The Magician’s Nephew Tea Party/Book Club: Mini Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

So every Wednesday, starting in October, I have been a part of a Tea Party/Bible Study/Book Club on The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis. This is different from my book club and the Book Club Picks I have been reviewing (and desperately need to catch up on). I also need to catch up on these recipes. Week three we had Organic India Tulsi Masala Chai Tea, Parmesan and Chive Scones, Cucumber Aioli Canapés, Ham, Cheddar, and Apple Tea Sandwiches, Cranberry, Brie, and Rosemary Bites, and Mini Pumpkin Crème Brûlée.

I couldn’t share the recipes in October as I was in the middle of Horrorfest IX, so I am catching up and of course next is the dessert.

Let’s spill the tea.

This recipe comes from Better Homes & Garden.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Whipping Cream
• 3 Egg Yolks, Lightly Beaten
• 2 Eggs, Lightly Beaten
• 1/2 Cup of Sugar
• 1/2 Cup of Canned Pumpkin
• 1 Teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon
• 1 Teaspoon of Ground Ginger
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Salt
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Ground Cloves
• 10 Baby Pumpkins
• 1/4 Cup of Sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a small saucepan, heat whipping cream over medium heat until bubbly.
3. Remove from heat; set aside
4. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine egg yolks, eggs, 1/2 Cup of Sugar, pumpkin, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.
5. Beat with a whisk or rotary beater just until combined.
6. Slowly whisk the hot whipping cream into the egg mixture.
7. Use a small serrated knife to cut off the top 1/2-inch of the baby pumpkins.
8. Discard the tops, use the spoon to scoop out the seeds.
9. Place the pumpkin in a roasting pan.
10. Divide custard mixture evenly among the pumpkins.
11. Place roasting pan on oven rack.
12. Pour enough boiling water into the the roasting pan to reach halfway up the sides of the pumpkins.
13. Bake 30-40 mins or until the centers appear nearly set when gently shaken.
14. Carefully remove pan from oven.
15. Remove pumpkins from water; cool on a wire rack.
16. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour or up to 8.
17. Before serving, let custards stand at room temp for about 20 mins.
18. Meanwhile, for caramelized sugar: in a heavy 8 inch skillet, heat 1/4 cup of sugar over medium high heat until sugar begins to melt, shaking skillet occasionally to heat sugar evenly-do not stir.
19. Once sugar starts to melt, reduce heat to low, cool 3-5 mins or until all sugar is melted and golden brown, stirring as needed.
20. Quickly drizzle sugar over the custards. (If sugar starts to harden in skillet, return to heat, stirring until melted.)
21. Serve immediately.
22. ***Instead of caramelizing the sugar in a pan, you can sprinkle the sugar evenly over the custards and use a culinary torch.

 

I’m not a Crème Brûlée type person, but everyone loved it!

For more from The Magician’s Nephew Tea Party/Book Club, go to Cranberry, Brie, and Rosemary Bites

For more recipes, go to Ham, Cheddar, and Apple Tea Sandwiches

For more desserts, go to Lemon Gingerbread Cake

For more tea posts, go to How the Queen Found the Perfect Cup of Tea

For more pumpkin recipes, go to Harvest Pumpkin Scones

The Magician’s Nephew Tea Party/Book Club: Lemon Gingerbread Cake

So every Wednesday, starting in October, I have been a part of a Tea Party/Bible Study/Book Club on The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis. This is different from my book club and the Book Club Picks I have been reviewing (and desperately need to catch up on). I also need to catch up on these recipes. Week two was Chami Spice Ginger Plum Tea, Dark Chocolate Ginger Scones, Curried Egg Salad Triple Stacks Sandwiches, Turkey-Apple Tea Sandwiches, Fotina Flower Puffed Pastry, and Lemon Gingerbread Cake.

I couldn’t share the recipes in October as I was in the middle of Horrorfest IX, so I am catching up and of course the last thing we have to review is dessert.

This comes from Tea Time Magazine andI actually screwed this dessert up as I thought it was cookies, but realized after I had already started the batter-it is cakelets. Not only did I read that wrong, but it turns out that I did not read through all the directions and did not have all the right supplies. There wasn’t time to go get other ingredients or do another recipe so instead I converted it into a cake, with some substitutions.

