Fall Flavour Profile: Chai Tea Cookies

Fall might be my favourite season.

Sure, the weather is getting colder and carefree afternoons spent drinking wine and lounging on a patio might be finished, but fall has some wonderful things that keep me excited about the seasonal change, mainly fashion and food.

Fall fashion this year is exceptional. In lieu of the Spring/Summer ’15 collection debuts at Fashion Week, people are attending shows in some fresh autumnal outfits. Check out Vogue’s style profiles from Paris Fashion Week here. 

I like the visible monochromatic trend so much, I also wrote a piece about it that you can read here.

Now for food, because fall flavour profiles are pretty wonderful. We already made a tasty #pumpkinspice granola on the blog a couple of weeks ago (you can find the recipe here).

Everyone seems to have jumped on the pumpkin spice bandwagon this year. Rach and I were walking by a jean store on Queen West that had a sign, “Come in and try on our pumpkin spice jeans!” Do they also come in gluten-free skim milk? Cause Toronto girls will flock by the dozens.

While pumpkin spice is definitely delicious, for me the king of fall flavours is chai. Chai tea lattes have been a staple indulgence in my diet since Laguna Beach ran on MTV. The exotic aroma and decadent taste couple together to create a cozy feeling from the moment the frothy goodness touches your lips.

BUT WHO SAYS THE CHAI PARTY NEEDS TO END WITH TEA? (Clearly, not me.)

During midterms, I always stress out and bake. So friends, I present to you, the fruit of my procrastinations, chai spice cookies.

CHAI TEA COOKIES

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup salted butter at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Baking Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, allspice, black pepper, and cloves. Remove 1/4 cup of the sugar–spice mixture and set aside for rolling the cookies.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar–spice mixture until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes (I used a spoon because I left my beaters at my parent’s place).

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Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, mixing until fully incorporated. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until consistent with cookie dough texture.

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll each ball in the reserved sugar–spice mixture. Place dough balls about 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet.

        

Bake until puffed, golden, and the surface starts to crack, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove cookies from oven and let stand on baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool.

ENJOY! Try to limit yourself to about five- five cookies ( and five episodes of bad reality television to make you feel better about your decision to eat so many cookies).

*Recipe modified from http://www.jamesbeard.org/recipes/chewy-chai-spiced-sugar-cookies

Cheers,

Planning the perfect potluck and Red Velvet Recipe

Everyone loves a potluck. Potlucks are synonomous with drinking wine, hanging out with friends and a judgement free zone for stuffing your face. Naturally, as we get older and gravitate away from costume themed keggers and day drinking, we need to find a way to indulge on the weekends that isn’t so juvenile (joking, I am counting the days down till homecoming).

 

This year we decided to celebrate my lovely roommate Deanna’s birthday potluck style  – HAPPY 22nd DEEBEE! We noticed a few things:

1) EVERYONE BRINGS GOAT CHEESE DISHES, classic girl move, anticipate 4-6 over the expected quota.

2) People confused the invites “bring something homemade” food suggestion as a gift suggestion, but she got some adorable Mason jar crafts so that was alright.

3) Eyes are bigger than stomachs

I made the birthday cake for this lovely little gathering and it was met with a very positive review (mind you half the people were drunk, but I ate it again the next day for breakfast and I still think it’s the best red velvet I’ve ever had).

The recipe is a bit different from others, it uses sour cream and milk instead of buttermilk, which is why it is SO moist!
Try it for any upcoming holiday or just because you’re stressed with midterms coming up and want to carbload.

RED VELVET CAKE 
*Recipe makes 1 three layer cake (9 inch cake pans)

CAKE MIX
– 2 1/2 cups flour

– 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

– 1/2 teaspoon salt

– 1 teaspoon baking soda

– 1 cup butter, softened

– 2 cups sugar

– 4 eggs

– 1 cup sour cream

– 1/2 cup 2% milk

– 1 WHOLE bottle red food colouring (maybe a bit more for deeper red colour)

– 3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
*This can be cut in half for light icing, but I reaaaaally think it tastes better with a lot in between each layer so I use these proportions

– 2- 8 ounce packages of cream cheese (I use a greek yoghurt one, tastes great!)

– 1/2 cup butter, softened

– 1/3 cup sour cream

– 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

– 1 1/2 16 ounce bags of confectioners sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. 
2. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer for 2 minutes or until light and fluffy (TASTE IT! YUMM). Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food colour and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended.  Pour batter into three cake pans (9inch) or you can do one at a time- just guestimate batter proportions.
3. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Frost.
4. Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat cream cheese, softened, butter, sour cream and vanilla extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until smooth.
5. ENJOY A COPIOUS AMOUNT, YOU DON’T NEED TO SHARE, FEEL NO GUILT.

Happy Eating!

Fall Flavour Profile: Pumpkin Spice Granola

As twenty-something #whitegirls, we spend all year looking forward to our favourite season: Fall. Depending who you are and where your interests lie, this could be for a variety of reasons… Maybe you’re excited for school to start. If you’re a fashionista, you can’t wait for fall fashion, aka cozy sweaters, scarves, peacoats, knee-high boots, leather jackets, etc. Or maybe you’re excited for Halloween, the one day a year when a girl can dress like a complete slut and no other girls can say anything about it (if you don’t understand this Mean Girls reference, leave now.)

However, if you’re anything like us, fall is your favourite because of the return of Starbucks’ #PSL. Ah yes, the pumpkin spice latte. An addiction of white girls everywhere. But luckily for you, it’s not only Starbucks that is providing us with these tasty treats. Coffee shops of all sorts have started creating drinks both hot and cold, as well as baked goods, in your favourite flavour. Personally, we’re getting a little tired of the fad, so we decided to try something new to reignite our pumpkin spice passion.

INTRODUCING: pumpkin spice granola!!!!!!!!!

Granola is one of our favourite healthy breakfast choices, perfect with milk as a cereal, or crumbled on top of yogurt with fresh fruit. Equally as delicious to munch on as a snack when you’re on the go.

Making your own granola is a lot simpler than you would think. We can’t get enough of the stuff, so we made a big batch and decided to share our experience with you!

What you’ll need: 

• 1/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats (can substitute for gluten free)
• 3/4 cup organic spelt
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseeds
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup chopped nuts (we used walnuts, pecans, honey roasted cashews and sesame glazed almonds)
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup honey (can substitute with real maple syrup)
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp pumpkin spice
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch kosher salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 325° F

1) Spread a thin layer of oats and quinoa onto parchment lined baking pan. Insert into the oven and toast for 10 minutes. When they’re about halfway done, take them out and give them a stir, to ensure that they toast equally. Then let them continue to bake for the remainder of the time.

2) Remove the oats from the oven, pour into a medium bowl, and combine the flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, nuts and dried cranberries.

3) In a separate bowl, mix together your honey, pumpkin puree, coconut oil, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, salt and vanilla.  Combine the two bowls, and stir together with a spatula.

4) Spread the mixture back onto a baking sheet and bake for 20 more minutes, or until golden. We found ours had to stay in for 25-30 to get the crunchy texture we wanted.

Pour yourself a nice large glass of wine, and wait…

5) Remove from oven, and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Put into airtight container as soon as possible, to avoid getting stale.

6) EAT AND ENJOY!!!

 

The majority of these ingredients were bought from our local Bulk Barn. It was super easy, and not too expensive!
The great thing about this recipe is that it can easily be customized to include any flavour imaginable!
Try other varieties of dried fruit, or coconut, pistachios, even chocolate!

The possibilities are endless.
xo