Using Earl Grey tea in all your favorite recipes

Have you used tea as an ingredient in baking yet? If not, you’re in for a tasty surprise when you try it! The two most used teas in recipes are Chai and Earl Grey, and you’ll find recipes using both on our website. The Earl Grey recipes we feature are Earl Grey Tea Shortbread and Earl Grey Chocolate Truffles. Here’s another one that I just made – Earl Grey Almond Cookies:

Earl Grey Almond Cookies

1 ¾ cups flour
1/3 cup ground almonds
1/8 tsp salt
6 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp Earl Grey tea leaves, ground
4 ½ oz butter, chilled and diced
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract

thick jam for filling
confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Put the flour, almonds, salt, confectioners’ sugar and ground Earl Grey tea in a food processor and pulse briefly to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Beat together the egg and vanilla extract in a bowl, then, with the food processor running, add it to the flour mixture and process until it starts to come together into a dough. Press into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about ¼” thick, then cut out rounds using a cookie cutter, re-rolling any trimming to make more cookies. Arrange on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and prick with a fork. Bake in preheated oven at 350 for about 15 minutes until golden brown. Using a spatula, transfer to a wire rack to cool.

When cool, put jam on one cookie and place another cookie on top to make a cookie/jam “sandwich”. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve with a cup of Simpson & Vail tea!

(recipe adapted from “Afternoon Tea” by Susannah Blake)

Have we got you interested? If you’re ready to explore baking with teas here are a couple of links with Earl Grey tea recipes to try:

Teatime Magazine recipe for Earl Grey Truffles

Pinterest  has many delicious recipes

Happy baking!