Author Archives: TheGingerbreadMum

Cooking with Tea – Spicy Black Tea Cookies

Posted on May 28, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

A few months ago I happily reviewed two tea flavours from the Tea India range which had recently launched in the UK. And, just quietly, my period of drinking Vanilla Chai hasn’t stopped; I still love it.

The gorgeous award-winning chef Ravinder Bhogal is now working with Tea India, creating exclusive recipes using their wonderful premium tea blends and I’ve been given a sneak peek of some of them! Keep reading after the recipe to find out how you can get free tea from Tea India as well as all of Ravinder’s recipes.

I have to say that using tea for something other than a cuppa intrigues me. I once tried smoking steaks with lapsang souchong tea leaves (which already have a very strong smoky aroma); the steaks picked up very little extra flavour, but the house smelt like we’d had an indoor barbecue for several days!

Now I can say I’ve been successful in cooking with tea thanks to Ravinder’s recipes. Her spicy black tea cookies are a very interesting take on the humble oatmeal cookie. While I don’t think anyone would guess the ‘secret’ ingredient of black tea, its addition, together with some other more common spices, gives the cookies a lovely and very rich warm spice. I’m nibbling on one as I type 😉

When I made them I was in a hurry when shaping the logs (Nicholas woke up early from his nap) and so made them much wider than the recipe. This meant the log was more difficult to slice cleanly later (I had to squish some broken off pieces of dough back into the cookie shapes). Even so, I ended up with 15 cookies, cutting the slices about 2cm thick, so Ravinder must be cutting her cookies quite thickly. Maybe slice a couple of different thicknesses to see which you prefer, or just leave it up to your kids to decide if they’re helping you make them.

Ravinder suggests eating the cookies warm (who doesn’t like a cookie almost straight from the oven?); they’re just as moreish and yummy cold.

SPICY BLACK TEA COOKIES

Prep time: 12-14 mins
Cook time: 15-20 mins
Makes 12-15 biscuits
They will keep in an airtight container for up to four days

2 Tea India black tea bags (leaves only)
125g butter, softened
100g soft brown sugar
70g self-raising flour
120g oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp mixed spice

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and line two baking trays with baking paper.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and soft brown sugar.

Add the oats, flour, tea leaves and spices, and mix until well combined.

Roll the cookie dough into a log shape approximately 5cm in diameter. Wrap in cling film and chill for 5 minutes.

To bake, remove from the fridge, unwrap and slice into 12 even sized pieces. Place on the prepared trays.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the edges are just golden brown.

Allow to cool on the baking trays before serving warm.

Tea India has a Facebook promotion (until 3 June 2013, so be quick!), You & I and a Cup of Chai, where it’s giving you the chance to share a free selection of its finest Tea India blends with your friends and family. Find out more here.

Tea India will be releasing Ravinder’s recipes on their Facebook page over the next few months, including mouth-watering Cardamom Kisses using their Cardamon Chai tea. I’m lucky to be able to try these very soon, but you’re just going to have to keep checking back 😉

Disclosure: I was sent two boxes of tea to sample and cook with. My opinions are honest and my own.

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Posted in cooking with toddlers, family, recipe, review, snack, toddler and tagged biscuits, black tea, cookies, cooking with kids, cooking with tea, oatmeal, Ravinder Bhogal, recipe, Tea India, tea recipe. Bookmark the permalink.

The Easiest Bread Rolls

Posted on May 20, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

If you love bread then you must check out my friend Barbara’s blog, Bread and Companatico, whose passion for baking bread and its accompaniments is infectious.

These are her foolproof overnight rolls (which she adapted from a Swedish baker, Martin Johansson), with just the slightest adaptation from me in terms of the flours used. They’re the perfect combination of a crunchy crust surrounding a light and airy crumb. By the way, if bread is your thing, I don’t think you can do better than Martin’s bread ‘porn’ on Instagram!

These bread rolls really are the simplest thing I’ve ever baked and (very-critical-when-it-comes-to-food) hubby was amazed at the taste saying they were the best homemade bread he’d ever tasted. Not bad for something that basically makes itself!

