Monday, May 12, 2014

earl grey tea muffins

So my little girl has finally started play school and it's been a week of anticipation, and worry, and missing her to bits in the morning while being very happy and relieved that I have all this extra time in the morning to cook, bake, read, or simply just nua (laze around).

Jadelyn, while being the sweetest little thing on earth (Yes, I am totally biased - I am her mother after all), can also be very obstinate and man, can she cry when she wants to. So I figured that at the end of this first week, her teachers deserve a treat of some sort. And being a Mom who bakes, I guess what better way to say "Thank you" than to bake them something!

Flipping through my current favourite muffin book, The Ultimate Muffin Book by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, I looked for something a little more sophisticated. At the end of the day, I was not feeding a bunch of kids, so something that is a bit more adult would be great. I settled on Earl Grey Tea muffins because (1) I love Earl Grey tea so I always have bags of them in the house; (2) the teachers in school prefer treats that are less sweet; and (3) I just wanted to bake them. Enough said!

So I started by placing the tea bags in milk, and heating the milk. It is important that you watch the milk. Once it starts to bubble at the edges, turn the heat off, and let the tea bags steep.

I followed the recipe and used 6 tea bags. When I make these muffins again, I would definitely increase the number of tea bags used to 8 or even 10 since I really love the aroma of Earl Grey tea!

The recipe also called for oat flour. For a minute I was really stumped. What in the world was that? It really served me right for not reading the recipe before I started baking! Anyway, I did a quick goggle and found out oat flour is simply ground up oats. So I measured 1/2 a cup of old-fashioned rolled oats and ground them.

This was placed in a bowl, along with flour, caster sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt then mixed to combine.


I really loved the oats in the muffins - they gave the muffins some texture, as well as chewiness.

In a mixing bowl, I lightly beat the egg, then added the butter, yogurt and honey.

And mixed until everything was well-combined. By this time, the tea would have cooled.

I removed the tea bags and poured the tea into the mixing bowl. And mixed some more.

Finally, I poured the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mixed with a wooden spoon until just combined. So not over-mix unless you want tough muffins!

I dished the batter into muffin liners (fill them until they are 3/4 full if you want them to have domed tops) and baked them for 20 minutes.

They were allowed to cool in the muffin pans for 5-10 minutes before I transferred them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

I really like these muffins - the texture, the moistness, the fact that they are not so sweet. My one complaint is that I really prefer a stronger smell of Earl Grey tea, so yeah, I will definitely add more tea bags when I make these again!

One year and 250 posts later, I still love blogging! To celebrate, I am giving away an Epica TM Accupro Digital Kitchen Scale. This is a great kitchen tool and has a capacity of 11 lbs/ 5 kg.

Here's how to take part!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Giveaway ends on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 at 12:00 a.m. Pacific time. The winner will be selected by random.org and contacted by email. If there is no response after 48 hours, another winner will be selected. Open to overseas entrants.
RECIPE
Earl Grey Tea Muffins (Makes 20-24)
Adapted from The Ultimate Muffin Book by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

Ingredients:
1 cup (240ml) whole milk
3 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea leaves, or 6 Earl Grey tea bags - I would up this to 8 bags in the future
1 3/4 cups (218g) plain flour
1/2 cup (45g) oat flour - I ground 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup (112g) caster sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, at room temperature
3/4 stick (85g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup (120g) yogurt (regular or low-fat)
1/4 cup (85g) honey

Method:
1. Heat the milk in a small pan set over medium heat until small bubbles form around the pan's rim. Remove from the heat and stir in tea leaves or submerge the tea bags in the warm milk. Cover the pan and set aside for 45 minutes to steep.
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line muffin pan with muffin liners.
3. Whisk the plain flour, oat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl until well combined. Set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat the egg. Whisk in the melted butter, yogurt and honey until well-blended. If using loose tea, strain the milk into the bowl. If using tea bags, discard them and pour the milk into the egg mixture. Mix well, then pour into dry ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture has just come together. Do not over-mix.
5. Fill the muffin liners three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the muffins are light brown, with rounded, cracked tops. A toothpick inserted into a muffin should emerge almost clean.
6. let the muffin pan cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring the muffins onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Note: The muffins will stay fresh in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 24 hours or up to 2 months in the freezer.

I am submitting this recipe for Cook-Your-Books hosted by Kitchen Flavours.



I am also linking this post to Little Thumbs Up, hosted by Zoe of Bake For Happy Kids, Doreen of My Favourite D.I.Y., and Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.



9 comments:

  1. I love Banana Chocolate Muffin and also Blueberry Muffins! I never get to bake those tat dome and mushroom like those selling outside .. wonder why ...
    Earl Grey .. good choice .. my fav tea too .. but never baked in muffin .. tired in Steam Tea Cake and Cookies only. Shld try it on Muffin .. oats .. time to get some rolled oats ..

    ReplyDelete
  2. I LOVE Earl Grey as well! Have you seen the limited edition Twinnings Earl grey tin box in Cold Storage! Super nice~ ^^

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Diana,
    Your little girl is really cute and adorable!
    Lovely muffins, and lucky recipients!
    Thanks for linking!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Banana Muffins, my most favourite. I love Earl Grey tea too. Gonna try bake this earl grey muffins. Thanks for the recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My fav muffin will be mixed berry Choc chip! Of course with a cup if dark grey. You have got good taste!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Diana, it must be a worries week for you to see your little one crying but believe me they will be alright once they have friends at school. Your muffins look great, I love the taste of Earl Grey muffins!

    Thanks for linkup with Little Thumbs Up!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Making these tomorrow! I'm excited (:

    -Kris

    ReplyDelete