Pretty Cookies with Raspberry Filling

A tea party can be fun, especially if you enjoy using pretty china tea things, including tea pots, cups and saucers, and little plates. I recently had tea with a very good friend and she loved the fact that I baked really pretty cookies to go with the tea, served on a tiered plate with all the nice china.

You don't really need to bake cookies to enjoy tea with a friend. I often use packaged cookies from the market, but this time I didn't. I baked a simple sugar cookie, cut it with a fluted round cutter, then cut the center out of half of them with a smaller fluted round cutter. Once baked and cooled, I piped vanilla buttercream just inside the edge of the whole cookies, filled the center with a thin layer of raspberry jam. Next I sifted a small amount of confectioners sugar over the cutouts. The final touch was top the raspberry/buttercream whole cookies with the cutout cookies. You could use another flavor of jam or some lemon curd instead of the raspberry jam for another take on these lovely cookies. The cookies themselves are crisp the first day, giving a nice contrast to the soft jam and buttercream. If you store them longer, the cookies soften a bit, but they are still delicious! You also don't need to have a tea party to enjoy these cookies!

When making the cookies, know that the dough tends to be soft, but you really don't want to overwork it. Be generous with the flour on your work surface and rolling pin so that the dough doesn't stick too much. I slid a small offset spatula under the cookies to make sure they were loosened before I moved them to the baking sheet with a larger spatula that supported them fully. I baked the cutout part, too, and iced small hearts with buttercream on them. A small bite is sometimes as good as a fancy one. Some of the filled ones ended up without powdered sugar since Sweetie doesn't really like powdered sugar.

Enjoy the cookies and do consider having a tea party. It's particularly nice during the winter to have a little party to lift our spirits and give us an excuse to invite a friend over.

Fancy Tea Cookies  

1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
about 2-3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1 cup vanilla buttercream
1 - 1 1/2 cups raspberry jam (or other flavor jam or lemon curd)

    With butter or margarine at room temperature, beat butter or margarine in large bowl, then beat in sugar and egg until fluffy. Sift dry ingredients together and add to first mixture. Mix well. Roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness, cut with round cookie cutters. Place on lightly buttered cookie sheets. Use a smaller round cutter to cut out the middle of half of the cookies. Bake in a 400 F. oven for 7- 8 minutes. If dough sticks while rolling, chill briefly. 

    After cookies have cooled, use a small fine-mesh strainer to sift a small amount of the confectioners sugar over the cut-out cookies. Pipe a thin line of buttercream near the edge of the full cookies, then fill the center with a thin layer of the raspberry jam. Top with the cut-out cookies, pushing down gently to seal the layers together. Serve.  Makes 2 - 4 dozen cookies depending on the size of the round cutters.

Short Term Memory

Not all food memories have to be from childhood, younger days, or even North Bay memories.

Today I went with friends to a lovely tea place in Benicia and we created wonderful memories.

One of us was a newly-initiated member of the group we belong to, P.E.O., which is a philanthropic educational organization that gives scholarships and loans to women. We were gathered to talk about our ways and what we do so well, raise money for women's scholarships. Of course we also talked about a wide range of other subjects, from travel to friendships to health issues.

The Camellia Tea Room, where we enjoyed the hot tea and delicious food, has been there on 1st Street in Benicia for many years. The room is beautifully decorated and today they had some Christmas decorations up, along with garlands and pretty lanterns on the tables.

The Full Tea here is presented on three tiers. The top tier has a selection of finger sandwiches, the middle tier has scones and tiny bowls of jam and whipped cream, and the bottom tier has sweets. Today's sandwiches included traditional cucumber sandwiches with herbed cream cheese, a tartine with chutney and sharp cheddar shreds and a third one that I can't remember the parts of, but I think it was turkey on pumpernickel. Since I was eating a delicious egg salad sandwich on herbed focaccia, which came with a small salad, I didn't really pay attention to the selection on the full tea tiers, but the cute lemon tart and the pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing looked really delicious.

Another in our party had a wonderful main dish salad with plenty of cashews and another had onion soup with toast and cheese on top. Everyone seemed quite pleased with their choice.

They have many kinds of sandwiches, salads, two soups, and plenty of combinations with sweets, plus an amazing choice of teas. My citrus blend, a black tea with lemon and orange, was delightful.

So today will be remembered for excellent food and tea, wonderful fun with good friends, and fine, cheerful service by our hostess and servers in beautiful surroundings. If you decide to go and make your own memories there, do make a reservation. They often have every table filled at lunchtime.

Scones For The Mostly Dairy Free Folks

When I first learned to make scones I loved using cold butter and rich cream to make wonderful, light but rich and flaky delights. When I planned a tea party for this month my sister challenged me to make a scone that was equally delightful, but with none of the usual dairy. After all, when my guests were going 'mmmm good' as they ate their scones, I wanted to be right in there with them. No lemon curd or clotted cream for me, but raspberry jam goes really well with the perfect scone.

These may not have been the perfect scone, but they were delicious and had the right texture, too. I used very cold margarine instead of the butter, used a light hand with the cutting in of the margarine, used a mixture of soy milk creamer and Greek yogurt (the only dairy I can tolerate) for the liquid and I added a touch of almond extract, too. Sweetie had one shortly after I took them from the oven and he was a convert. I enjoyed mine, too and so did my guests. If you are eating vegan, just skip the Greek yogurt and use a full cup of the soy creamer. I used Silk brand original plain soy creamer. I've found that it works well as a milk/cream replacement and tastes good, too.

