Eat A Bowl of Tea
I experimented with making masala-chai-flavored muffins yesterday when Juanita and her husband came over to Chez Chekhov for brunch. The hub declared them a success and I might try making these with some extra shredded orange rind next, or, yum, substitute chai for green tea. I much prefer honey as a sweetener versus processed sugar. (Because it’s denser and sweeter, you end up using less than you would have with sugar. Honey is less fattening, too!)
The Worsted Witch’s Masala Chai Muffins
Makes 6 large muffins
- 2 cups organic, whole wheat or unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup organic honey (I used Ecomeal’s Brooklyn-made organic honey)
- 1 cup of soy milk
- 1 tsp loose-leaf or powdered masala chai
- 2 large organic eggs, whisked
- 1/3 cup butter (more if you want a more cake-like consistency)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Heat the soy milk over the stove or in a microwave, then steep the masala chai for 5 mins (using an infuser/tea ball to keep the spices separate)
2. Cream together butter, honey, and eggs. Add the rest of the ingredients, leaving baking powder last. Mix well.
3. Lightly grease a muffin pan. Pour batter into pan.
4. (Optional: Sprinkle a mix of sugar and cinnamon powder over the muffin batter.)
5. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of muffin comes out clean.
6. Allow muffins to cool for 5 minutes.
7. Serve on its own or with some clotted cream.
Choose loose-leaf teas in easily reusable/recyclable tins instead of tea bags. You’ll instantly notice the richer taste that follows when the tea leaves have had sufficient room to unfurl during the steeping process (be careful not to break the leaves when you’re scooping them into your teapot or infuser). The contents of tea bags, especially the kind you buy from supermarkets, are essentially tea “dust,” or the sweepings left behind after the whole tea leaves have been processed and packaged. Couple that with the fact that most tea bags aren’t kept in air-tight containers, what little flavor that did remain after all that crushing and trampling (mostly the bitter tannins) is lost through oxidation.
You also get a lot of extraneous packaging with tea bags, which are usually bundled in eco-unfriendly chlorine-bleached paper with staples and string. The used tea leaves in your teapot or infuser, on the other hand, only need to be tossed into the compost heap. Used green-tea leaves, because of their negligible caffeine content after they’ve been steeped, can be dried and then sprinkled over cat litter to absorb smells (we tried this, it works!)
Canadian said,
April 10, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Huh? Honey is lower in fat ? Sugar has no fat either, check any reputable source.
Other than that, recipe looks great!
Jasmin said,
April 10, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Oops, I think I meant less *fattening*. Thanks for pointing that out!
Amy said,
April 10, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Muffins sound delisious!
juanita said,
April 10, 2006 at 6:45 pm
I definitely want to try making some of my own!
The Worsted Witch » Tea Time for Bleeding Hearts said,
October 19, 2006 at 2:11 pm
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