Friday, November 14, 2014

Matcha Cookies

        

           It's funny how, when you're in college, you just kinda cook whatever and then when you get to "adulthood" you start looking at labels and you think, "I ate this?!" You might say some things are better left unknown but don't you want to know what your putting into your bodies? Well some companies certainly don't care about your body (just their bottom line) so you have to watch out for yourself. So where am I going with all this? Chocolate chip cookies. Or just cookies in general. I always loved when my mom baked us cookies and it's something you never get tired of. Today we are going to try to make matcha cookies. You are welcome to add whatever you wish!

We are going to do a small batch of these... just in case they don't turn out so ...yummy. 


4 TBSP  Butter 
1 egg     
1/2 cup  Flour 
1/8 cup  Sugar (or a mix of sugar and whatever else)
3 tsp      Matcha powder


Pre heat oven to 350 F
Mix the butter and the sugar together till creamy. Now add the egg and whip it. Next add the matcha and flour. And cook for 10 mins 



Well I put them in for about 10 mins and there is a great matcha flavor. Almost a crunch on top like some of those green tea buns in Japan. All in all not bad! 

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Caramel Matcha Sweet Potato Bread

Matcha bread with taters precious!

    Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew. Or in bread. I've always only mashed or made fries out of sweet potatoes. It didn't occur to me to make bread out of them until I started poking around a bit.
Anyway, as always please free to mod this recipe for your gluten and dairy free needs.

Gather these ingredients and heat the over to 350 F.
Sugar           Flour                    Butter (or veggie oil),
2 eggs,         Baking soda,        Salt,
Nutmeg,      Cinnamon            Allspice
Cloves        1/3 cup water        Sweet potato (enough for at least a cup).


 Feel free to add nuts. Even nut flavoring would probably be nice but I'm going to go without them for this first loaf.
Grab a bread loaf pan or whatever you would like to use and grease it.

Remove dirt and peel from sweet potato. Dice and add to a pot. Cover with water and let cook for about 13 minutes. Let's do the rest of the recipe while it's softening.

Combine flour and matcha powder. Sift until the flour turns slightly green. Sift for at least 30 seconds to a minute to ensure proper mixing. Once thoroughly mixed add baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
1 1/2 cups   Flour
2 TBSP       Matcha powder (I used caramel flavored)
1 tsp            Baking soda
1/4 tsp         Salt
1/4 tsp         Cinnamon
1/4 tsp         Nutmeg
1/4 tsp         Allspice
1/4 tsp         Cloves

In a different bowl mix (beat) sugar and butter until well blended. Then add the maple syrup and milk; add the eggs, and lastly the sweet potato. Once the potato is done boiling stick a fork into the potato and make sure it's soft. Then dump the water out and mash. After mashing mix in with the other ingredients.
1 cup       Sugar (you can also substitute honey, agave etc)
 1/2 cup   Butter ( 8 tbsp)
1 TBSP   Maple syrup
3 TBSP   Milk
2              Eggs
1 Cup      Mashed sweet potato

Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. Raisins would also be a great addition...
.

Place in oven and cook for
I like to turn and poke mine every 20 mins.

So I have a little confession to make. Actually a couple. I added some raisins to 1/4 of my bread cause I was really curious as to how it would taste.... and then I also might have put a marshmallow in the middle... And uh... I almost deleted the blog because I kinda got into a cookers rut. I felt like nothing I cooked was good. Glad I didn't though. Even if no one reads this. I'm enjoying myself.



Note to self don't get excited when mashing potatoes and forget to measure them afterwards...


Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Caramel Matcha Lactation Cookies

Didn't see that one coming did you? For those of you who are wondering, lactation cookies are for mothers who want to up their milk supply. Mine is probably fine at the moment but these cookies are delicious...

Feel free to sub whatever you want.

Preheat oven to 355. (or 350 if your lazy)
2 TBSP Flax seed meal. (or regular flax seeds if your adventurous)
1/4 cup luke warm water

Put the flax seed meal in a small bowl and pour the water over and stir. Then let sit.

8 TBSP butter (something like 1 cup)
1 1/2 cup butter
1 TBSP honey
1 TBSP molasses ( or you can just do 1/2 cup brown sugar... but that's boring)

Mix till creamy and then mix in flax seed mush

3 Eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract

Beat it. Just beat it. (sorry couldn't resist)

2 cups flour ( 1/2 cup coconut flour if you have it... I ran out)
1 TBSP wheat germ
1 TSP baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (just dash it in. no need to measure)
1/2 tsp Cream o tarter
1 TBSP Matcha green tea powder (I used 2 tsp and it was not enough)

Mix that all with a fork. Or whisk. Or your finger. just kidding.

Mix the dry with the wet. Then add whatever you want

1 cup chocolate chips
1 1/2 cup oats
nuts
raisins poppy seeds

Grab those flat pans and line with parchment paper for easy clean up. Drop a spoonful onto the paper with some space in between each cookie.


You don't have to be needing to increase your milk supply to eat these and if your a man don't worry you won't grow boobs. At least I hope not.  

