Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Tea Bag Cookie – Only In Canada, You Say?


A few weeks ago I posted these tea bag cookies on my Facebook page and there seemed to be a bit of interest in a tutorial on how to make them.  Sorry it took so long for me to get to it but I’m really glad I did.

I think these cookies would be a great addition to any Mother’s Day afternoon tea – don’t you agree?

They are very Red Rose, available, "Only In Canada, You Know?", and this is how I made them.

Materials Needed for Decorating:

- square cookie cutter
- drinking straw or some other small round to punch a hole
- royal icing – Again, I’m really into the Ateco meringue powder
- piping bags
- various brown (CK Products), gold (Wilton) and white crystal sugars
- caramels – Kraft (of course)
- black string licorice
- red flower for the tag

Instructions and Tips:

Use your favorite sugar cookie recipe and cut out the squares.  The cookie cutter can be between 2” to 4” depending on how big you want your cookies to be – I think the square I used was about 3”.

Cut two triangles (the edges) off the top of the tea bag.

Punch a hole for the black licorice string.

Cut a slit in the cookie wide enough to sit on the side of a cup.  It is good to make the slit a bit bigger than you think because it will shrink when it bakes.  Here I made the slit on the angle so that the tea bag would sit straight on the cup.

Once the cookie is baked and has cooled, outline in white royal icing and give time to dry.  I usually outline all the cookies and then go back to flood or fill them – this give the outline time to dry before I start touching them again.

Blend the different colour sugars together and sprinkle over bottom two-thirds of the tea bag cookie.  You could do this when the icing is still wet OR wait for the icing to dry and stick the sugar to the cookie by painting on clear corn syrup and then sprinkling on the sugar.  

Once the cookie is dry, add the licorice string and caramel tea bag tag.

Roll out the caramel.  If it is a little to hard to roll, put in the microwave for 3 seconds or so – if you put it in for too long it will melt.

Cut the licorice to about 2” and the caramel into a 1.5” strip – long enough to fold in half to make the tag.

Fold the caramel strip over one end of the licorice – it will stick together.

Use royal icing to “glue” on the flower and the licorice in the tea bag hole.

Let the icing dry.

Hang the cookie over the mug and enjoy with a great cup of tea.

I really love the idea of these mug cookies – they are very unique and can be as custom as the mug, person or occasion.  The concept of the “mug cookie” can work with a variety of shapes – just off the top of my head I think they could work with a heart, flower, donut…use your imagination and a world of possibility really opens up.  If you make them please let me know what you come up with.


2 comments:

  1. I know this is an old article but I'm very grateful for it as I'm hosting a tea party and I've no idea what I'm doing but at least they'll always remember the snacks!

    ReplyDelete