While this recipe is simple as well as quick to cook, it does take a lot of time for the dough to rise (once overnight and another 45 minutes the next day). I didn’t think I’d be able to emulate Barbara and make these for breakfast (I love freshly baked bread, but getting up an hour earlier just to get these on the table?). But thanks to hubby having an extended lie in with Nicholas Sunday morning, I did manage it. Hurray!

I’ve also made these adding 30g each of pumpkin and sesame seeds. I liked the different texture through the bread, but I felt the seeds took away from the wonderful flavour of the bread.

Take a look at Barbara’s step-by-step photos if you’re unsure of any step.

THE EASIEST BREAD ROLLS

Prep time: 10 mins, plus 1 3/4 hrs rising
Cook time: 20 mins
Makes 8 bread rolls

1g instant yeast (or 3g fresh yeast)
300g (1 1/5cups) cold water
200g (1 1/2 cups) plain bread flour
120g (4/5 cup) plain flour
72g (1/2 cup) wholemeal bread flour
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
Extra plain flour

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water then add the rest of the ingredients except for the extra plain flour. Mix together (it’s easier with your hands) until combined.

Cover the bowl (Barbara has a great suggestion of using a dinner plate) and leave at room temperature overnight.

The next morning the dough should look bubbly in texture and at least doubled in size.

Tip out the dough onto a heavily floured surface. Take each of the four ‘sides’ one by one, stretch and fold each back into the centre of the dough.

Cover with the mixing bowl and leave for 45 minutes to rise again.

While you’re waiting, preheat the oven to 250C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

After 45 minutes, uncover (it should have grown again) and sprinkle with plain flour.

Without moving the dough, cut into eight pieces. Carefully transfer them to the baking tray (I found it easier to use the knife to scrape underneath the dough to take it off the work surface, then delicately tip the piece of dough from the knife to my other hand and finally on the tray).

Bake for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 210C and bake for another 5 minutes. To test if they’re cooked, tap the bottom and you’ll hear a hollow sound if they’re done.

Have you ever tried baking bread?

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Posted in breakfast, dinner, family, lunch, recipe, toddler and tagged bread, Bread & Companatico, bread rolls, easy bread, Martin Johansson, no knead. Bookmark the permalink.

My first birthday

Posted on May 15, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

One year ago today I started writing this blog. Happy first ‘birthday’ to the Gingerbread Mum!

I’m very proud of myself for keeping writing down our culinary adventures, even during the times when I don’t have much cooking inspiration.

I started this blog for two main reasons. I was struggling coming up with interesting meals for Nicholas and wanted to write down the ones that worked to be able to refer to them easily later (check). And for when friends asked me for specific recipes (check).

In the process of doing this, I’ve ‘met’ many lovely people I wouldn’t have otherwise met, all through the love of food (or the necessity of having to feed little and not so little people!).

As I raise a glass to myself (well, actually it’s a mug of coffee and an arrowroot biscuit) and wonder what the next year of food will bring, I also say ‘thank you’ to you, lovely reader, for giving me some of your precious time. Cheers 😉

One year ago today I blogged my first recipe: Tomato Pasta Sauce (and I still regularly make it)

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Posted in miscellaneous and tagged first birthday. Bookmark the permalink.

Carrot and coriander soup

Posted on May 13, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

You can’t beat carrot and coriander soup. It’s simple, yummy, filling and cheap. My recipe isn’t very different to most you can find, but this is one recipe not worth experimenting with!

CARROT AND CORIANDER SOUP

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 15-20 mins
Makes 4 adult servings

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
500g carrots, roughly chopped
1 tsp ground coriander
1 litre hot vegetable or chicken stock
large handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over a medium heat. Add the onions and carrots, and cook for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are starting to soften.

Add the ground coriander, some salt and pepper and cook for another minute.

Add the stock, bring to the boil then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes until the carrots are soft.

Take off the heat, add the fresh coriander and purée until smooth. Check if you need to add any seasoning.

Beetroot, feta and thyme muffins

Posted on May 9, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

Beetroot is one of those vegetables I often think about using but never do. Perhaps it’s because growing up, beetroot only came from a can, precooked and sliced, its bright juice ready to stain as much clothing as possible on the way to your mouth. I was never a fan of its earthy flavour.

