A little while ago I was contact by the lovely people
at Whittard of Chelsea who asked if I might create a couple of recipes using
their tea and coffee. I was able to choose both the tea and the coffee from
their extensive range and settled on their organic Peruvian 100% Arabica coffee
and the Royal black leaf tea. I
was also asked if these recipes might form the basis of a giveaway.
‘Brilliant!’ I said. So here it is. Two recipes, one giveaway. You have the opportunity
to win a tin of the tea, a pack of the coffee and the beautiful china featured
in the photographs (the teacup, saucer and teapot for one). All you have to do
is scroll down and use the widget to enter. I'd also really appreciate a
comment with your opinion on which recipe you most likely use. So, here they
are. Coffee versus tea.
Coffee
chocolate cups with pistachio biscotti
I decided to tackle the coffee recipe first. I
knew it had to be coupled with chocolate. I had thought about a flourless cake
but then decided to recreate a recipe I love and use a lot for guests at dinner
parties. The original recipe is from the brilliant Nigella Lawson but obviously
I've changed it to incorporate the coffee and added the biscotti to accompany
this dish. Happily (apart from the biscotti) it’s still a gluten free dish, as
are the macaroons below. The coffee in this works REALLY well, particularly
because it's rich, strong and such high quality. Whilst I like tea and serve it
as part of my business I absolutely love
coffee and this stuff is fantastic. The biscotti came as a pleasant surprise
too, an obvious choice for a coffee dessert I suppose but not something is made
before and surprisingly easy. My friends and family will be getting bucket
loads of these for Christmas!
Makes 6-8 cups
Ingredients:
For
the cups
8oz good quality dark chocolate
4fl oz Whittard’s organic Peruvian 100% Arabica coffee
6fl oz double cream
1 egg
For
the biscotti:
1 egg
3 oz caster sugar
5oz plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
Nutmeg
3oz pistachios, shelled
Method:
Preheat the oven for the biscotti (108C / Gas Mark 4)
and make the coffee, nice and strong.
Break the chocolate into as small bits as you can with
your hands, straight into a food processor and whizz round until as fine as you
can get. Then pour over the hot coffee and leave to stand for a minute. Add the
cream and whizz again.
Crack in the egg and whiz one more time before pouring
the mixture into teacups / coffee cups / whatever you have available, cover and
refrigerate for at least six hours.
Make the biscotti. Whisk the egg and sugar until pale.
Lift the beaters and if there’s a ribbon like trail, you’ve got it right.
Next fold in flour, baking powder and a good grating
of the nutmeg. Once combined add pistachios.
Flour you hands and turn out the mixture onto a
floured surface. Shape into a ciabatta type loaf.
Place onto a parchment lined baking tray and bake for
25-39 minutes.
Take out of the oven a leave to cool on a rack for 5
minutes before slicing. Please these face down back onto the baking tray and
bake again for another 10 minutes, then turn over and bake for another 5. Cool
on a rack.
When serving your cups, take out of the fridge around
10 minutes before and place the biscotti on the accompanying saucer.
Black
tea macaroons with honey buttercream filling
Next came tea. I was nervous about this one.
When choosing the type of tea I decided to go with black because I'm not a fan
of green and Earl Grey has been done to death. Whittard do a rose tea that
looked amazing but I've kind of done rose flavoured things to death recently.
So black it was. I was struggling for ideas at first but then I thought of
macaroons. If the tea made them bitter, then fill with something sweet to
counter balance, and what better then honey to match the flavours? My only
problem now was that I have never successfully made macaroons. I don't give up
easily though, so after several you tube tutorials and trawling through all the
different recipes and methods, I came up with the following recipe and was
successful in two attempts. The reason the first one didn't work is because I
piped them too big and too close together, resulting in a slightly soggy
splodge. The second lot were lovely and tasted delicious. And look, they are so
beautiful!
Ingredients:
For the macaroons
4 teaspoons Whittard's
Royal black leaf tea
4oz ground
almonds
7oz icing sugar
3 egg whites
2 tablespoons
caster sugar
½ teaspoon cream
of tartar
For the buttercream filling
4oz butter
8oz icing sugar
1 tablespoon
honey
1 tablespoon sour
cream
Method:
Put the icing
sugar, almonds and tea into the food processor and whizz round till well
blended.
Whisk you egg
whites until you have stiff peaks and add the caster sugar. Whisk again till
shiny.
Tip in the almond
mixture and cream of tartar. Fold until well blended. Fill a piping bag. You
don’t need a nozzle. Pipe onto baking sheet covered with baking parchment. Your
macaroons should be about the size of a ten pence piece. Make sure you space
them out well enough!
Turn the oven on
to 160C or Gas Mark 2 ½. Leave the macaroons for about an hour before putting
in the oven and bake for 10-15mins. Leave on the baking parchment when you take
them out of the oven until cooled and then peel gently off the paper.
While the
macaroons are in the oven make the buttercream. Just shove all the ingredients
into the food processor and whizz till smooth.
When constructing
the macaroons use a teaspoon of the buttercream to sandwich them together.
Invite your mother
in law over for a cup of tea and show off your baking skills!
I hope you like
both the recipes and would appreciate your opinions on both. Thank you to
Whittard of Chelsea for sending such luxurious ingredients to work with. To see all of Whittard's great products please visit their website: www.whittard.co.uk
Also, use the widget below to enter our giveaway! You’re in with a real
chance of winning some high quality goods!
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