Thai Tea Recipe. Yum!

Thai Tea Recipe {Make this Now}

by WHITE ON RICE COUPLE on JULY 31, 2013

I had a “doh”/”ah-ha” moment last week when we were in Chicago to speak at BlogHer Viewfinder Day. During one of the conference days, we escaped out to lunch at a local Thai restaurant to explore more of the city’s culinary offerings. As always, we’ll try to order something new and different, and in the case of a Thai restaurant it normally involves a curry dish (only medium spicy, please! we’re not as young as we used to be), one noodle dish and an appetizer. On top of that, we always have to have Thai iced tea. How can we NOT have Thai iced tea when we eat Thai food? It’s one of those decant “dessert” drinks that helps soothe the burn when we overload on too much of Thai spice.

Years ago, my Auntie Chung was telling me how easy it was to make Thai iced tea. She had worked in an Asian restaurant and one of the most popular items on the entire menu was Thai iced tea. She proceeded to tell me exactly how to make it and how profitable it was for restaurants to make Thai iced tea.

I didn’t care too much about the profitability of Thai iced tea, but rather, more interested on how easily it was made and why we didn’t make it more often.

Fast forward about 7 years later as I’m sitting in Chicago eating Thai food and sipping my Thai iced tea,  my brain light bulb pops on — “We need to make Thai tea! Auntie told me how easy it was to make and why haven’t we made it before?”

Here you have it!

This Thai iced tea recipe is so easy that pretty much every YouTube video you see uses the same brand and shows the same steps. As far as the creamy layer goes, many people use different ingredients such as half and half, whole milk, coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk and even low-fat milk. Choose your creamy poison.

The only difference in our recipe is that we’re using a little less sugar. But really, once you get the basics down on making Thai iced tea you can customize the flavors and concentration the way you like. It’s one of those recipes that is great no matter how you make it because it’s just so decadent and satisfying.

One of the key factors in making it like the restaurants is using authentic Thai tea mixes. These Thai tea mixes are normally dyed with yellow food coloring (look on the package) and that’s what gives it it’s bright orange color. Also, Thai tea has a vanilla aroma to it. So if you want to have the brilliant orange color and flavors like most of the Thai restaurants, then this is one of the brands of thai tea to buy : Panthai.

There’s probably other brands of Thai tea mixes to buy, but this is the one we first tried it with and it was a success.

If you don’t have Thai tea mix, then you can certainly use black tea. We also tested another version with pekong black tea bags and the flavor was still great. Only thing missing was the brilliant orange color and the subtle hint of sweet vanilla.

Either way, find your way into the kitchen or store to buy the Thai tea mix and make yourself a big batch asap. We’re not joking. Make this now and let us know what you think. And remember, make it your own and play with the different levels of sweetness and creaminess.

Thanks Auntie Chung for the homemade Thai iced tea inspiration.

-diane

Fill the glass to about 3/4 of Thai tea mix

add half & half, it makes it creamy good. give a stir.

drink up lots of it and make more.

Salted caramel Banana Bread Pudding! This is Amazing!

SALTED CARAMEL BANANA BREAD PUDDINGS!!!  Yum!!!!

[Photograph: Sang An]

Bread and bananas are two items that seem to fall by the wayside, at my house at least. A two day old half baguette or a few slices of white and a spotty banana or two are exactly what makes this recipe for Salted Caramel Banana Bread Puddings the ideal last minute dessert, that is, if you have the same overages of bread and bananas.

SALTED CARAMEL BANANA BREAD PUDDINGS

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About This Recipe

YIELD:	serves 8
ACTIVE TIME:	40 minutes
TOTAL TIME:	1 hour
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:	Eight 6-ounce ramekins or custard cups, baking pan large enough to hold the ramekins with space between them
THIS RECIPE APPEARS IN:	Bake the Book: Salted Caramel Banana Bread Puddings
RATED:

Ingredients

• Rounded 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups caramel sauce, store-bought or homemade
• 8 thin slices slightly stale or very lightly toasted firm white sandwich bread (such as Pepperidge Farm or Oroweat/Arnold’s Country Buttermilk or Country Potato Bread)
• 2 ripe bananas
•  
• For the custard:
• 6 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, melted

