My Ongoing Quest for the Perfect Masala Chai

I love coffee, but I don't drink it very often because it makes me too jittery, so my alternative choice of morning beverage lately is an iced chai latte. The coffee shop version is pretty expensive, so I've been making my own at home with this boxed concentrate from Tazo. When blended with milk and ice, it's tasty, quick and easy to grab on my way out the door. However, I've been experimenting with ways to make a "punchier" homemade version with a spicy, warm kick and packed with enough bold flavor to wake me up in the morning.

So, I did a quick search online to see if any recipes caught my eye. I learned a few things about chai in my search for this recipe. First off, the word "chai" just means tea. I'm guilty of calling my beverage "chai tea", which is redundant. The proper term when referring to this spicy concoction is actually "masala chai", which means spiced tea. After reading through a few recipes, I found this one from The Hathi Cooks blog that looked like it might fit the bill. Besides the title "How to Make [the best] Chai [ever]", the introduction describing the origin of masala chai in India was intriguing. And knowing that the recipe has been passed down for many generations of the author's family makes it very special. The author includes a scientific tidbit about how the flavor molecules/aromatic compounds dissolve best in alcohols or fats. The fattier the milk, the more flavorful the chai will be.

With recipe in hand, I made a trip last weekend to my favorite source for spices, a local Indian market. Luckily, there are quite a few of these stores nearby and they are great sources for getting spices in bulk. I can generally find a much larger amount for a lower price and possibly fresher (due to higher turnover of inventory) than a small jar of the same at a regular supermarket. For instance, a small jar of 1.1 oz ground nutmeg at the supermarket sells for $4.69. I found a 3.5 oz bag for $3.49 at the Indian market. A small container of whole cloves at the supermarket costs $4.86 for .62 oz. I found 3.5 oz. of whole cloves at the Indian market for $2.49, so there's a tremendous savings if you have access to one of these stores. If I have more than I can use, I can always share the extra spices with my baker friends. If you're unable to find an ethnic market nearby, try the bulk spice section of a whole or natural food store, or search online.

Once I arrived home from the store, I set to work grinding the whole spices in a coffee grinder (reserved for the sole purpose of grinding spices; don't grind coffee in a grinder that you've used for spices, unless you like pepper-flavored coffee!). I've heard it's better to grind whole spices as you need them, rather than using pre-ground spices. The grinding process tends to release more of the natural oils which means bonus flavor! Shelf life is considerably less for ground spices, as they tend to deteriorate faster than their whole counterparts. Let me just say that my kitchen smelled Ah-mazing after all of the grinding. I did not use the full spice amounts suggested in the recipe. The author calls for using entire CUPS of spices and the recipe makes a huge amount even by making 1/5th of the recipe as is suggested in the recipe instructions. I also used the suggested method of weighing the spices on a food scale (I found an inexpensive one at Walmart) as it is more accurate for measuring whole spices.

Now for the recipes:

(Note: I've included the recipe for the spice/masala mixture as well as a recipe for making the actual tea. The amounts below are 1/5 of the amounts listed in the full recipe; At this time, I only have the amounts in grams since I used a food scale; as I further refine the recipe later, I'll probably convert the measurements over to Tablespoons or teaspoons for pre-ground spices, since those tend to be more accessible.)

Chai Masala/Spice Ingredients (from THE HATHI COOKS REcipe):

• 32 g. whole black peppercorns (or finely ground, same weight)
• 25 g. ginger powder
• 10 g. cinnamon sticks (or finely ground, same weight)
• 10 g. whole cardamom seeds (or finely ground, same weight); I crushed green cardamom pods and ground up the seeds that are inside the pods.
• 1 g. whole cloves (or finely ground, same weight)
• 1 g. nutmeg (or finely ground, same weight)
• optional: 1 whole star anise (ground); this adds a hint of licorice flavor found in some chai recipes. It was not included in the original Hathi Cooks recipe, but I added to mine.

Instructions: Weigh the spices, and if using whole spices, grind them to a fine powder. Mix all of the spices together and store in an airtight container. Keep out of direct heat/sunlight.

Tea / Chai Ingredients (I modified this from the Hathi Cooks recipe for my own taste):

• 4 cups water
• 2 tsp. Chai Masala/Spice mix from recipe above
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 4 tsp. loose leaf black tea (I used one called Taj Mahal - see photo below, but Lipton also makes a Yellow Label tea that would work.)
• Milk (added to taste)

Instructions: Bring the water, spice mixture, sugar and black tea to a boil. Remove from heat and allow it to steep for 3-4 minutes. Using a french press or fine cheesecloth, strain into a container. Mix in 1/2 cup of the tea mixture with a bit of milk to taste. I like my tea pretty spicy, so I tend to add a bit more concentrate versus milk. Serve warm or with ice.

