Homemade Christmas Tea

Introduction:
Now that we are living in California again, there is no Christmas market for us to visit this Advent season. One of our favorite things at the Grenoble Christmas market was the thé du Noël (Christmas tea). The absence of Christmas tea has driven me to scour the internet for recipes. Most American "traditional" recipes included "orange drink mix" as the base ingredient. That is not traditional or acceptable. The recipe I settled on comes from a French blogger (post here). I have translated her recipe to the best of my ability, and have modified it only by the omission of cloves which I do not prefer.

Ingredients:

• 100 grams black tea (unflavored)
• 1 orange
• 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla powder (not liquid extract)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 210 deg F
2. Wash, dry, and peel orange and lemon into long strips using a potato peeler (be sure to only get the zest and none of the white, which is very bitter)
3. Cut peel into small even squares
4. Place peel evenly on a parchment lined baking sheet
5. Bake peel for 1 hour
6. Mix dry ingredients together and add dried peel once baked.
7. Boil water and steep like normal black tea (1 tsp tea/cup, steep 5 mins)
8. Store in a metal tin for longevity
9. Enjoy!

Results and Observations:
C'était bon ! (It was delicious!). The tea turned out very well. This tea can be enjoyed as is without further modification.

However, what fun would this be without a little experimentation? The citrus flavors were not very pronounced, so I think I will try increasing that. The vanilla was also not very strong (but a critical background flavor?), so I may try omitting it in the future (also, vanilla powder is somewhat pricey)

Cold Brew Coffee Trial 1.

Introduction:
Everyone loves coffee and one of the current coffee trends is "cold brew". This cool manifestation of coffee requires little equipment or technique to create. With a little experimentation, I hope perfect the recipe and procedure.


Ingredients and Materials:
1 cup whole coffee beans
4.5 cups of filtered water (eliminates tapwater taste variables)
Coffee grinder
Brewing vessel
Airtight storage vessel 

Procedure:

• Course grind coffee beans (should appear courser than sand)
• Add grounds and filtered water to brewing vessel (see figure 1.)
• Store brewing vessel at room temperature for more than 12 hours but less than 15 hours (variable for future experimentation)
• Pour cold brew from brewing vessel through a fine sieve into the airtight storage vessel (see figure 2.1 and 2.2)
• Seal cold brew in airtight storage vessel (see figure 3) and store until drinking (store in the refrigerator for increased temperature reduction)
• Drink and enjoy (I am enjoying my first glass of cold brew as I write this post)

Results and Observations:

The coffee has strong flavor (stronger than hot brewed coffee which has been forgotten and allowed to cool down) and lacks some of the acidic taste. These findings are consistent with reports about cold brew. Further testing is needed/desired

Figure 1.

Figure 2.1

Figure 2.2

Figure 3

Chocolate chip cookies cooked on a waffle iron: baking fail

Chocolate Chip Waffle Cookies

The idea seemed simple enough: use a waffle iron to make waffle cookies and then drizzle chocolate on top. We decided to try this experiment. My standard chocolate chip recipe was used with the exception of the chocolate chips which were to be melted and drizzled on after.

We set the waffle iron on the lowest setting to begin (and intended to adjust higher if needed during subsequent trials)

Trial 1 Results: Catastrophic Failure

Further trials were suspended as a result of trial 1's disaster

Speculations of what led to the accident:

• Waffle iron was not greased before adding dough
• Dough may need to be thicker (higher flour content?) for desired results
• Human error

Thankfully the remainder of the dough was quickly converted into normal chocolate chip cookies and enjoyed