From Clueless

Oh, well!

Ingredients Cake Batter:

• 2.5 Cups of Flour
• 1/3 Cup of Granulated (White) Sugar
• 1.5 Teaspoons of Ground Ginger
• 1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
• 1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Ground Cloves
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Salt
• 1/2 Cup of Unsalted Butter, Softened
• 1 Large Egg
• 1 Tbsp of Fresh Lemon Zest
• 3/4 Cup of Hot Water
• 1/2 Cup of Molasses (Or Substitute with Honey)
• 1/2 Cup of Honey
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

Lemon Glaze Ingredients:

• 4 Cups of Confectioner’s Sugar (Powdered Sugar)
• 1/2 Cup of Fresh Lemon Juice

Cake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spray loaf pan with nonstick cooking spay or grease pan.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour sugar, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.
4. Add butter, egg, lemon zest, hot water, molasses or the substitute, honey, and vanilla extract.
5. Beat mixture at low speed for about 30 seconds.
6. Increase speed and beat for 3 minutes.
7. Fill pan.
8. Bake until for 20-30 minutes, continue baking until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
9. Let cake cool before pouring lemon glaze.

Directions for Lemon Glaze:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar and lemon juice until smooth and creamy.
2. Pour over cake.

 

So because this was cooked in a pan instead of the little molds it took much longer to bake. It also was taking a really long time to bake so I ended up cutting the cake a bit so that it would cook faster and throughout. The frosting covered it, so I didn’t end up having to worry too much about the presentation.

Even though I made a few mistakes and this was not as the recipe intended it to be, it was extremely delicious and we all loved it. I had to send the leftovers with home with my friend as I couldn’t have it with me, I’d eat it all up.

For more from The Magician’s Nephew Tea Party/Book Club, go to Fotina Flower Puffed Pastry

For more recipes, go to Turkey-Apple Tea Sandwiches

For more Tea Time Magazine Recipes, go to Curried Egg Salad Triple Stacks Sandwiches

For more Cake recipes, go to Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Cake

For more dessert, go to Mini Apple Pies

For more tea posts, go to Dark Chocolate Ginger Scones

The Magician’s Nephew Tea Party/Book Club: Mini Apple Pies

So every Wednesday, starting in October, I have been a part of a Tea Party/Bible Study/Book Club on The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis. This is different from my book club and the Book Club Picks I have been reviewing (and desperately need to catch up on). The first week we had Cederberg Tea Company Rooibos + Ginger Tea, Cranberry-Spice Scones with Maple Cream, Cucumber-Four Peppercorn Goat Cheese Canapés, Ham and Cheese Tea Sandwiches, Fotina & Pork Puffed Pastry, and Mini Apple Pies.

I have been posting the recipes from the first meeting, but am ending on the last thing we had during that session: Mini Apple Pies

Today’s recipe is one that I’ve shared before, but made mini. It an easy recipe and a delicious one. After all, who can resist pie?

Ingredients:

Pie Crust

• Pre-made Pie Dough

Filling:

• 1/2 Cup – 1 Cup of All-Purpose Flour
• 6-7 Granny Smith Apples peeled, and cut into slices
• 1 Cup of White Sugar
• 1 Cup of Brown Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
• 2 Tablespoons of Butter

Directions:

1. Peel and slice the apples. When cutting up the apples, make sure to remove the hard pieces where the seed grows along with any spots or blemishes.
2. Preheat the oven to 375°
3. Combine the apples, with the brown and white sugar.
4. Add the flour and cinnamon, mixing them all together.
5. Roll out the dough and using a cookie cutter or small bowl, cut round circles out-large enough to fill a cupcake/muffin pan.
6. Lay the apples down on the dough in the pan.
7. Chop the two tablespoons of butter and put a little in each mini pie.
8. Place the second ball of dough down and roll it out into a large circle, cutting it to create a lattice top.
9. Add a dash of cinnamon and sugar on top.
10. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

These were delicious and a great final piece to our tea time. After all, as Mr. Woodhouse says:

For more from The Magician’s Nephew Tea Party/Book Club, go to Fotina & Pork Puffed Pastry

For more recipes, go to Tea Time Magazine’s Ham and Cheese Tea Sandwiches

For more apple pie, go to Are Dean Winchester and Jane Austen Kindred Spirits?