Additional notes:

I made a concentrate using the tea recipe above (minus the milk) and kept that in the fridge for the week. Each morning, I would pour a bit of the concentrate into a glass of ice and add milk for my morning commute. The spice mixture can be tweaked as desired. If too spicy, just reduce the amount of black pepper or ginger. If the licorice flavor is overpowering, just remove the star anise. The recipe was pretty tasty to start, but I will likely continue to refine the spice mixture as I have time in my ongoing quest for the perfect Masala Chai latte.

chai concentrate

black tea leaves

If you find yourself with too much of the spice mixture on hand, you can always use it on toast, sprinkle on apple slices or add to any baked goods calling for pumpkin pie spice for a delicious twist.

New Beginnings

I'm baaack! I'm blowing the dust off this old blog because it has sat dormant for way too long! The past few years (has it really been that long?!?) have gone by in a blur. There was a job change, learning lots of new things along the way and deep-diving into some projects around the house that took much of my creative energy away from this space.

Truthfully, I thought about shutting this blog down altogether. Is blogging even still relevant these days with all of the social media channels, podcasts and streaming videos out there? I've found that a lot of the blogs I followed before have gone by the wayside in favor of shorter Instagram and Facebook posts.

However, I did some research recently that led me back to blogging. It seems that people (myself included) are getting burned out on social media. This article from Dayle Hall explains more about it. It's difficult to cut through all of the noise from political controversy, fake news and abundance of memes taking over our news feeds. While social media is an important channel for brand and product promotion (and is a handy tool for driving traffic to websites and blogs), people are seeking genuine connections and comprehensive, thoughtfully-produced content, which can be found in blogs. A podcast by Darren Rowse at Problogger.podcast explains that written content will continue to be relevant. Another podcast from Jonathan Milligan at Bloggingyourpassion.com provides several statistics confirming that blogging is not on its way out, but can instead be used hand-in-hand with video and podcasts in the form of content stacking to reiterate a message and be more prolific. Here's a blog article from Webhostingmedia.net that further details the future of blogging.

So, I'm giving it another shot, folks, and I'm excited for what will come next!

Blueberry Citrus Cake

I've been craving blueberries lately, and although it is not the season for them, I ended up buying a few trays of them to enjoy. After a hectic work week, I was so happy that my weekend was wide open for some much needed baking therapy. I turned to one of my favorite white cake recipes and decided to mix in a few blueberries to make things more interesting. I added some citrus flavoring that I'd been wanting to try, Fiori di Sicilia. As it turns out, a little goes a long way, because any hint of blueberry flavor in the cakes was overpowered by more of a creamsicle flavor. The cake was still tasty, though, and I had fun putting them together. I used some Bonne Maman blueberry preserves to make a blueberry glaze for the cake. After using a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds, I added the preserves to the buttercream to add a beautiful purple tint to the frosting. Next time I use blueberries in cake, I'll leave out the citrus flavoring and let the natural blueberry flavor come through.

Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves

Bò Kho - Vietnamese Beef Stew

We're winding down the weekend getting ready for a new work week. Most weekends, the hubby and I prep for the busy week ahead by making a large meal on Sunday to carry us through the first part of the week. Mondays are easier knowing that we don't have to cook a meal after a long day of work. The cold of winter is upon us and it's time for some serious comfort food. On the menu this week is a hearty Vietnamese-style beef stew. The spices used in Bò Kho typically include star anise, cinnamon, cloves and ginger, among other spices. The warm seasonings add a unique twist to an otherwise standard American-style beef stew. A quick search online found many variations on Bò Kho. I honestly haven't tried any other variations, as this beef stew (my Mother-in-law's famous recipe) was love at first taste. Today, I modified it a tad, since I was running low on garlic. This is my modified recipe, but I'm listing the modifications as "optional." If you can't find the Bò Kho bouillon cubes shown below, you could always use beef bouillon and experiment with adding the extra spices found in other Bò Kho recipes online.

Bò Kho

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. Boneless Beef Chuck Roast or Stew Meat
• 2 cubes Bò Kho Cube Bouillon (see photo below- found at our local Asian market)
• 1 medium onion - roughly sliced - 1/4 inch strips
• 1 medium potato - diced into 1-inch cubes
• 1 medium sweet potato - diced into 1-inch cubes
• 1 carrot - diced into 1-inch pieces
• 1 small can (6 oz.) tomato paste (you'll only use about half the can - you can freeze the rest)
• Dried orange peel - chopped
• 1 Tbsp. (a couple of cloves) chopped garlic
• 3 tsp. garlic powder (This is optional - I was short on garlic, so I used garlic powder to supplement; a little extra garlic never hurt anyone!)
• 3 tsp. onion powder (This is optional - Onion powder is NOT in my mother-in-law's recipe, but I can't leave recipes alone without modifying them a bit).
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1-2 Tbsp. Olive Oil for cooking (optional: hubby insisted that I use some leftover bacon grease and I helped it along with 1 Tbsp. butter. New Year's resolution shot down!)

