Tea, one of the best things to come out of Britain. A cup of tea is a remedy for almost anything – a bad day at work, splitting up with a boyfriend, being poorly. I’m also a big fan of elevenses, a sneaky biscuit (or three), dunking it in my tea and savouring the flavour.

When I saw Mowielicious’ magazine I finally got hold of his cornflake condensed milk ice cream recipe I’d be dying to try. It was absolutely divine, and the thing that I really enjoyed most was the malty flavour that had infused into the milk. I started thinking about malted milk biscuits…mmm malted milks. Tasty, apart from the 3 second dunking rule. Any longer than that and it ends up at the bottom of the cup and you inevitably forget about it and end up with grainy biscuit crumbs in your mouth as you drink the last dregs of tea. I wanted the malted milk softness and taste after it’s been dipped in tea, not as biscuity bites in the icecream. Could this be done? What the hell, I was up for an experiment anyway.

My first batch was a total disaster. Luckily I’d bought myself a double pack of malted milks! In the first batch, I warmed the milk, added the tea bags and the biscuits (a whole pack) straight away. It ended up as bit malty mess and the tea bags barely brewed the tea. I tried to strain it sans success and then ended up slopping it all over the kitchen floor. Clean up, wipe down, try again.

Luckily this time it worked! I left the tea bags in the warmed milk and just put 5 biscuits in once the tea had brewed and I strained it without problems. I love the flavour – you get a little tea aftertaste mixed with malty biscuit flavours. Of course, you could bits of malted milk if you wanted crunch, just leave it to freeze for 2 hours and then add crumbled biscuit. I of course used Yorkshire’s finest brew, Yorkshire Tea but you can use whatever brand of teabag you prefer!

This recipe is adapted from Mowielicious’ Cornflake ice recipe.

Ingredients

• 5 malted milk biscuits
• 4 tea bags
• 500ml milk
• 100ml condensed milk
• 300ml double cream
• ½tsp nutmeg

Instructions

1. Warm the milk in the pan but don’t boil, add the nutmeg and teabags and brew for 6 minutes (we want it to be almost stewed to give it the flavour). Then remove the tea bags.
2. Take the pan off the heat. Break the biscuits into a few pieces and add to the milk. Stir well until they’ve dissolved. Leave for 15 mins.
3. Strain through a muslin in a sieve into a bowl. Stir mixutre occasionally until nearly all the milk mixture has gone through. Leave the mixture to cool.
4. Mix the condensed milk and cream with the malty tea milk mixture until well mixed.
5. Place the mixture into your icecream maker and follow your icecream maker’s instructions (I put mine in for 30 minutes). Box and freezer for at least 4 hours. Stir after 2 hours.
]]> http://laythetable.com/puddings/tea-and-biscuits-ice-cream/feed/ 6 http://laythetable.com/snacks/mmmince-pies/ http://laythetable.com/snacks/mmmince-pies/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:14:39 +0000 Becs http://laythetable.com/?p=302

Spending time on mince pies is always worth the effort! Impress your friends by using the snowflake shaped cutter for the cutout. I based this on Nigella’s recipe but added a few ingredients of my own. The addition of spices to the pastry adds some extra flavour.

55mins – Prep time: 40mins – Cooking time: 15mins

{Makes: 12}

Ingredients

• 8oz plain flour
• 2oz lard, diced into small squares
• 2oz cold butter, diced into small squares
• 130ml orange juice
• 1oz icing sugar
• 1/2 grated nutmeg
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ground almond
• 2tbsp demerera sugar for sprinkling
• 1 jar mincemeat (admittedly I cheated and used shop-bought one, Duerr’s Luxury Mincemeat)
• Splash of amaretto

Instructions

Oven temp: 180°C/320°F

1. Grease and flour a 12 hole bun tin.
2. Sift the flour and icing sugar into a bowl and mix in the nutmeg, cinnamon and almond. Then bit by bit, add the lard and butter, shaking the to cover them in flour. Add Place in fridge for 20 mins.
3. Blitz the mixture in a blender until it goes into breadcrumb form, then add the juice until it just starts to form dough.
4. Knead the mixture of a floured surface, then wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 10 minutes.
5. Once removed, quarter, then roll out 2 quarters into thin layers with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Cut out circles with a cutter, just larger than the bun tin’s holes.
6. Gently push down the pastry circles into the bun tin with the end of your thumb.
7. Add the splash of amaretto to your jar of mincemeat and shake to mix. Then taking a tablespoonful at a time, put the mincemeat into the pies cases.
8. Roll out the other two quarters into thin layers on a floured surface and use the large snowflake cutter from this PME 3 Pce Snowflake Cutter Set to create snowflakes for the top.

   Tip: Be very gentle with the snowflakes , they’re fragile! We found that pushing out the design right on top of the mince pies worked really well as we didn’t need to move them too much, otherwise they can break.

9. You can brush the tops with a little milk and dust with the demerera sugar for a caramel crunch top.
10. Place in the oven for about 12 minutes.
11. Ensure the mince pies cool down thoroughly as the pastry is quite short and prone to breaking if not left to hard a little before moving.
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