For more desserts, go to The Picture of Earl Grey Tea Cookies

For more tea posts, Cucumber-Four Peppercorn Goat Cheese Canapés

Amish Baked Oatmeal

Or scones!

So I love tea

And I am always on the lookout for new recipes to go with my teatime. This one my sister blog, Mysterious Eats, posted and it looked so good, I decided I needed to try it out with my tea time.

Ingredients:

• 2 Large Eggs
• 1/2 Cup of Light Brown Sugar
• 1.5 Tsp of Baking Powder
• 1 Tsp of Cinnamon
• 1.5 Tsp of Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 Tsp of Salt
• 1 1/4 Cup of Milk
• 1/4 Cup of Butter, Melted
• 3 Cups of Rolled Oats (Quick Oats work too)
• Cinnamon Sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Butter an 8×8 inch baking dish, set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs.
4. Add in brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Whisk until there are no lumps.
5. Stir in milk and melted butter.
6. Add oats and mix well.
7. Pour into prepared baking dish and spread evenly. (At this point you can refrigerate overnight or bake immediately.)
8. Bake in oven 30-40 mins until it is set.
9. Top with cinnamon and sugar.
10. Cut into squares and serve warm with fresh nuts, milk, a little cream, half and half, maple syrup, or honey of desired.

Unlike my sister blog I took a couple tablespoons of my hot Earl Grey tea and poured them over the top of the square and I thought it tasted fantastic! I would recommend this for you tea time.

For more goodies to make with your tea, go to Cheese Round

For more recipes, go to Green Tea Frappuccino

Carrot Oatmeal Muffins

I love looking for more recipes to do that go with tea.

This recipe comes from my sister blog, MysteriousEats, I wanted to make it as I hate eating oatmeal-like for breakfast with milk or hot water. Ugh, so gross-So any time I find a recipe that uses up oatmeal in baking, I love to try it.

Yay!!!

But as I was making it I ran into one problem, I had started baking but then realized all my eggs were bad!

What to do?

I went online and found you can substitute with applesauce.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 Cup of Flour
• 1 Cup of Quick-Cooking or Old-Fashioned Dry Oatmeal
• 1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
• 1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
• 1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar
• 3/4 Cup of Finely Shredded Carrots
• 1/2 Cup of Milk
• 1/4 Cup of Unsweetened Applesauce
• 1/3 Cup of Melted Salted Butter
• 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

Directions:

1. Grease or spray with nonstick cooking spray a 12-cup muffin tin, set aside. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and oatmeal.
3. Sprinkle the baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon on top. Mix them thoroughly.
4. Stir in the brown sugar. Mix until all is blended.
5. Shred the carrots if you haven’t already done so. A fine shred is best. You want them to cook in the time it takes the muffins to bake and turn golden brown and delicious.
6. Add the shredded carrots to your bowl and mix them thoroughly.
7. In a separate small bowl: combine the milk, applesauce, melted butter, and vanilla. Give it a good stir so that everything is well combined.
8. Dump the contents of the small bowl into the larger bowl. Gently stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened and no dry “pockets” remain.
9. Fill the prepared muffin cups 3/4 full.
10. Bake for 20-25 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.
11. Set the muffin pan on a cold burner or a wire rack for 10 mins. After they have cooled for 10 mins, put them on a rack to cool.
12. Makes about 12 muffins.

Fantastic!

I loved them! So healthy and delicious!

For more recipes, go to Slow-Cooker Bread

For more borrowed from Mysterious Eats, go to Baked Apple Slices

In other news, this is a 100th post, now my 1100th

For the 1000th post, go to Most Romantic Moment In Real Life

For the 900th post, go to But This is Your Hour—When Darkness Reigns

Baked Apple Slices

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This year I have a lot to be thankful for-1) Being alive-my ex-husband was abusive and tried to kill me; 2) My 5-year restraining order and the fact that my divorce was finalized 10/24/18-thank you California!; 3)My friends, family, and faith who have gotten me through this; 4) And this blog and all you readers!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday however you spend it. I am course am going to spend it with food:

So what would Jane Austen be eating if she was celebrating the American holiday?