Instructions:

1. Dissolve 1 bouillon cube in approx. 2 Tbsp. boiling water. You will have to grind it up a bit with a fork to get it to dissolve.
2. Remove fat/tendons from beef and cut into cubes (or you could buy the meat already cubed).
3. Put the meat in a bowl; add sugar and salt; add chopped garlic, garlic powder, onion powder and dried orange peel. Add dissolved bouillon. Mix thoroughly and let marinate for 30 minutes.
4. Put olive oil in pan. Add meat to the pot and brown it.
5. Add 1/2 can (3 oz.) tomato paste to the pot.
6. Get 2nd bouillon cube and add 1/2 cup boiling water to dissolve. Add this to the stew pot. Cook for 15 minutes.
7. Slice onion; chop potatoes and carrots into similarly-sized pieces. Add to pot.
8. Put 2 Tbsp. tomato paste in a separate bowl and add that to 1 cup boiling water. Stir to mix and add this to the pot of stew.
9. Cook on med-to-low heat on stovetop for 1-2 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender. If you need more liquid, add more water or if there is too much liquid, I sometimes add a bit of flour to thicken the mixture.
10. Serve with toasted french bread.

Bò Kho Bouillon Cubes found at our local Asian market.

Celebration Cake: Welcoming Baby Rylie

Every new baby needs a birthday cake, even if they can't enjoy it. No teeth? No problem! The new parents would surely enjoy a cake to celebrate their new little bundle of love. When I heard of Baby Rylie's arrival, I knew a pretty little pink cake was in order. Our friends were expected to arrive home that Saturday with their new baby girl, so I set to work baking, frosting, and applying a liberal dose of sprinkles. I made a little cake flag from the same fabrics I had used in making her baby quilt. This was a fun cake to put together.

Baby Quilt Love and Twice the Fun: Two takes on modern strippy quilt design

My last post about April birthdays reminded me of the fact that two new sweet baby girls have come into our lives this year. My brother and sister-in-law welcomed their bundle of joy in March and our friends just had their baby on April 1. I am so excited to have a new niece, even though she lives far away. I haven’t had a chance to meet her in person just yet; only through pictures and video. I am thankful for the technology that helps us keep in touch. I am a photo hoarder, so I am constantly running out of space on my phone because I find myself saving every photo from text message or email or any little snippet of video that comes my way. These things make me feel like I am not so far away from family, so I treasure each and every one. At least I get to see my friend’s baby, who lives just around the corner. When I learned that there were new babies on the way, and found out the colors of the nurseries, I set to work making some baby quilts. Every baby needs a cuddly soft hand-made quilt. Below are a few pics of the quilts I made for them. I am in love with wonky/modern improvisational quilting and was inspired by this book: Block Party: The Modern Quilting Bee

Baby Hannah’s quilt:

I sewed lots of strips of varying thicknesses and assorted patterns of teal, coral, navy blue and gray fabrics which made a beautiful combination. The white background material really made these colors pop. The back of the quilt is comprised of the softest white minky fabric and teal polka dotted cotton. I also incorporated a hand-stitched quilt label.

Baby Rylie’s quilt:

I loved how Baby Hannah’s quilt came together, so I followed the same pattern with this one for Baby Rylie, except with a wonderful selection of pinks and grays to match her nursery. I’m not sure which color combo I loved more. They are both so fun!

Welcome Spring!

I have been in a sort of winter hibernation and this blog has sat dormant for far too long. Now that it is Spring and the weather is finally warmer, iced-tea season is upon us (it never really goes out of season here in Texas, though), so it is the perfect excuse to start posting on ye olde blog again. During my embarrassingly long absence, I have been churning out lots of potential new blog-post material. I have traveled, crafted, baked and decorated lots of cakes.

With this introduction back into blog land, I leave you with cake!

This is a cake made in honor of all the April birthdays in our family. I made this for a family gathering (we have a big family, so it needed to be a BIG cake), and utilized some Easter candy I had on hand. I love the pearly pastel colors of these Jelly Belly jelly beans - so festive and perfect for a spring-time party cake!

Get your beans here:

http://www.jellybelly.com/

Late Summer Sipping: Raspberry Iced Tea

A little cold front has come through, giving us some relief from the heat and a little preview of Autumn weather. While I'm ready for the hot days of summer to be over, I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to the abundance of tasty fruits and veggies available this time of year. I've especially enjoyed the fruit this summer, including peaches, berries and watermelons.

