Lady Grey Tea Cookies

Good Lord, I've been a terrible blogger! Resolving to try harder as of...now! I've had these cookies hidden up my sleeve for almost a month now (not literally up my sleeve, because that would just be messy) and I'm a horrible person for withholding because believe me when I say; you need these in your life! They're buttery, delicate and utterly decadent because I dipped them in dark chocolate like the excessive person I am. And in a bid to be more twee and kitschy (twitschy?); I shaped them like teabags and threaded them with twine. I like cute stuff... so sue me! Read on for the recipe.

I used Lady Grey tea from Twinings (as a loyal Nigella lover, I was suckered in by the ads) and it adds the perfect amount of floral fragrance to the cookies without being too bitter or soapy. I also used some finely grated sweet orange rind to help stave off any bitterness. 

It cannot be said enough, just how much I despise tempering chocolate. On the day I made these, it was  35ºC in Perth so much like the chances of the proverbial snowball's survival in H-E-double hockey sticks; the likelihood of me getting melted chocolate down to the required 27ºC for the perfect temper was next to zip. Too bad, so sad! I'm sure I'll get that elusive shiny snap one of these days. 

 I made these little tags with some coloured construction paper and an adorable little stamp I picked up from Typo. It's supposed to say 'Handmade with Love just for You' but who would've guessed that silver ink would have such a hard time being legible on coloured paper?

Lady Grey Tea Cookies

Makes 36 small cookies

Ingredients:

3 Lady Grey teabags
225g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
3g salt
1 cold egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
375g plain flour
rind from 1 orange, finely grated on a microplane

150g dark chocolate


Method:

1. Empty the contents of the teabags into a pestle and mortar and grind down to a fine powder. 
2. Beat butter, sugar and salt in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment for 5 minutes on med-high until light and fluffy. 
3. Add the egg and vanilla essence and beat for a further 3 minutes on medium.
4. Add flour, orange rind and tea powder to butter mixture and mix on low speed until combined. This shouldn't take longer than a minute. You don't want to overwork the dough here lest you end up with tough cookies.
5. Pat dough into a rough rectangle shape and cover with plastic wrap. Rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
6. Roll out dough to 0.5cm thickness and chill for 10 minutes in the freezer. Cut out 5cm x 3 cm rectangles and lop off the top two corners for a teabag like shape. Freeze shapes for another 10 minutes
7. Preheat oven to 160ºC. Poke a hole in the top of the 'teabag' to thread string through later.
8. Bake for 10 minutes or until the cookies are just beginning to brown at the edges. Cool on the trays for 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
9. Melt (and temper if you how to do that sort of sorcery) dark chocolate and dip the bottom third of the teabag cookies in the chocolate and place on a sheet on baking paper to set. 
10. Thread twine through the hole in the top and finish with a sweet little tag.
11. Make friends and influence people.

Over and out!