I got 2 black teas, one green tea and a pu er tea! This was a jackpot especially because I've recently fallen in love with Pu-er tea and I've never tried a sencha before. 

Probably one of the best parts about Sips by is the true partnership between these brands. Once you are a subscriber you have access to coupons to their brand partners! Let's pretend you got your box and loved a tea blend in it, you can get yourself another batch of it at a discount, just for being a subscriber. How cool is that? 

I'm glad I got this excellent haul from Sips by and boy oh by is it tea time! If you're a tea lover it's definitely time to check this company out! Look out for some fun recipe collaborations between Sips by and Tea Thoughts coming your way soon :) 

You will get 4 personalized teas a month that will make 15 cups of tea (or 45 re steeped) for only $15 ! Start your subscription with Sibs by today!