Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘chai’

Chai Spiced Cookies with Pumpkin

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on October 27, 2014| 4 Comments »

DSC_0752

It’s Monday morning and I am starting the week off with a confession. You ready? ok…

I am SO FRICKIN’ EXCITED for Taylor Swift’s new CD.

My roommates were both gone this weekend so in addition to being lazy and binge watching Law and Order: SVU, I listened to the songs she has released so far off her new CD over and over and over again while baking these cookies and dancing around my kitchen. I’m loving the new songs so much. It was kind of the perfect weekend.

Ok, now that I have professed my love for T-swift, I will get to the cookies. These beauties were inspired by Taylor when she posted on her instagram (really? are we even surprised I follow her?) that she had made “chai sugar cookies with eggnog frosting aka christmas in September”. I couldn’t get the idea of chai cookies out of my head after that. Especially when October hit, the weather cooled and my body just wanted to hibernate and drink tea all day. I did a bit of research (by which I mean I internet stalked her) and discovered that she made sugar cookies with chai tea in it. Like, she cut open a chai tea bag and poured it into the batter for sugar cookies. This presented me with 2 problems: 1. For some reason, me and sugar cookies don’t mix. I don’t have a sugar cookie recipe on this blog because I never like the results. So using sugar cookie as a base wasn’t going to happen and 2. I don’t have a bagged chai tea I love. Whatever, call me a snob but I like this version way better. So to put meh tea into a meh cookie base wasn’t going to fly for me. Plus, I was in fall mode and I wanted to add pumpkin some how.

DSC_0755

Thus, this cookie was born. It’s a chai cookie with just a tiny hint of pumpkin, which is exactly what I was going for. Everything is so super pumpkin-y right now that I wanted something a little more subtle. It still feels like fall though with all the warm spices. You just want to cozy up on the couch with a good book, a cup of tea and an obsene amount of these cookies.

Chai Spiced Cookies with Pumpkin
inspired by Taylor Swift
modified from My Baking Addiction

  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 3/4 cups white sugar
  • 2 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1 cup vegan butter (such as Earth Balance), softened
  • 1/4 cup pumpkin (or 1 “Ener-G” egg)*
  • 1/2 a vanilla bean, seeds removed (or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)

*Using Pumpkin instead of an Ener-G egg with produce a softer, richer cookie. Ener-G will produce a more traditional cookie texture. I kept the pumpkin version of the cookie in for 1 minute longer then the Ener-G because of this.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl combine sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and allspice. Remove 1/4 cup of the sugar-spice mixture, set aside to reserve for rolling the cookies.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar-spice mixture until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

5. Beat in pumpkin and vanilla bean seeds, combine until fully incorporated.

6. Slowly blend in dry ingredients mixing until just combined.

7. Roll dough into balls (about 2 tsps of dough each) and then into the reserved sugar-spice mixture. Place dough balls on prepared baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart.

7. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes

8. Let stand on baking sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

As I  mentioned in the note above, these cookies will be soft and doughy so be careful not to overcook thinking that they aren’t done.

DSC_0709
These cookies are just so spot on. They are just the perfect fall cookie without being in-your-face pumpkin. One of my friends tried it a few weeks ago and said it may be her new favorite cookie, which is kind of awesome! If you want more of a fall kick, try adding some Pumpkin Spice chips which are out in the baking sections now. I was going to give that a whirl but never made it to Target this weekend.

If you want a pumpkin cookie with chai spice try making this cookie and replacing the 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice with the spices in the below recipe and omit the chocolate chips. I haven’t tried it yet but I bet it would be delicious!

This actually isn’t my first time baking to celebrate the release of a CD. Back in 2010, Taking Back Sunday released a live album called Live from Orensanz and I baked some  cupcakes to give out at work. It won be a pair of Matt Rubano Macbeth sneakers…which Macbeth NEVER sent me. I emailed them for months to try and get them and they never came. Shady, shady company. Not cool at all.