Last year I shared a recipe for apple pie, I thought this year I would share one for baked apples which make a great breakfast, side dish, or dessert.

This comes from my sister blog MysteriousEats.wordpress.com. 

Ingredients:

• 1 Granny Smith Apple-Peeled, Cored, and Sliced
• 2.5 Tablespoons of Water
• 1.5 Tablespoons of Cornstarch or Flour
• 1.5 Tablespoons of Sugar
• 1 Pinch of Cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. Spread the apples slices in a single layer on a baking sheet.
3. Whisk the water and flour together, and pour over the apples and gently stir.
4. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
5. Cook for about 15 mins.

 

 

Delicious!

For more Thanksgiving posts, go to Are Dean Winchester and Jane Austen Kindred Spirits?

For more recipes, go to Blueberry Earl Grey Tea Smoothie

For more holiday posts, go to Life Seems But a Quick Succession of Busy Nothings

London Fog Smoothie

So even though it is summertime, you all know I will not give up my tea.

Not for nothing or nobody

And pinterest knows this so they send me lots of tea recipes.

This one I found sounded very good, London Fog Smoothie. I love London Fog lattes, I love smoothies, why not combine the two?

The picture with the ingredients was saved from a site called womansbust.com, but when I clicked on the link there was nothing about tea on it, only enlarging a woman’s breasts.

Oh well.

Tea first!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup of Vanilla Yogurt (I used Greek Yogurt)
• 1/3 Cup of Almond Milk (I don’t like almond so I used regular)
• 1/3 Cup of Earl Grey Tea
• 1 Cup of Crushed Ice
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Vanilla
• 1 Teaspoon of Honey

Directions:

1. Combine all and blend.
2. Serve.
3. Top with whipped cream if desired.

This was better than the Fauxccino as I think having the cup of tea added to it better than the ice cubes. It came out a bit watery so I really thinking combining the two would work best. It didn’t come out super sweet with the Greek Yogurt and regular milk, so I added French Vanilla Creamer to sweeten it up. Regular yogurt would have been a better choice. But I know for next time. The cinnamon was very strong too, I would have done way less-just a dash.

Otherwise, it was very good. And a great tea drinking method for the summertime.

For more tea posts, go to Got Tea?

For more recipes, go to London Fog Fauxccino

For more Jane Austen Quotes, go to You’ve Persuaded My Heart

Are Dean Winchester and Jane Austen Kindred Spirits?

We all know how Dean Winchester feels about pie:

Did you know that Jane Austen felt the same way?

I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving Day and enjoy yourself some pie!

And in case you need it, here is a fantastic pie recipe from my sister blog MysteriousEats.wordpress.com

Ingredients:

Pie Crust

• 2 Cups of All-Purpose flour
• 1 Teaspoon of Salt
• 3/4 Cup of Shortening
• Ice Water

Filling:

• 1/2 Cup – 1 Cup of All-Purpose Flour
• 6-7 Granny Smith Apples peeled, and cut into slices
• 1 Cup of White Sugar
• 1 Cup of Brown Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
• 2 Tablespoons of Butter

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, mix up the shortening and flour. Add in water, a tablespoon at a time until dough is more malleable. If you add too much and it is too liquid-y, then just add a bit more flour to firm it up.
2. Put dough aside.
3. When cutting up the apples, make sure to remove the hard pieces where the seed grows along with any spots or blemishes.
4. Preheat the oven to 375°
5. Combine the apples, with the brown and white sugar.
6. Add the flour and cinnamon, mixing them all together.
7. Divid the dough in half and roll into two balls.
8. Take a cutting board and put a little flour on the surface, rubbing it. Rub flour on your rolling pin as well.
9. Place the dough down and roll it into a large circle.
10. Place the dough in a cake pan.
11. Lay the apples down on the dough in the pan.
12. Put the two tablespoons of butter on top.
13. Repeat step 8.
14. Place the second ball of dough down and roll it out into a large circle.
15. Place it on top, to be the top of your pie.
16. Cut a small incision on the top of the pie to allow steam out.
17. Add a dash of cinnamon and sugar on top.
18. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

For more recipes, go to Baked Potato Soup

For more on Thanksgiving, go to Is Love at the Thanksgiving Parade Really Just Pride & Prejudice?

