Monday, October 22, 2012

Chai Tea


I'm loving the flavors of fall.  I can't seem to get enough pumpkin and apple at the moment.  I just had the best dessert tonight (ya, ya, I know I'm supposed to be dieting....I will gladly save calories for this anytime!).  What was so yummy?  Hubs and I went to Yogurtland and they had pumpkin pie and cinnamon graham cracker frozen yogurt flavors.  Together these two are absolutely heavenly.  A Yogurtland first for us...Hubby and I actually got the same flavors of yogurt.  This has never ever happened before.  Our tastes are typically on opposite sides of the dessert spectrum.  But I guess pumpkin is our meet in the middle treat. 

Now I'm in the mood for a real pumpkin pie with perhaps a cinnamon graham cracker crust?  I'll have to work on that.

In the meantime, this chai tea is satisfying my fall cravings.

It's Secret Recipe Club time!  For those of you haven't heard about Secret Recipe Club, it's a great group of bloggers who get assigned another person's blog each month and it's a "secret".  You stalk the person's blog you were assigned in search of recipe to make and post about.  All the participants "reveal" their secret blog on the same day and time.  It's a lot of fun and is a great way to get know new blogs and find some pretty amazing recipes.  If you're interested in joining, check out the SRC site.

This month I was assigned Aimee's blog, from Chapel Hill to Chickenville.  Aimee's a wife and busy mom to four little ones.  She graduated college from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and after a few years in the hotel business and sojourn to Australia, she met her hubby and settled down in what she likes to call Chickenville.  She really does have a brood of hens in Chickenville!  Which is pretty cool.  When Aimee's not homeschooling or tending to chickens she loves to make magic in her kitchen.  Her blog is filled with a variety of delicious looking recipes and it was difficult to choose just one.  I had my sites on a scrumptious pecan pie, a light, airy pavlova and spiced pumpkin soup

Sticking with the fall flavors I finally decided on chai tea.  Chai tea lattes are one of the few drinks I order on the rare occasions I end up at a Starbucks.  And I love it.  Chai is all about the spices.  The spices seem to vary by recipe, but common flavors you will see are cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cardamom and peppercorns.  Mix in a little tea, sugar and milk and you have a hot spiced drink that gives you a big warm hug when you sip it.  I made a feeble attempt at making chai tea at home once a while back.  I bought chai tea bags and followed the directions on the package, which includes adding milk.  The final product was really not even drinkable.   So when I saw a chai recipe on Aimee's blog I knew I wanted to give this spiced beverage another shot.

Thankfully this go round was a huge success! 

It's creamy, it's sweet and perfectly spiced.  The recipe is a chai concentrate that you store in the fridge and then add milk and heat when you want to enjoy a cup.  I halved the recipe below (since Hubby won't help me drink it)...and made a few modifications.  I added in a vanilla bean.  This could easily be omitted.  Aimee's recipe called for star anise and instead I added a new ingredient which I just ordered online, called pumpkin powder.  The pumpkin flavor is very mild and very much in the background.  You could easily omit this as well or add in any of your own favorite spices.  The last change I made was to use ground cardamom instead of cardamom pods since that's what I had on hand.  I was very happy with the final spice blend.

The coolest part about Aimee's recipe is she also makes this to give as gifts.  Simply package up all the dry ingredients in a mason jar, write up instructions on how to make the tea and finish by dressing it up with a little fabric or ribbon (head to Chickenville for Aimee's packaging tips).  Such a great idea!  Thanks Aimee.

Enjoy!


Chai Tea
Adapted from Chapel Hill to Chickenville

1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom (or two teaspoons of green cardamom pods)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon pumpkin powder (optional--not in the original recipe)
1 vanilla bean (not in the original recipe)
6 cups water
10 black tea bags
1 cup sugar
2 additional cups water
Milk (I used skim)

Split vanilla bean down the middle with a sharp knife and scrape out seeds.  Combine all ingredients (including vanilla bean pod and seeds) up through 6 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil,, stirring occasionally.  Turn heat to low and add the tea bags.  Steep tea bags for 10-15 minutes.  Remove the tea bags and add sugar, stirring until dissolved, about 2-3 minutes.  Add remaining two cups of water and stir.  Pour chai concentrate through a fine mesh sieve and discard spice residue and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  Note you can save the vanilla bean for use in vanilla sugar.