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Banana bread muffins with matcha

Hope your not sick of banana bread muffins yet. Hope my husband isn't. I've got three sitting on the counter waiting for me and they aren't getting more yellow...

So I was going to make strawberry cupcakes but since the bananas need doing I will make Strawberry Matcha Banana Bread Muffins. Wish me luck.


Make them the same way as the other recipe. However, I omitted the coconut flour this time. Add the Matcha powder while mixing in the dry ingredients.


The result:


  They don't look very green but they are. Unfortunately, they don't have as much matcha flavor as I would like. But the matcha I have I would prefer to use in drinks. So I think I will have to try this again when I have more matcha.



Saturday, August 30, 2014

Three different banana breads with tea in them


            Bananas. Chocolate covered bananas. Banana Creme Pie. Banana Bread and Muffins. Today we are making banana bread muffins. Like I said before I just can't seem to make bread loaves so I make muffins. In the past I made Marketspice banana bread and it came out wonderful. Today I am going to experiment with two types of flavored chai before work. Oh and I am making all of my breads dairy free by substituting with dairy free butter and milk. The same can be done for people with gluten allergies. Sugar can also be substituted with things like honey (preferably not fake sugar. Those aren't good for you). I have a Amaretto honey that makes banana bread so amazing.

Make sure to use ripe or a bit over ripe bananas.

1 Stick o butter (or 8 Tbls for those of you like me who have big things of butter
1 cup sugar
1- 1/2 cups flour (or 2 cups if you don't have coconut flour)
1/2 cup coconut flour (I've been obsessed with this stuff. It smells so good!)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
 2 Eggs
2-3 Bananas (I had some massive naners so I only used 2)
1 TBSP Milk or "milk" (I used almond milk)

Preheat to 325 F. And prepare your pan of choice.

Grab your chai or whatever tea it is that you are using and grind it up as much as possible. It's better to use teas that you can grind into a powder.

Mix the butter and sugar together and then add eggs. Usually it's best to do them one at a time to get the best texture but if you are short on time just dump them both in.

In another bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. When mixing the dry ingredients together you can add your tea as well unless you are doing like I am and splitting them in half... or thirds... or whatever. Splitting every cupcake! Super tea time! Sorry. If you are doing different teas you will want to add the tea in at the end.

Mash the bananas (you can just do this with blenders) and add the milk. Then add to the butter and sugar. Lastly add the dry mixture and mix well.

Pour the batter into your pan of choice and cook. For loaves it's usually 45- to 60 mins. For muffins about 20 - 30 minutes.

Both came out nice and moist. Sorry if you don't like that word. The Vanilla Chai muffins were weak. Just like a regular banana bread muffin. So I think I will have to add more tea to that next time. The Coconut Chai muffins, however, are almost spot on. The coconut comes out subtly. I think I could probably put in another bag and be safe. The Marketspice banana bread still remains my favorite. Oh and for the chai I used Zhena's gypsy tea.


If you have any suggestions please comment below!!



Thursday, August 28, 2014

Thai Tea Zucchini Bread



               This may seem strange but I'm going to start this off with a recipe that turned out so-so. Feel free to make on your own and comment with your differences and what you did to make it better.

1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tea bag of thai tea (1 to 1-1/2 tsps)
1 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup grated zucchini (1 to 2 zucchinis)
You can also add nuts if you wish (I added raisins)


Grease your preferred bread pan (or muffin dishes if you have trouble making bread like I do). Preheat oven to 325 F.

Combine flour, salt, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, and tea together in a bowl.

In another bowl mix eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Add dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix well. Stir in the zucchini, nuts, raisins, and/ or whatever else you prefer. And then pour that into your pans. 

Bake 20 minutes. Check with tooth pick. If it comes out dry its ready. Be sure to try a few. If not ready try 10 more minutes. 

Some people say to let it cool before eating but sometimes its best when it's warm and the butter melts into it. 




When I first started making this recipe I didn't think about the fact that there was a lot of tea in the Thai tea bag I was using. That's probably why it ended up tasting so strong. I love Thai tea but I honestly don't think I will try it again in a recipe. 



Wednesday, August 27, 2014

      
      Welcome. This blog is for those who like to cook and love tea. About a year ago I joined a website called Steepster and my tea obsession took off. Then I found that people tea tea into what they cooked and mind exploded. I've been experimenting for awhile now but didn't really think to make a blog until recently. Seems like people blog about, well, everything so I figured why not this? A few things must be said before we get into the blog. First off, I'll try not to be one of those bloggers who tells you their life story before showing you the recipe. Sometimes it's nice to sit down and read about how Grandma gave you Brandy in your tea and you got a bit tipsy and you made a wonderful cake but most of the time people just want a recipe. I know I skip to them 90% of the time. Second, spelling and grammar. or those who are spelling and grammar nazis. Let me have it. Seriously. I do the best I can with spell check and what not but even I know that it misses things. Third and lastly. I am a nerd. So if you catch me going on random tangents... please forgive me. Oh and one more thing, if you have something you want me to try please comment and I will!