Here are half the scones before baking...you make two discs like this.

Simple Only Yogurt Scones
Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease two cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

3 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup non-dairy margarine, well chilled
¾ cup soy creamer
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Glaze: 2 tablespoons soy creamer
2 tablespoons sugar (I used white sanding sugar)

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. With pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles fine to medium crumbs. In a large measuring cup whisk together the soy creamer and the Greek yogurt. (Alternately, just use 1 cup soy creamer instead of that mixture.)

Pour soy milk mixture over crumb mixture. Stir together with fork just until mixture comes together. Use a light hand. Gather dough gently into a ball; knead 4 or 5 times. Cut dough in half and transfer pieces to prepared cookie sheets. Shape each piece into a 6 inch x 1/4 inch thick circle. Using floured knife or bench scraper, cut each circle into 8 wedges. Put wedges on the prepared cookie sheets.

For glaze, brush tops with soy creamer and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake 20 – 25 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 16 scones.

If you are going to freeze these to re-heat later, bake them just short of golden brown and re-heat, thawed, for 5 minutes at 425 degrees F.

Tea Party!

We has a small tea party yesterday, just three friends and myself. The fluffy fake chick was a gift, sort of an in joke. Many of the tea pots and cups, the sugar bowl and the sandwich plate were gifts and some have fond memories of my grandmother and Mom and a couple of friends who have died. Maybe that sounds morbid, but I like to think it honors them and it certainly brings a smile to my face as I use them, especially when the use comes with yummy treats and lots of laughter.

It was a particularly fun to use the lacy linens and pretty tea pots and cups and plates that are often on the shelf. Time to play in the kitchen has been at a premium. Fortunately two of the sweet treats I served were made ahead and the rest were purchased. The linzer tart I posted last was a big hit! I did make the little sandwiches in the morning, which was fun. I had never made egg salad, nor cucumber on pumpernickel tea sandwiches before, so there was a learning curve.

Things have been super busy and social around here, which limits baking time. Hope to do the Bread Baking Babes post and Cake Slice post within a few days of their usual posting dates. Best I can do this month.  XO, Elle

Truly Wonderful Afternoon Tea

Last weekend my sister Natasha and our friend Miroslawa came to town and we met at a high end bakery, Patisserie Angelica, that has begun to serve a full afternoon tea recently. To date our favorite tea place is the Camellia Tea Room in Benicia...I would happily travel there any time to enjoy their afternoon tea delights. The late La Dolce V also had a nice selection of goodies to go with tea. It's nice to have one fairly close, although they are only open to the public for tea on Fridays and Saturdays. It's worth coming then, though. The afternoon tea is splendid! I thought that their scones were the best yet.

The server deserves first mention because she was excellent - sweet, there when you needed her and not when you didn't, enthusiastic but not overly so, helpful and informative and thoughtful. We ordered a little something for Natasha to take home and she offered immediately to hold it in the fridge until we were finished to keep it cool. A nice touch. She also encouraged us to linger as long as we liked which is just what we like to do.

The setting is lovely. The decor is Paris meets West County with some gold framed mirrors and fancy fabrics but not too fussy or overbearing. We had a comfortable table and chairs right by the window which looks out on some plantings. Along a wall to the right of the entrance there are padded benches and small tables. Sometimes there might be outdoor seating. It was peaceful and it was fun to see future brides and their fiancees coming in to do cake tastings. Patisserie Angelica is well know for its fabulous, world class wedding and specialty cakes.

For our tea we had many choices of green, black and decaffeinated teas. Mine was golden and slightly fruity black tea from Mariage Freres of France and it went quite well with the afternoon tea offerings. Miroslawa had lavender scented and flavored black tea and Natasha had organic Earl Gray. We each had a pot of tea in a white pot, plus china teacups with lovely flowered patterns... a different one for each of us. The delightful server keep the tea pots refilled with boiling water as needed.

As you can see from the photo at the top of this post, the selection of treats was wonderful! They use pure butter, local dairy products and eggs and hand craft everything they make (no mixes allowed). We each had one or two of each offering which were spaced around the server so that we could easily reach our own. At the top were the sweets. These included the favorite... macarons with a lightened praline buttercream. It almost melted in your mouth and was rich but light. My second favorite was the tiny raspberry and frangipane tart, although I did enjoy the dense and buttery not too sweet shortbread, too. If you don't enjoy butter this is not your kind of bakery!

The next level down held three kinds of tea sandwiches including egg salad, ham and cucumber. All were fine but paled in comparison to the goodies baked on site. The lowest level had a darling and delicious square tart that had caramelized onion, spinach and mushroom filling. Another savory was Parmesan cheese twists which were crunchy puff pastry and quite delicious. The best item of the whole tea was the currant scone, served with home made lemon curd, strawberry jam and 'mock' Devonshire cream. If you find that the full on tea is too much, they also serve a cream tea that features these wonderful scones and the curd, jam and cream with a pot of tea.

This is the kind of treat that you deserve...you know it is. A leisurely time spent sipping tea, conversing, nibbling on delicious little goodies...what could be more relaxing and delightful?

If you happen to be in the Sebastopol area (about 25 minutes west of Santa Rosa, CA, which is about an hour north of San Francisco), call up Patisserie Angelica and reserve a tea party for yourself. Better yet, invite some friends to join you and you can have as much fun as we did.

Patisserie Angelica, custom pastry and wedding cake design
Hours: Friday and Saturday 10 am - 9 pm
(707) 827-7998
6821 Laguna Park Way, Sebastopol, CA 95472

Info@patisserieangelica.com