Procedures

1. 1
   Stir the salt into the caramel sauce. Butter the ramekins and spoon a generous tablespoon of the caramel into the bottom of each one. Spread a tablespoon of the remaining sauce on one side of each bread slice.
2. 2
   Cut the bananas on a slight angle into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Cut 1 slice of bread lengthwise in half and then crosswise into thirds, to make 6 pieces. Place a slice of banana on each piece of bread. Stack 4 pieces of the banana-topped bread, turn the stack on its side, and place it in a ramekin. Put the 2 remaining pieces of bread, banana side inward, on either side of the stack. Repeat to fill the remaining ramekins.
3. 3
   To make the custard: Whisk the eggs, 1 tablespoon of the sugar, the salt, and vanilla in a medium bowl just until blended but not foamy. Whisk in the half-and-half and milk. Fill each ramekin with the egg mixture, reserving any left over. Let stand until the bread is saturated, 
20 to 30 minutes, topping off the puddings with the remaining egg mixture as necessary.
4. 4
   Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Put a kettle of water on to boil. Brush or drizzle the exposed edges of the bread with the melted butter, then sprinkle the buttered edges with the remaining tablespoon of sugar, using a generous teaspoon per pudding.
5. 5
   Wipe any smudges off the ramekins and set them in the baking pan. Put the pan in the oven. Pull out the oven rack and pour boiling water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until the edges of the bread are golden brown and a knife inserted in the puddings comes out mostly clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in the water bath, then remove with tongs. If not serving within 2 hours, cover and refrigerate.
6. 6
   Serve the puddings in their cups, warm, at room temperature, or cold, or reheated individually for a few seconds in the microwave. Or unmold them: slide a thin knife around the inside of each ramekin to detach the pudding, tip the ramekin on a dessert dish, and slide the pudding out, letting the sauce flow around it. Scrape the extra sauce from the cup around it or drizzle on top.

Macaroons

Raspberry Coconut Macarons

02.12.2014

If you follow me on Pinterest you may have noticed by now that I love macarons, I’m pinning them all the time. They are so delicate, I love their versatility of flavors and their bright colors and honestly how could I resist them, they taste like candy. Every time we go on vacation I’m sure to grab some – because they only sell them within probably 2 hours of me. In California I loved the salted caramel and the coconut macarons from Lette Macarons in Newport Beach, and during our recent short term move to Washington D.C. I loved getting the red velvet macarons from The Sweet Lobby.

With the recipe below I only listed the ingredients you’ll need then inserted a link to Bravetart for the directions. I love Stella’s recipe and it was also fun reading through her macaron myths. Macarons are tricky, and I’m no pro (I’ve only made them a number of times) so I’d thought it would be better just to link to her directions because she knows what she’s doing.

This recipe is very versatile. I also considered filling these with a chocolate ganache. They are very sweet with the jam, so if you don’t have much of a sweet tooth you might want to go with a little jam along with some dark or bittersweet ganache and maybe use a less sugar jam. Enjoy!

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Raspberry Coconut Macarons

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 18 minutes

Yield: Yields about 20

Ingredients

• 115 grams almond flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
• 230 grams powdered sugar
• 144 grams egg whites
• 72 grams granulated sugar
• 3/4 tsp coconut extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Red or pink food coloring (optional)
• 3/4 cup raspberry jam

Start Your Day with Starbucks K-Cups

 

Directions

• For macaron directions please visit the recipe here on Bravetart as that is the recipe I used, adding the 3/4 tsp coconut extract in place of the vanilla and tinting if desired with food coloring.
• Allow macarons to cool completely. Spread about 1/2 Tbsp raspberry jam between 2 macarons. Store in an airtight container.
• Recipe Source: adapted from Bravetart

These are the macarons from Lette (taken March 13′). I loved their vibrant colors.

Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts

 By Carla Cardello

These simple yet unforgettable Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts will make vanilla your new favorite flavor.

If you had to pick one dessert to describe your personality, what would it be? Maybe you’re traditional like chocolate chip cookies or a little bit sassy like a fruit tart. Maybe you’re intense like Chocolate Chili Cookies. Or maybe you’re simple like these Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts. Today I’m teaming up with Baker’s Joy to help launch their “Which Sweet Treat Are You?” quiz that pairs your baking personality with one of nine delicious desserts. My challenge was to create a simple yet not boring recipe focusing on vanilla. Trust me when I say this – these doughnuts will change your mind about liking vanilla.

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you probably know I’m not exactly simple when developing recipes, so this was a fun challenge for me. What can I make with vanilla that is simple yet unforgettable? After all, simple does not equal boring. I chose to make doughnuts (or is it donuts?) in my baking pan since they take little effort to make. Make the batter, pipe into pan, bake 10 minutes, done. If you wake up early enough, I bet you could have these ready in time for breakfast.

Vanilla is one of those ingredients where you need to buy high-quality vanilla. Look for the bottle that says pure vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla extract. I promise it’s worth those extra couple of bucks. Next you’ll need to buy vanilla beans. Don’t bother buying any from the store because they are expensive; it’s much cheaper to buy online. Mine are from Marx Food but you can also find them on King Arthur Flour and even eBay.