For more on Dean Winchester, go to Loving Me Some Dean

For more Jane Austen quotes, go to A Real Non-Party Animal

For more on pie, go to I Before E, Especially After P

For more holiday posts, go to Let Freedom Ring

Harvest Pumpkin Scones

So this recipe comes from my sister blog MysteriousEats.wordpress.com. Typically I just reblog her posts onto my site, but I noticed that they don’t look the best and kind of come out weird looking. So instead I decided that I would just copy and paste her post onto my site. Here we go.

Ready for scones & tea.

So we were having a tea at church and I needed a scone to go with our food. I had already decided on a savory (will be posting soon), but needed a sweet scone.

I started scouring the internet when I came upon this recipe on The King Arthur Flour website. Everything I have made from them has been fantastic so I thought I would give it a try.

 

Ingredients:

• 2-3/4 Cups of King Arthur Unbleached Flour or Regular Flour
• 1/3 Cup of Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder
• 3/4 Teaspoon of Salt
• 3/4 Teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Ground Ginger
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Ground Nutmeg
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Ground Allspice
• 1/2 Cup of Cold Butter
• 1-2 Cups of Chocolate Chips
• 2/3 Cup of Canned Pumpkin
• 2 Large Eggs
• Cinnamon sugar (1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon and 1 Tablespoon of granulated sugar), for topping
• Milk

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl; whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and the spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, & allspice).
2. Work in the butter until the mix is unevenly crumbly; it’s ok for some larger chunks of butter to remain unincorporated.
3. Stir in the Chocolate Chips.
4. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin and eggs till smooth.
5. Add the pumpkin/egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until all is moistened and holding together.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment; if you don’t have any use the sheet without parchment,but don’t grease it. Instead sprinkle a bit of flour on the parchment.
7. Scrape the dough onto the floured parchment or pan and divide it in half.
8. Round each half into a 6″ circle, about 3/4 an inch thick.
9. Brush each circle with milk and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture.
10. Using a knife, cut each circle into size wedges.
11. Carefully pull the wedges away from the center to separate them just a bit, about 1/2 inch space between them.
12. Place the scones in the freezer for 30 degrees uncovered. While the scones are chilling, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
13. Back the scones 22-25 mins or until golden brown and toothpick inserted into a center of one comes out clean. The edges should be baked through.
14. Remove from the oven and serve warm.

 

 

THOUGHTS AFTER BAKING:

I loved them! They were perfect!

 

They were just so delicious everyone ate them right away and wanted more.

 

I cannot recommend more strongly that you should definitely make them.

For more scone recipes, go to Lemon Scones

For more on Peter Pan, go to It’s Always Tea Time  

And for weekly recipe reviews, go to Mysterious Eats

 I wasn’t really planning on including this in my Christmas countdown, but hey a post is a post so it needs a song to go with it.

So I had never heard this song before until the other when I was driving to work. At first I was like what is this? Who is Dominick the donkey?

But then as I listened, it quickly grew on me. So much that I actually listened to it later at home and decided to include it in our countdown. After all, donkey’s need love too.

So this song is called Dominick the Donkey and was written in 1960 by Ray Allen, Sam Saltzberg and Wandra Merrell. It was recorded by Lou Monte and is about a donkey that Santa owns, used to help deliver presents to children in Italy as reindeer cannot climb the mountains.

To start our 25 Carols of Christmas from the beginning, go to It Was a Pleasure to Burn: Fahrenheit 451

For more Christmas Carols, go to Your Cases Have Indeed Been of the Greatest Interest to Me: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

For more Christmas donkeys, go to the 25 Films of Christmas