Since it is still summer (at least for the next couple of weeks), and while decent fresh berries can still be found, I decided to make some raspberry iced tea with a new variety of Tazo tea I found. I love experimenting with new tea flavors! If you can't find this variety of tea, feel free to use regular black tea and add in some extra puréed berries for flavor.

Raspberry Iced Tea

Ingredients:

• 1 Tazo Iced Blushberry Black Tea bag (this larger bag size is used especially for pitchers of tea)
• 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries + a few extra berries for garnish
• 1 cup sugar (for official southern sweet iced tea); feel free to reduce sugar, remove altogether or substitute with sweetener of choice
• 7 cups water, divided

Directions:

1. Bring 4 cups water and 1 cup sugar to boil, stirring sugar until dissolved.
2. Remove from heat and add tea bag. Allow to steep for 5 minutes.
3. Pour into pitcher.
4. In a blender or food processor, purée raspberries with 1 cup of water.
5. Strain out seeds with cheesecloth or fine mesh sieve and discard, reserving raspberry liquid.
6. Add raspberry juice to tea mixture in pitcher.
7. Add additional 2 cups cold water to pitcher and mix well.

Pour over ice, garnish with fresh raspberries and enjoy!

Citrus Dream Cake

After the little photo shoot for my new blog header, I had a lot of citrus fruit left over. Never mind the fact that I've been hoarding limes since the Great Lime Shortage of 2014. We started the summer with a major lime shortage due to problems in Mexico (fruit diseases, transportation problems, etc.), so I snatched up limes just as soon as I was able to get my hands on them, and have been stockpiling them ever since. Along with lemons and oranges, limes are the epitome of a happy fruit, like a ray of sunshine on a summer day.

I decided to combine these three fruits into a happy little cake. I used a favorite go-to recipe, White on White Buttermilk cake and added some fruit zest and fruit extracts to impart the citrus notes to each of the layers.

Citrus Dream Cake:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (do not melt!)

• 2 1/3 Cups sugar

• 3 large egg whites

• 3 Cups cake flour (I use Swans Down)

• 3/4 tsp. baking soda

• 3/4 tsp. salt

• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

• 1 1/2 Cups buttermilk (or use 1 1/2 cups whole milk with a splash of vinegar)

• 1 tsp. each of Lemon extract, orange extract and lime extract (added at the end after batter has been divided into 3 bowls)

• 2 tsp. grated Lemon, lime and orange zest (each added separately to divided batter)

• Yellow, Orange and Green food coloring (each added separately to divided batter)

Buttercream ingredients:

• 2 Cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

• 2 Lbs. powered sugar

• 1 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1 tsp. fruit extract of your choice (lemon, lime or orange)

• 2 tsp. fruit zest of your choice (lemon, lime or orange)

Directions:

1. Prepare your baking pans. I used three 9-inch round pans. Line the pans with rounds of parchment paper. I never have a problem with cakes sticking to the bottom when I line the pans, so it is worth the extra effort. Grease the pans with cooking spray.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

3. Using electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg whites and continue beating for another minute.

4. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and gradually add these into the wet mixture, beating thoroughly.

5. Divide the batter evenly into 3 separate bowls.

6. To each of the bowls, you will add the flavor and color you want for each layer. 1 bowl will get lime zest, lime extract and green food coloring. The next will get lemon zest, lemon extact and yellow food coloring. The last will get orange zest, orange extract and orange food coloring. Mix thoroughly.

7. Add each batter into each of the 3 baking pans you prepared.

8. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Tops of cake layers should be very lightly brown. Oven and baking times vary, so check regularly. Do not over-bake or the cake will be dry.

9. Remove cake layers from the oven. Allow cakes to cool.

10. While cakes are cooling, prepare the buttercream frosting.

11. Using electric mixer, beat butter, gradually adding in powdered sugar and salt. Mixture will be thick, so add in the whipping cream and flavoring/extract of your choice (I used lemon for mine). Add fruit zest. Whip thoroughly, scraping sides as needed so that it is well-blended.

12. Frost cooled cake layers.

13. Garnish with fruit slices or sliced/sugared fruit rind (avoid white pith when slicing rind to avoid bitterness)

Welcome to my New & Improved Blog!

I've had a blog for a while now, but I've decided to create a new space for it with a fresh, clean layout and custom domain. The old one still lives here if anyone wants to go back and reminisce. At the urging of my brother to get some of my images out into the open, I decided to get the ball rolling on creating some brand spankin' new content for my "Art of Sweet Tea" theme. Although I consume a lot of iced tea, it's not just a blog about that. I am a foodie and I love to travel and take a ton of photos along the way. This new space will allow me to share some of my passions and interesting finds during my travels. Can't wait to get started!