If you say you don’t like vanilla, chances are you never had vanilla bean before. Ice cream is the perfect example. There’s boring vanilla ice cream from an ice cream stand, then there’s homemade vanilla bean ice cream. These tender baked doughnuts are speckled with vanilla bean, which kicks up the vanilla flavor a notch. Maybe I should’ve called them Triple Vanilla Doughnuts because you have vanilla bean and extract in the batter then a vanilla glaze on top.

Make sure you take the “Which Sweet Treat Are You?” quiz then come back here and leave a comment telling me what your dessert personality is! From April 22 – May 5, you can take the quiz as many times as you want for a chance to win a daily prize which includes $50 Visa gift cards and a year’s supply of Baker’s Joy and be entered to win the grand prize of $500 Visa gift card, KitchenAid mixer, and a year’s supply of Baker’s Joy.

Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Author: Carla Cardello (www.chocolatemoosey.com)

Serves: 9 doughnuts

Ingredients

Cooking spray (preferably Baker's Joy)

Doughnuts

• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split in half down the middle longways and seeds scraped into a bowl (discard the pod)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk

Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 3-4 teaspoons milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Lightly spray two baked doughnut pans.*
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla bean seeds, egg, and vanilla extract until incorporated then add the milk. Gradually beat in the flour mixture until just incorporated.
4. Spoon the batter into a pastry bag** then pipe into each doughnut cavity, being careful not to fill it too full. Bake 8-10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes then remove from the pan and finish cooling on a cooling rack.

For the glaze

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, salt, 3 teaspoons milk, and vanilla until smooth. If it's too thick for a glaze, add the extra teaspoon of milk.
2. Once the doughnuts are completely cool, dip the tops of each doughnut into the glaze and let the excess drip off. Let the glaze harden before serving. Store in an airtight container.

Notes

*If you only have one doughnut pan, bake the first six doughnuts. Once you remove them from the pan, cool in the fridge for 5 minutes then finish baking the remaining doughnuts.

**It's easiest to pipe the batter into the pan using a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip (either a real pastry bag or a sandwich bag with the corner cut off), but you can also carefully spoon in the batter.

Copycat Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

Glazed doughnuts are my weakness, especially when they’re Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts. Aren’t they everyones weakness?

It took several attempts to get a homemade version that is like a Krispy Kreme. As the saying goes, third times the charm. I tried three different types of flour, bread flour first then blend of cake and all purpose flour and I ended up settling on just all purpose. It’s hard to get the exact same texture as theirs because according to the ingredients they have listed online they use emulsifiers, gluten, thickener, firming agents and other additives, which I’m guessing is what gives their doughnuts such a delicate texture. For us home cooks, are we ever going to try and track down all that stuff? With that said these doughnuts are very close, just not identical. Also, my version isn’t as pretty :). The dough is somewhat delicate to work with after the second rise so they didn’t keep their shape perfectly well once I lifted them to transfer to the oil. If only I had one of those conveyer belts like they have at Krispy Kreme. My family and I did a side by side comparison with my version and theirs and both flavor and texture were so close.

If you like a thick coating of glaze, you can make more glaze and double dip them. This recipe could easily be doubled for feeding a crowd. When you eat one of these warm, that perfectly golden, glaze covered edge and fluffy interior just melt away in your mouth. Enjoy!

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Copycat Krispy Kreme Glazed Doughnuts

Ingredients

• Doughnuts
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water, 110 degrees
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk, warmed to 110 degrees
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening, at room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, then more as needed
• 3 - 4 cups vegetable shortening, for frying
Glaze
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tsp evaporated milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 - 4 tsp hot water

Try Starbucks K-Cups in Caramel or Vanilla

 

Directions

• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, whisk together yeast, warm water and 1/2 tsp of the sugar. Let rest 5 - 10 minutes. Add in evaporated milk, remaining granulated sugar (3 Tbsp + 2 1/2 tsp), salt, 1/4 cup shortening, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Add half of the flour and set mixer with whisk attachment and blend until smooth. Switch mixer to hook attachment, slowly add remaining flour and knead on low speed until smooth and elastic about 4 - 5 minutes, adding additional flour as needed (I only added about 2 Tbsp more. You shouldn't need a lot more, you want dough to be slightly sticky and tacky but shouldn't stick to a clean fingertip). Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Punch dough down and roll into an even layer onto a floured surface to slightly less than 1/2-inch thickness. Cut into doughnut shapes using a doughnut cutter or two round circle cutters (on large and one small for holes). Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 - 40 minutes.
• Heat shortening in a cast iron dutch oven to 360 degrees (don't walk away from oil while preheating and don't let it get above 375 degrees, remove from heat and reduce heat as needed). Meanwhile, prepare glaze by mixing together all of the glaze ingredients in a shallow dish (don't add too much water, you'll be dipping warm doughnuts in glaze so you don't want it to be runny, fairly thick is good). Carefully transfer doughnuts to oil (I could fry 3 at a time) and fry until golden on bottom, then using a wooden chopstick, flip to opposite side and fry opposite side until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool 1 - 2 minutes then dip top half in glaze while still warm and return to wire rack and allow glaze to set at room temperature. Best served warm. Once cool reheat in microwave 5 - 10 seconds if desired.
• Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

