This is the recipe for the cute little tartlets that I made & featured last week. I had these mini tart cases in the pantry for a good while now & was thinking of something fun to do with them. At first I thought that they would end up as miniature quiches but then my sweet tooth took hold & I altered an old recipe to fit. Because the recipe is so small I’ve measured everything out in grams. I used a handy electronic kitchen scale & the tare/zero function to measure everything out perfectly. I don’t have mad food-photography skills like Luxirare (mostly because my hands were covered on sugar) so without photos I hope my instructions are clear!

Coconut + Vanilla Tartlets with Lime

• 35 miniture pre-baked tartlets cases
• 30 grams dessicated coconut
• 30 grams softened butter
• 40 grams vanilla yoghurt
• 90 grams caster sugar
• 1 egg (at room temperature)
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1 teaspoon lime zest
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Beat the butter & sugar together & then beat in the egg. Add the juice, zest, vanilla yoghurt & vanilla essence & mix well. Gently fold in the dessicated coconut & use a teaspoon to scoop into pre-baked miniature tartlet cases. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for fifteen minutes (or until puffed, golden & delicious). They will deflate a little when removed from the oven. Serve sprinkled with vanilla sugar. I think these are best eaten while warm from the oven but they will keep pretty well for a couple of days, provided you can resist them for that long!

Afternoon tea is one of my favourite indulgences. It’s one of those rituals that can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Do you like your tea in a mug & with a choc-chip cookie or with silver service & hand cut sandwiches? After water, tea is also the most widely consumed beverage on the planet. Here’s my guide to making the perfect cuppa. I’ve been making tea & coffee in cafes for five years now & it still gets confusing & freaks me out sometimes. Hopefully these tips will help.

The Tea Leaves

One of the first things to take into consideration is the tea itself. Tea is harvested from the Camellia plant & cured & oxidised to yield black tea, oxidised for green tea & left alone for white tea. Red tea (or Rooibos) is derived from an entirely different plant altogether. The quality of tea will also effect the taste of your end product. Good quality loose leaf tea free of artificial flavourings is best. If you drink decaffeinated tea make sure you buy a leaf that has been decaffeinated using CO2 rather than methylene chloride (or an acetate, both of which taste a bit off). If they don’t state which method used on the label then methylene chloride has most likely been used, so ditch it quick!

Tea bags are a convenient way to brew tea but not many people know that the tea contained in them is the tea-dust from the bottom of the shipping bins. The flavour & quality of loose leaf tea is superior & when combined with a tea-infuser or tea-egg is just a little more environmentally friendly; it cuts out all that excess packaging. When brewing tea in a pot the general rule of thumb is one teaspoon of tea per person plus an extra teaspoon of tea ‘for the pot’. From experience this works out nicely :)

Milk & Sugar?

White, green & herbal teas aren’t generally served with milk while black & red teas are. The tea I chose to make today is a beautiful loose leaf Earl Grey (those blue flecks are bits of dried cornflower, yum!); a black tea flavoured with Bergamot essential oil. Bergamot is a species of citrus & so it doesn’t make sense to serve a tea like this with milk. Traditionally Earl Grey is served with a thin slice of lemon.

If you like your beverages nice & sweet then by all means use sugar or honey. Sugar cubes are a really cute way of serving & displaying sugar with your tea set. Otherwise Demerara sugar is best for sweetening up your cup! I will add though, that the flavour of unsweetened tea is subtle & delicious & those of you with a constant sweet tooth should definitely try it out sometime!

Service

Traditionally all tea services were made out of porcelain. However these days you can buy tea pots, cups & saucers, milk jugs & sugar bowls in glass, ceramic, earthenware, wood, stainless steel & precious metals like silver & gold. I say variety is the spice of life - so go for whatever piques your interest.

Brewing Times

Each type of tea will require a different brewing time & if you’re really professional, different water temperatures.

• Black tea can be brewed for up to four minutes (at 100 degrees Celsius),
• Green tea for up to three minutes (at 70 degrees Celsius),
• White tea for up to six minutes (at 80 degrees Celsius)
• Red tea for up to five minutes (at 100 degrees Celsius).

How to Brew a Pot of Tea

1. Boil enough fresh, cold, filtered water for one pot of tea.
2. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, fill the tea pot with hot water form the tap & let sit. This keeps the tea pot nice & warm. Pour this out once your water has boiled.
3. Fill a tea-infuser or tea-egg & place in the pot. If you don’t mind tea-leaves in your cup then just spoon the loose leaves right on into the tea pot. This is great for tea leaf reading!
4. Pour the boiled water into the pot leaving about 2cm of room at the top. (The tea leaves will expand making an already full pot will overflow!)
5. Let the tea sit & brew. Relax. Eat a sandwich, have another tart or sing a song while you wait.
6. Pour into cups & enjoy!

Amidst the lazy spring afternoons we’ve been enjoying, not much can beat deliciously light sandwiches and refreshing lemonade.

Cucumber Sandwiches

• Cucumbers
• Sliced sandwich bread
• Vinegar or lemon juice
• Butter or margarine
• Salt & pepper

Use a vegetable peeler, or a fork, to mark the sides of the cucumber. Finely slice & arrange in layer in a container. Sprinkle with white wine vinegar (or lemon juice if you prefer) & lightly season with salt & pepper. Let the container of cucumber slices sit in the fridge for several hours.

Remove the crusts from sliced sandwich bread. Purists argue that the bread must be white & must be sliced ever so thinly. I’m not that fussed, I like my sliced organic wholemeal thank you very much! Thinly butter the inward facing side of each slice of bread - this stops the bread from becoming soggy. Arrange the cucumber slices on one slice of bread, top with another & slice into tiny triangles or fingers. Enjoy immediately!

Watercress Sandwiches

• Fresh watercress
• Spreadable cheese (cream cheese, cottage cheese, neufchâtel etc)
• Sliced sandwich bread

When buying watercress, look for a healthy green plant. The roots should still be attached & submerged in cold water.

Remove the crusts from sliced sandwich bread & spread neufchâtel, cottage cheese, or cream cheese on the inward facing sides of each slice. Because of the peppery flavour if watercress, I like to spread one side with cream cheese & the other with a mild mustard. Roughly chop the watercress & arrange on one slice of bread & top with another slice of bread. Slice into dainty tea-triangles. Eat these as soon as possible!

Home Made Pink Lemonade

Mix the juice of one lemon (about 100ml) with 50ml of simple syrup. Add no more than a teaspoon of grenadine or raspberry cordial & top up with 400ml of soda water stirring gently. Serve in tall glasses with lots of ice & a paper umbrella!

What are your favourite afternoon treats?

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