Chocolate Chip Shortbread with Earl – Grey Infused Glaze

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Baking, butter cookies, chocolate chip, cookies, cooking with tea, Dessert, Earl Grey, Earl Grey glaze, shortbread, tea glaze, tea time

There comes a time in every week ( or maybe in every day) when nothing is more satisfying than a snack of fresh-from-the-oven cookies, alongside a cold and creamy glass of milk or warming cup of tea.

When I’m talking shortbread cookies, I think of simplicity and little ingredients. This recipe of shortbread has no eggs in it, no baking powder, yet it calls for no cooling after mixing the dough. We don’t need to put everything from the pantry into a batch of cookies—a little restraint can go a long way toward helping us remember the pleasure of the simpler things.

But the absolute best part about shortbread? Butter! Shortbread cookies usually have a high percentage of fat and slightly less sugar than other cookies, leaving you with a not-too-sweet cookie that has a nice buttery flavor to it. The butter gives this classic cookie its just-so-slightly crumbly texture, which makes biting into a piece pure bliss. Butter also makes each bite melt a bit on your tongue as you munch on the cookies.

The glaze is new to me, the first time I used it or even see any recipe calling for it. Delicate Earl Grey tea infused glaze gives this unique flavor to the Cookies, calming and refreshing Earl Grey tea taste.

For optimum flavor, use unsalted butter to allow the flavors of butter, chocolate, orange and tea to stand out.

1 cup butter, unsalted
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp grated orange peel
2 cups all-purpose flour
1\4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 f. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or leave them ungreased.

Using an electric mixer on low-speed, cream the Butter, orange peel and Sugar together in a bowl until combined, Stop the mixer to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Continuing on low-speed, gradually mix in the Flour, cornstarch and Salt. Scrape the bowl. When dough has formed, add in the chocolate chips, then complete the mixing by hand with a wooden spoon.

Roll dough into 1\4 inch thick rectangle on lightly floured board. Cut dough lengthwise into 4 rows and diagonally into 8 rows. Place shortbread 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until bottoms begin to brown. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan, cool completely on wire rack. Prepare Earl Grey-Infused Glaze. Drizzle over shortbread.

Earl Grey Infused Glaze:

makes 1\3 cup or enough to drizzle on the cookies

1\4 cup boiling water
3 bags Earl Grey tea
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon butter, softened

pour boiling water over the tea bags, let steep 3-5 minutes. Remove tea bags.
In a small bowl, stir together powdered sugar and butter. Gradually stir in enough tea to make glaze thin enough to drizzle.

Cooking with Tea: The Daring Cooks November Challenge

Tags

beef rolls, cabbage salad, cooking with tea, daring cooks, main dish, tea vinaigrette

Tea is one of the oldest ingredients used in the kitchen – and at the same time, one of the newest.
Cooking with tea, is all about bringing this remarkably versatile, healthful, and flavorful ingredient into our food. cooking with tea doesn’t meant that the food will entirely taste as tea, but it will improve the flavors, and add something more.
Cooking with tea, let us looking at it from another way outside the cup. Tea can be used to flavor many  savory dishes from appetizers to main dishes, tea has now a wide usage in deserts too.

Sarah  from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

This is my first time to cook with tea, many thanks to Sarah for giving us the opportunity. I’m very pleased with the dishes I made using the tea as either one of the ingredient or as a cooking technique, the tea gave an extra flavors to the meat, plus it was a good and a daring step to include it in the salad dressing.

Apple and Cabbage Salad with Lemon Tea Vinaigrette

1 apple cut into quarters, then thinly sliced
red cabbage thinly shredded
1 cup fresh arugula
pecan

for the lemon tea vinaigrette:

2 bags spiced lemon tea
2 tablespoon apple cider
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon olive oil
1\4 teasoppn powdered ginger
1\2 teaspoon sugar
salt and fresh ground black pepper

To make the lemon tea vinaigrette, steep the tea bags in 1\4 cup hot water for 2-3 hours. Whisk together, all the ingredient for vinaigrette with the steeped tea, set aside.
On a salad plate, toss the cabbage, apples slices, and the arugula with the vinaigrette, season with salt and pepper, serve immediately with sprinkle of some pecan on the top.

Beef Rolls with Orange Tea

3 bags spiced orange tea
2 thick cut beef tenderloin
2 tablespoon steak spices (include garlic and pepper)
fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon white vinaigrette
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 green bell pepper,sliced
2 large carrots, cut into slices lengthwise
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon soya sauce
1 tablespoon barbecue sauce
1 teaspoon corn starch

Place the tea bags in 1 cup hot water, let steep for about 2-3 hours.
Meanwhile, slice  the tenderloin steak in half lengthwise, the butterfly cut, or not all the way to the end. Place each strip, cut side up, between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and pound with the smooth side of a meat mallet or a heavy saucepan until flattened to about 1/8 inch thick. Season the beef slices with the steak spices, rosemary, white vinaigrette, olive oil, and 1\2 cup of the steeped tea, let marinade for at least an hour in the fridge.

On a large wide sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil, add the carrots strips, sauté for 2-3 minutes, then add the pepper slices, sauté for 1 minute.
To prepare rolls, lay a piece of beef on a work surface. Place some of the carrots and bell pepper crosswise on the beef. Roll the beef around the vegetables, support with tooth picks.

Place the roll, seam-side down, on the sauté pan, brown beef rolls over medium heat, turning to brown evenly. Transfer beef to a plate. Add the tomato paste into the pan, sauté for 1 min to give all the flavors of the sweet tomato paste, carefully add the remaining steeped tea, the corn starch, the barbecue sauce, and the soya, beating vigorously with a whisk until sauce is smooth and slightly thickened. Season to taste.

Pour some of the sauce over beef rolls, serve with some mashed potato in the side.