Well I can finally say I have cooked with it, although I took the easy option this time of buying it in a vacuum sealed pack already cooked (next time, next time). And I also managed to come out the other end stain-free!

Beetroot is a very good source of potassium and manganese, but while it’s very low in fat, it’s also high in natural sugars.

I paired the earthy flavour with feta and thyme for these savoury muffins. Feta and beetroot are a classic combination; goat’s cheese would also work well. I used a mixture of white and wholemeal flour, but you can certainly use just white flour if you prefer.

I was very happy to see my muffins still had a lovely pink hue on top when I took them from the oven (although you can’t really see that in my photos). But when I broke one apart, the inside was a normal muffin brown colour (can anyone enlighten me about this?).

BEETROOT, FETA AND THYME MUFFINS

Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 25-30 mins
Makes 12 regular-sized muffins

200g self-raising white flour
100g self-raising wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g feta, crumbled or diced
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
200g cooked beetroot (1 large beetroot), finely grated
2 eggs, lightly beaten
210ml milk
90ml vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200C. Either lightly spray a 12-hole muffin tray with cooking spray or line with paper cases.

Mix the white and wholemeal flours, baking powder, feta and thyme in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl or jug, combine the grated beetroot, eggs, milk, oil and salt (if using). Add this to the flour mixture, mixing until just combined (mixing as little as possible keeps your muffins light in texture).

Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 muffin holes.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until cooked through when tested with a skewer.

Tip out onto a wire cooling rack.

Variations:

use goat’s cheese instead of feta.
if you don’t have any fresh or dried thyme, substitute with chives or parsley.

Tip: to avoid getting beetroot juice all over your kitchen when grating it, put your grater into a good-sized bowl to catch the juice and wayward pieces as you grate.

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Posted in family, lunch, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged beetroot, family, feta, finger food, lunch, muffin, recipe, savoury muffin, snack, thyme, toddler, vegetarian. Bookmark the permalink.

Cute lunches: Chewbacca crumble

Posted on May 4, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

After the success of our Gruffalo crumble, I realised what a fabulous blank canvas a crumble can be. Not quite as portable as a cupcake, but just as good for decorating in a myriad of ways! Who’s with me to make crumbles as cute as possible? 🙂

In honour of Star Wars Day (May the fourth – get it?) and inspired by Lunchbox Dad’s amazing creation, I created Chewbacca crumble.

Use your preferred crumble topping over your little one’s favourite fruit. I was in a rush so roughly mashed some fresh mango and pear before sprinkling the crumble topping over. Chewbacca’s hair is made with licorice laces and I used a slice of licorice for his nose. His fangs are banana and his eyes are fruit buttons (I drew the details on with an edible pen).

Nicholas promptly ate all the licorice then asked for “more whiskers, please mummy!”.

Baked porridge slice (sugar-free)

Posted on May 3, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

I still make Nicholas baby oat cakes now and then for breakfast to avoid always eating the same thing. I love that you can whip them up in no time and can easily vary the flavours by adding different fruit. But I also wanted to try making something ahead of time that could also work well as an afternoon snack. I came up with a baked porridge slice.

The slice is sugar-free and, like the baby oat cakes, very easy to make. Make it ahead of time and heat it up for breakfast or have a slice cold for a snack. It would be a nice next food step for babies who happily eat banana porridge and who are moving on to finger foods.

The pumpkin and sunflower seeds add a nice crunch as well as extra nutrition, but you can easily leave them out.

BAKED PORRIDGE SLICE

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 25-30 mins
Makes 8-10 slices
Keeps for a couple of days in an airtight container

1 cup porridge oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
2 tbsp applesauce / apple puree
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 banana, sliced

Preheat the oven to 175C and line a loaf tin with baking paper.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine all the ingredients apart from the banana and mix well.

Pour the porridge mixture into the loaf tin and spread out evenly. Place the banana slices on top of the mixture.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden brown and the slice is coming away from the edges of the tin.

Cool before cutting into slices.

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