Cranberry tea biscuit

I was caught in the act of looking up teas to buy online. And was told off for it. I’m not allowed to buy more until I’ve finished the bulk of what I already have. 

First World Crisis.

So I looked online for a couple of recipes for biscuits and adjusted to my laziness/what was available. After a couple of hits and misses I thought I’d better save it online to use again.

It’s a great recipe for those who are addicted to caffeine. Pop a couple in your mouth if you need to wake up early for lectures or stay up late to study. I found that 2 biscuits of these have the same effect as a cup of coffee!

Prep time- 20 minutes 

Cooking time- 12 minutes 

Here’s what i put in:

• 3 tablespoons of loose leaf tea (I used picnic tea, which is like a weaker English Breakfast. Other recipes call to split open tea bags.. but I really needed to use my loose leaf!)
• 1/3 cup of dried cranberries (I used Craisins)
• 1 1/4 cup of plain flour
• 1 pinch of salt
• 110g unsalted butter chopped (apparently the butter is of better quality and you can monitor the salt content in the butter much better yourself when it is unsalted)
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (I used lemon zest in a previous recipe but I found that the zesty pops of the lemon took the focus away from the taste of tea)

Instructions:

1. Food process/Pulse/Blitz the tea leaves so that they’re smaller
2. Pulse up the cranberries with the tea so that they become small grains (the size of broken rice)
3. Mix in all the ingredients with a spoon so that the cranberries are distributed evenly, then pulse it all together. Once you’ve finished the food processing, the dough should be on the dry side, looking a bit crumbly.
4. Using the warmth of your hand, gather up the biscuit dough and form a long log. Wrap this up in baking paper and shove it into the freezer to chill (I stuck it in for 15minutes)
5. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius. if fanforced, crank it up to 170 if not.
6. Take our your log and slice out 0.5-0.8cm slices (i used a cheese slicer ).
7. Lay it out onto baking paper- you don’t have to give it much space because it won’t spread much. (I reused the baking paper I wrapped the biscuit log in)
8. Stick it in the oven for 12 minutes, or until it goes a light brown.
9. Once done, empty it out onto a cooling rack and eat!

Just an important note: please don’t eat these biscuits late at night if you want to sleep! I kept forgetting to tell people that it was made with with tea so they ended up sleeping after 2am!

Fresh peppermint tea

After a long cool summer and an even cooler autumn we now sit in the middle of winter and experience a lift of temperature. 

Could spring be coming a little early?

I dare not say in case it chases the weather away.

Nevertheless, I sit at home on my second day of sick leave enjoying fresh peppermint tea straight from my balcony garden.

It’s always a joy to harvest what you have grown; albeit small and simple. 

It’s a beginning!

This tea was also a beginning for me, the first of many trials and errors.

I simply took a handful of peppermint and stuck it in a glass of water after washing it a few times to get rid of soil and any bugs. 

It was nice steeping at 80 degrees. Very pretty with a light green-yellow stain flowing down from the surface. It did indeed flavor the water like the familiar mint tea you can find in tea bags but really really subtle. 

Note to self: use 2 handfuls next time!

I steeped the second cup right after the water boiled at 100 degrees. Ahh what a mistake! I was drinking peppermint spinach soup! That’s right- peppermint leaves do taste like spinach once boiled.

Who would have thought?

It's an impressive looking drink though! 

I think I'll dehydrate the leaves before drinking next time