To make tea, add the concentrate to your cup or mug, filling until halfway full.  Fill remainder of the cup with milk and microwave until hot.  Or place a 50/50 mixture of milk and chai concentrate in a small saucepan and heat on stove. 

Note: To make chai mix as a gift head over to Aimee's blog and get her tips to package this up for giving.  Note, if you want to use a vanilla bean in a chai mix gift, just split the bean down the middle and nestle it into the sugar, fully covered.  The vanilla flavor will permeate the sugar.

18 comments:

  1. I love these flavors! It sounds so, so good on a cold day! Great choice!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds fantastic! Perfect for winter!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What lovely flavors! I too am loving fall and pumpkin (A bit obsessed with it right now)! I bet you loved every sip of this delight!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I looove chai tea! OK, so I think I love it. I've had a protein chai tea drink, I've made chai spiced baked goods...so I'm pretty sure I love chai tea. Perhaps it's time to make an official cuppa chai tea and make sure. This looks perfect!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. P.S. You have some mad styling skills and mad food props! What a photo!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've been over the moon for chai tea for years, never tried it with pumpkin pie spice, seems a natch!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This sounds very good! I'm stopping (a bit late) to say thank you very much for joining Veronica's fundraiser for myself. I really appreciate it and look forward to getting to know you :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. What an awesome idea! I love chai as well so I'm going to give this a try

    ReplyDelete
  9. Get Hemp teabags boxes from The Customize Boxes. The Custom Hemp Tea Bags Boxes are designed in a way by our specialist that they are fulfilling dual purposes: attracting the customers and saving the item packed inside.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Menang berapapun pasti kami bayar , situs taruhan online terbukti dan terpercaya. Play now.

    Bonus new member 10%

    Customer service kami 24 jam online nonstop.

    BOLAVITA merupakan situs agen judi terpercaya yang menyediakan permainan favorit seperti :
    • Sportsbook
    • Live casino
    • Poker Online
    • Slot games

    Tersedia banyak bonus menarik di BOLAVITA seperti berikut ini :
    - Bonus Returning Rp 200.000
    - Bonus New Member 10%
    - Bonus Setiap Hari 5%
    - Bonus Referral up to 10%
    - Bonus Rollingan 0.5%

    Minimal deposit adalah Rp 50.000,- dan Minimal withdraw adalah Rp 50.000,-

    Tersedia juga layanan bank ternama Indonesia guna mempermudah member dalam melakukan transaksi.

    Customer service juga online 24jam nonstop untuk membantu anda jika mengalami kendala dalam permainan.

    Yuk buruan daftarkan diri anda sekarang juga dan persiapkan diri anda untuk menjadi pemenang bersama BOLAVITA !!

    Untuk Informasi Lebih Lanjut Silahkan Hubungi CS Kami Di :
    WA / TELEGRAM : +62812-2222-995
    INSTAGRAM : @bola.vita
    FACEBOOK : @bolavita.ofc
    TWITTER : @BVgaming_net
    LINE : @CS_bolavita

    LIVECHAT 24 JAM NONSTOP

    #AgenBolaTerpercaya #BOLAVITA #MemberBaru #JudiOnlineTerpercaya #BandarJudiTerbaik #SitusCasinoOnline #AgenJudiTerpercaya #CasinoOnline #BolaTerbaik #PokerOnline #SitusJudi #Sportsbook #BolavitaJosss

    ReplyDelete

  11. A group of workers can plant 6 3/4hectares in 1 7/8 days. What is the unit question-hub rate in hectares per day? Write your answer as a fraction or a mixed...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Shop Printed custom packaging boxes, windows, in new styles and personalized sizes. Our design support shipping services are free at wholesale prices.
    personalized custom packaging boxes

    ReplyDelete
  13. While i acquired on your web log however adding awareness just a bit touch submits. Nice technique for potential, We are book-marking during a period find versions conclude spgs way up. mullein tea australia

    ReplyDelete
  14. What an awesome idea! I love chai as well so I'm going to give this a try
    Custom Tea Box Packaging

    ReplyDelete
  15. Very interesting blog, Thanks for sharing this content pls visit our site Tea Rigid Box

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks for sharing this valuable information hot cocoa mix, I was searching for this kind of blog from a long time.

    ReplyDelete