Three Cookie Recipes With Gryphon’s Christmas Teas
December 12, 2016
More than a season of beautiful lights and sumptuous feasting with turkey and log cake, the Christmas season is also one of thanksgiving and thoughtfulness. At Gryphon Tea, the holiday season is one we find closest to our hearts. In creating our own special blends each year, we share our thoughts of thanksgiving, love and blessings with one and all. This year, we bring you three delicious blends, perfect served hot or chilled over the festivities with friends and family. These blends are exclusively only for Gryphon Memento Tins which you can customize your message for your loved ones.
Chocolate Gingerbread greets you with wafts of baked gingerbread spices and cocoa when this tea is brewed. Comforting and naturally caffeine free, this Rooibos blend is perfect for the evening.
Strawberry Champagne is fruity and elegant with a beautiful crimson colour. A great blend for toasting and shaken with ice, it is delightful both hot or chilled. This blend, is a Fruit Tisane, naturally free of caffeine and alcohol
(despite what its name playfully suggests).
Winter Love is passionate and tender like a love story. Lush Black Tea blended with notes of nutmeg, winter berries and vanilla. Serve this blend in clear glass cups and watch as beautiful gold dust from this tea dance in the afternoon light.
If baking is right up your alley, or if your friends don’t drink tea, give these recipes a try this Christmas. I find cookies one of the best gifts for friends and families as a gesture that they are in my heart and mind. Free of nuts and using only wholemeal flour, these cookies are delicious and go very well with tea, coffee, or milk. Enjoy!
Gingerbread Tea Boys
Yields: 24 to 30, 3-inch cookies
Prep: 25 mins
Chill: 3 hrs
Bake: 12 mins 175°C/ 350°F
Ingredients
5 Chocolate Gingerbread tea bags
3 cups wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons molasses
Chocolate chips (optional)
1 recipe Powdered Sugar Icing (see recipe below)
Directions
Remove tea bag contents; discard bags. In medium bowl combine tea, flour, and spices. Set aside. In large mixing bowl beat butter on medium to high 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and molasses. Beat in as much of the flour mixture as you can; stir in remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Cover and refrigerate about 3 hours or until easy to handle.
Preheat the oven and grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper. Between two cookie sheets, roll half of the dough at a time until 1/4-inch thickness. Cut dough with 3-inch gingerbread cutters and dot with chocolate chips. Bake for 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheets 2 minutes. Transfer to rack to cool completely. Decorate with Powdered Sugar Icing. To store cookies, layer them between waxed paper in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days, or freeze up to 3 months.
Powdered Sugar Icing
Ingredients
1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
5 – 6 teaspoons milk
In a small bowl stir together powdered sugar, vanilla or almond extract, and enough milk until the icing is of a drizzling consistency. Transfer to a piping bag, or small ziplock when you’re ready to decorate your cookies.
Winter Berry Shortbread
Yields: 36 cookies
Prep: 15 mins
Chill: 3 hrs
Bake: 12 mins 190°C/ 375°F
Ingredients
5 Winter Love tea bags
1 1/4 cups wholemeal flour
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cups butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons milk
Directions
Separate tea leaves from bags. Combine the sugar, and tea in the bowl of a food processor and pulse for about 2 minutes, add the powdered sugar, flour, and salt to the bowl and pulse a few times to combine. Then add the milk, vanilla, and butter and pulse several times, until a dough forms. Turn dough onto a very lightly floured surface, gather it together, and roll it gently into a log 1.5-inches in diameter. Wrap log in plastic or wax paper and transfer to the fridge or freezer for at least 30 minutes to chill.
When ready to bake, turn on the oven to 190°C and line a baking sheet with parchment or Silpat mat. Remove the log from fridge or freezer, and cut 1/3-inch slices, rotating the log as you go to ensure that cookie slices stay round. Transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each. Bake for 12 minutes, until cookies are just starting to brown. Leave on the cookie sheet to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to racks. Cookies will keep in an airtight container for several days.
Strawberry Champagne Butter Cookies
Yields: 36 cookies
Prep: 15 mins
Chill: 3 hrs
Bake: 12 mins 190°C/ 375°F
Ingredients
2 cups flour
5 Strawberry Champagne tea bags
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup butter, at room temperature
Directions
Empty tea contents and set aside. In a food processor, pulse together the flour, tea, and salt, until the tea is chopped up fairly small and it’s well distributed throughout. Add in the sugar, vanilla, and butter and pulse again until a soft dough forms. Pour your dough out in a line on a big sheet of cling film. Roll the dough into sausage and wrap it tightly in the cling film. Put the dough into the refrigerator for at least an hour to chill.
When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 190°C. Line your baking pan with parchment paper, cut dough into 1/2-inch thick slices and place them about two inches apart. Bake for 12 minutes until the edges are slightly golden. Let cool first on pan before transferring to a rack.
Start gifting today with Gryphon Memento Tins or see more gifts here.
