Earl Gray tea muffins

At last, success after (double) failure! I had found, and tried, a recipe of Honey Tea Cake. The recipe calls for lots of raisins previously soaked for about 2 hs in tea. I liked the idea of a tea-tasting cake to accompany tea. So I made my tea, soaked (patiently) my raisins and made my cake. Well, cake did not come out as expected. Did not rise well, raisins sunk to the bottom and texture was heavy, although taste-wise was good. It wasn't like the cake pictured with the recipe at all! Did I screw up with the English units? I tried again with some modifications and failed again. Now, it was personal, I really wanted a tea-based treat!

After some thinking, I decided to make muffins (using my favorite recipe) and replace the milk by tea. Instead of black tea, I used Earl Gray tea, which is scented with bergamot orange oil (Citrus aurantium subsp. bergamia, a cross between pear lemon and Seville orange).

Muffins were great! They were light and flavorful. I made them twice, one using raisins and the other dried cranberries. And they were also great the day after, grilled.

Earl Gray tea muffins
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup freshly-brewed & strong Earl Gray tea
grated peel of 1 orange
2 tbsp. melted butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup raisins (or dried cranberries)


Preheat oven at 350F.
In a bowl mix together dry ingredients. Stir in tea, orange peel, melted butter and egg. Mix until well blended. Stir in raisins and mix.
Fill well-greased (or paper) muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for about 20 min or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Yield 9 muffins.

"To guarantee success after failure, the bedrock of your character must be built on integrity, honor, and trustworthiness". Or, in my case, plain Basque-stubbornness!

Olive cake and tapenade

I found this simple (and tasty) recipe in a Mediterranean cookbook. I only changed the relative amounts of milk and oil, and added chili powder. It is ideal as appetizer, and even better if served with tapenade (olive paste) for spreading!

Olive cake
2 cups pitted olives (blacks, greens or a mixture. I always use 1 cup of each and I cut them lengthwise)
2 cups + 2 tbsp. self-rising flour
4 eggs
1 tbsp. sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup olive oil
salt, pepper and chili powder (about 3/4-1 tsp. of each one)

Preheat oven at 375F. Grease and flour-dust a loaf pan (or rounded cake pan).
Put olives in a small bowl and toss in the 2 tbsp. flour.
Whisk the eggs in a bowl. Stir in sugar, salt, pepper and chili powder.
Stir in milk and olive oil. Mix well.
Sift flour into the mix while stirring with a wooden spoon.
Stir in olives and mix well.
Spoon the mixture into the pan and baked for about 30 min.
Lower the temperature to 325F and bake for about 15 min, until cake is golden and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 10-15min and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Tapenade
2 cups black or kalamata olives, pitted and rinsed
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp. walnuts
4-5 canned anchovy fillets, drained
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. lemon juice
pepper, to taste

Put olives, garlic, anchovies and walnut in a food processor and process until blended.
Add olive oil and lemon juice and process again.
Transfer to a bowl, add pepper to taste (and if you like, more lemon juice).
Cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate until required.

Enjoy!

Buñuelos (banana & raisins)

After a very nice afternoon hiking we are back home and ready for coffee with "something". We have decided to enjoy buñuelos without any calorie-related regret!

Buñuelos are fritters very popular in Spanish and Latin-American countries. Each country has a favorite style of buñuelos. They can be made from a wheat-based yeast dough that is rolled and cut into individual pieces before frying. We made them, instead, from a thick batter that is placed with a spoon directly into hot oil.

Additionally, buñuelos can be savory -and eaten at lunch or dinner- or sweet... perfect for afternoon coffee!

We have been experimenting a little with the "family" recipe, adding whole-wheat flour and reducing the amount of eggs and sugar in the batter...and they came out really good!

Buñuelos with banana and raisins
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3 tbsp. light-brown sugar
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
about 1/2 cup milk
grated peel of 1 orange
3/4 cup raisins
1 banana cut into little pieces (I cut first thin slices and then each slice into quarters)

Mix all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl.
Make a hole in the center and add eggs and vanilla extract.
Slowly, add milk while stirring with a wooden spoon, until batter has a creamy consistency...it should not be runny!
Add orange peel, raisins and banana pieces and stir slowly and well.
Put spoonful-sizes of batter into hot oil (canola, grapeseed or peanut oils are ideal, do not use soybean or olive oils). If oil temperature is correct, the batter will sink first and come to surface almost immediately, if oil is cold the batter will stay at the bottom longer (we do not want this!). We add a little piece of bread to the oil to "check" its temperature and prevent burning (granny's trick!).
Fry buñuelos until golden-brown, remove them from oil and drain well on crumpled paper towels. Sprinkle with sugar while they are still hot.

Meyer lemon and coconut cake

In Argentina we have dinner around 9-10 pm, pretty late when compared to American standards. By mid afternoon (5-6 pm) we usually have coffee (or tea, or mate) with "something"- toasts, biscuits, cakes or delicious pastries that we can buy in any neighborhood bakery.

Far from home, I had to develop some baking skills to continue our "coffee/mate/tea time" tradition. I am doing pretty well with cakes, muffins and scones...but pastries are still out of my league.

The other day a lemon caught our attention at the grocery store (pictured between an orange-orange and a lemon-lemon)

It turned out to be a Meyer lemon. We bought 2, tried them and confirmed they taste like a cross between lemon and mandarin.

We decided to use them in a cake. I looked for "Meyer lemon cake" recipes , but I found most of them a little to heavy on butter. So I decided to go for experimentation...and here is the recipe of my cake!

Meyer lemon and coconut cake

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup whole-wheat flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ cup shredded coconut (unsweetened!)
grated peel of 1 Meyer lemon
4 oz (1 stick) melted butter
¾ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup Meyer lemon juice (should be enough with 1 lemon)
¾ cup milk

Preheat oven at 350F. Grease and flour-dust a loaf pan.
In a bowl combine all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, coconut and grated peel.
In another bowl combine melted butter and sugar. Stir in the eggs (previously beaten), vanilla extract, lemon juice and milk.
Add dry ingredients into wet and gently stir with a wooden spoon.
Pour the batter into the greased and flour-dusted pan and bake for about 40 min (or until a wooden pick inserted in to the center comes out clean).
Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack.

Enjoy with tea, coffee... or mate!

The inspiration of Tuesday 13th (again)!

Tuesday 13th is considered a day of bad luck in Spanish and Latin-American cultures - as it happens with Friday 13 in the Anglo-Saxon cultures. But we can always go the other way around and turned it into a good luck day!

On February 13 (Tuesday) I finally decided to start a blog -"Algo más que pan y queso"- where I write about things I like (plants, books, travels and "experimental cooking").

Now I have a new Tuesday 13th (how odd is that?) and the opportunity for a new inspiration. Someone suggested to me to write in English the recipes I post in "Algo más...". Well, I decided to give it a try!