Lavender Whoopie Pies with Vanilla Bean Frosting

If you are one of those people looking at these cookies saying, really? Flowers? I know just what you mean. I used to think the same thing, I thought people were trying too hard to be fancy :). Then one day I tried something with lavender and I’ve been hooked ever since. Some days I crave lavender cupcakes, something I never imagined myself craving. Lavender is a very unique and complex flavor (but unique in a good way). While bold and rather surprising, it seems hard to find a similar flavor to relate it to. It would be almost like what I’d imagine a sweet pine flavor to be, along with hints of mint – but it sounds kind of gross when I put it that way so lets just leave it at the opinion of it being an amazing flavor. I love giving someone something with lavender who hasn’t tried it before, they’ll take one bite and get this look of delight followed by a look of  utter confusion and deep thought because they can’t quite put there finger on just what is in it. Then I divulge the secret ingredient, and they will say something like, “oh, wow I didn’t know you can actually eat lavender” or “who knew lavender really tasted good.” Yes lavender can really taste good (culinary lavender of course, don’t start baking with your Grandma’s potpourri :) The key is, when you bake with it just don’t overdo it.

My entire family, husband and kids included loved these whoopie pies. My husband just said after taking one bite “Mmmm, I love Lavender” (and it sounded kind of funny coming from a manly man, I don’t know why). Then following he said “get these out of my life” because he claims he can’t stop eating them :).

Hopefully you love this recipe because it was my third attempt. First one too dry, and the bit of honey mixed in added a light light tint after baked which I didn’t care for. Second attempt, too spongy and the batter seemed pretty wet to work with. Third attempt, just what I was looking for. First, I tried flour+cornstarch along with all butter and milk. Second more milk, cake flour and used butter and oil. Third attempt added in 2:1 ratio Greek yogurt to milk rather than all milk, went with all-purpose flour, butter and oil and they were just what I was looking for. Fluffy, cake-like and soft, what a whoopie pie should be. I paired it with my favorite buttercream frosting, but since whoopie pies aren’t as moist as cupcakes I added more moisture (milk) into the frosting that could absorb into the cookies. I chose to pair it with vanilla beans which I added to the frosting because I love the combination and how the vanilla doesn’t overpower and hide the lavender (I made a few with lime frosting and preferred the vanilla, but if you wanted to do a lemon or lime frosting just replace the milk with lemon/lime juice and also blend in the zest). Enjoy!

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Lavender Whoopie Pies with Vanilla Bean Frosting

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (I used Chobani 2%)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 4 tsp dried lavender flowers
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• Red and blue or purple food coloring, optional
Vanilla Bean Frosting
• 1 cup butter, softened (preferably 1/2 cup salted butter, 1/2 cup unsalted)
• seeds of 1 vanilla bean
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 - 3 Tbsp milk
• 2 Tbsp heavy cream

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor or blender, combine greek yogurt, milk, dried lavender and vanilla and blend for 1 minute, scraping down sides and lid of food processor once during blending. Pour mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl while using a spatula to press and rub lavender against strainer to release oils (also scrape out any excess from food processor - get all of it). Set aside and allow to rest.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. In a separate mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer whip together butter, oil and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Blend in eggs one at a time, adding in food coloring with second egg if using (I used about 30 drops blue and a little less red). Add in flour mixture in three separate batches alternating with half of the milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing on low-speed just until combined after each addition.
• Transfer batter into a piping bag fitted with a 1/4-inch or 1/2-inch round tip and pip cookies onto a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet into 1 3/4-inch rounds (I did this by holding the piping tip about 1/2-inch from baking sheet and piping the batter out allowing it to spread outward while slowling moving the piping bag up - similar to piping a meringue cookie without so much tip on top), spacing cookies 2 inches apart. Bake in preheated oven about 6 - 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely then spread Vanilla Bean Frosting on bottom of one cookie and sandwich to bottom of another cookie. Store in an airtight container.
• For the Vanilla Bean Frosting:
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter and vanilla bean seeds on medium-high speed until nearly white and very fluffy, about 6 - 7 minutes, frequently scrapping down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add in powdered sugar, milk, heavy cream and vanilla extract and mix on low speed until blended, then increase speed to medium and beat until very light and fluffy, about 5 - 6 minutes, frequently scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
• Recipe Source: Cooking Classy