TBS cupcakes

Have you ever done anything fun for the release of an album or movie or anything? I can’t be the only weird one out there. Share your stories below!!

Read Full Post »

Homemade Iced Chai Tea

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , on July 19, 2012| 7 Comments »

This week has been an excellent week.

To begin with, I’m working three whole days. No week can be that awful when the number of days you are working is less then your days off.

Second, I will be braving Warped Tour for the second time in my life to see my all-time favorite band, Taking Back Sunday. After hours of meticulous show sorting and hounding my two concert buddies, Melinda and Whitney, by best guess is this will be my 21st Taking Back Sunday Show. Yeah…I’m sort of into them…

Third, my car decided that meh, it wasn’t going to start Monday after I went to the bank. It was hot and I was approximately a 5 minute walk from my house but I had to call AAA and get my car jumped. One would think this would put a damper on my week, especially since I had to shell out money for a new battery. And it was. BUT, silver lining and all, the guy who came to rescue my car was a very attractive 20 something year old who was also going to the same Warped Tour as me. What are the odds?

Fourth, I finally made it to trivia on Weds night and my team totally took home first…again. Yeah, we’re sort of awesome. I think that may have to be our team name next time…

And last but not least, I have FINALLY found a good replacement for Iced Coffee. I have severely cut down on my coffee consumption over the last few months. I went from 1-2 cups a day to 1-2 cups a month. Not too shabby! But lately, with the heat numbing my brain, I’ve been missing iced coffee. So I decided to tackle Iced Chai. YUM!

Homemade Chai Concentrate
from Healthful Pursuit
yields: one batch of concentrate, or approximately 2.75 cups

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups water
  • 4 black tea bags – I used 365 brand Black Tea Bags, nothing fancy
  • 1 vanilla bean, split in half*
  • 1/2 cup palm sugar
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1/2 inch section of fresh ginger [or 2 pieces of dehydrated ginger]
  • 2 whole cloves
  • 2 cardamom pods* [or 1/4 tsp powdered cardamom]
  • 1/4 tsp aniseed
  • 8 x 6 section of cheesecloth, folded over [doubled]
  • twine
  • 2/3c-3/4c non-dairy milk of choice

Directions

Option 1: Liquid concentrate – to be enjoyed within 7 days

  1. Lay cheesecloth flat and begin placing ingredients on top. Begin with tea bags, then vanilla bean, ginger, cloves, cardamom, and aniseed. If you’re using cardamom powder, sandwich in between 2 teabags to prevent it from dispersing into the mix. Bundle everything into cheesecloth and pinch together. Tie with twine and tie 2 cinnamon sticks with the twine.
  2. Place water and palm sugar in a medium sized saucepan, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and put the cheesecloth bag in. Simmer for 20 minutes.
  3. Allow to cool before pouring it in an air tight container [mason jars works well] and placing in the fridge to cool.

To enjoy as an iced latte: combine 1 part concentrate with 3 parts non-dairy milk. Serve on ice. (I prefer mine with 1/3 c. concentrate, 3/4 c. unsweetened vanilla almond milk. 1/4 c. concentrate with 3/4 c. of milk isn’t strong enough for me. Start with the 1/4 to 3/4 ratio and work up)

*the vanilla bean and the cardamom pods are expensive! I’m not going to lie. It’s what kept me from trying this recipe for so long. I would recommend though, if you live in New England, checking out Ocean State Job Lot or one of the bulk grocery stores, like BJs. I know that both carried these spices for cheap.

I’ve had this iced chai every day for breakfast (before I photographed it…which is why the picture of the chai concentrate in the first pic is really showing the last dredges of concentrate left…) and it’s so good! I need to go stock up on vanilla beans from BJs or Costco’s or this addiction is going to be worse then when I thought I could afford Starbucks everyday!

Ok, everyone. Have a lovely Thursday. I will be spending the day sweating my little behind off at Warped Tour. Keep your fingers crossed for me that a cold front swoops in and keeps my from melting in the sun and heat!

Read Full Post »