Christmas Brunch--Tea and scones

Day two of recipes, and we've gotten to the scones.  A friend requested scones, so I decided to try something new, a fruitcake-like scone...sort-of.

Carrie's Christmas Scones

2¼ cups flour

½ cup sugar

1½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

1 stick butter

1 large jar maraschino cherries, drained, dried, halved

1¼ cup chopped pecans

1 cup eggnog

1 tablespoon spiced rum

1.        Preheat oven to 350.

2.       In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.  Whisk to combine.  Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3.       Toss in cherries and pecans and coat in flour.

4.       In a separate bowl, combine eggnog and rum.  Add wet mixture to flour to flour mixture stirring until dough is just combined.

5.       Drop balls onto prepared baking sheets.  Brush with eggnog, sprinkle with green sugar.  Bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned.

My guests seemed to enjoy them and I thought they were really good...so this recipe is a keeper!  I served the scones with clotted cream and holiday jam.

Now for the special Christmas tea that I made with fruit juices, spices, and tea of course! 

I started with the recipe on this website.  I didn't realize when I started (really because I have no concept of liquid measurements), but the recipe on the linked page is huge.  I ended up having to change it up by default.  It is also really sweet so I increased the tea flavor to compensate.  Because of the changes, I'll go ahead and share it here.  It was very good and smelled wonderful as it simmered in the kitchen.

Christmas Tea

Base recipe ONLY  (ingredients will be added on the party day as described below)

1 Cinnamon stick
 1 TBSP WHOLE cloves
 1.5 cups sugar  (I think you could substitute this for artificial sweetener if desired)
 2 cups apple cider
Juice of 1 lemon
 1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup orange juice

4 black tea bags (VERY strong)

2 cups boiling water

Directions:
Bring cider to a boil, add cinnamon sticks, cloves, and sugar.  Boil for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, also brew the tea bags in the 2 cups of boiling water for 5 minutes.  Strain the spices out of the apple cider mixture.  Combine all ingredients.  Place in refrigerator overnight (I just poured it into an empty 1/2 gallon jug.   

Steps for the Day of the Party



On the day of the party, pour into a pot and add two cups water.  Once the mixture has come to a boil, take off heat and pour into a crock pot to keep warm (I used the warm setting of my pot).   Add two cinnamon sticks and a tablespoon of whole cloves.

 I would recommend that you taste the mixture at this point.  If you would like a stronger tea flavor (like me), bring four cups of water to a boil.  Add 4 black tea bags to two cups of the boiling water.    Add tea and the remaining two cups of water.  Regardless, you should add as much tea or plain water (or both) as you think you need too to dilute the taste and cut down on the sweetness.       


I should have done a better job of writing down what I did, but it was a bit of trial and error.  This recipe was a great way to use some of the black tea in my stash that is too strong for my plebian tastes.

A Christmas Brunch--main dishes

So I'm getting this in just under the wire (5 minutes to spar!), but, as promised, my first recipe post for last weekend's Christmas Brunch. 

First, my mother's Christmas Day quiche, which is an easy and yet delicious quiche recipe.   

 

Christmas Day Quiche

 

10 eggs (roughly)

1 cup real bacon bits

1 pound shredded cheddar cheese (my default is sharp, but my mother uses mild)

1 pint half and half

two frozen deep dish pie shells

 

 

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Cover a large cookie sheet (one big enough to hold both shells side by side) with tin foil.  Place shells on top.

2.  In a large bowl, whisk eggs.  Add half and half and whisk to combine.  Add bacon and cheese and whisk to combine.

3.  Pour quiche mixture evenly into pans until slightly under the top.  The cheese and bacon will mostly still be in the bowl with some liquid.  Using a large spoon, evenly divide between two pies until they are filled.  Some mixture may have to be discarded.

4.  Bake for 40-50 minutes (sometimes even an hour, start checking at the 40 minute mark).

 

Next we have the French toast casserole with praline topping..yum yum! 

 

 

The idea for this dish was a pinterest find, but I will say that after I saw the recipe, my first though was...this is a bread pudding.  Because it is.  But French toast casserole (or bake, it was sometimes called that as well) does sound more breakfast-y.  This dish is made the night before and sits in the fridge overnight until you are ready to bake, which makes it a good dish to serve at a party, since all you do the day off is make the topping, spread it on top, and stick it in the oven!

 

For my party I decided on a Paula Deen recipe (here), with a couple of additions.  Instead of French bread, I bought a loaf of raisin bread, and a loaf of Apple fritter bread from Target that's sell by date was before the date of the party (so it would be slightly old).  I alternated the two breads on either side of the dish--using roughly half a loaf each--really, I just filled the pan as much as I could.  I also added some golden raisins--not too many, just enough that they were sprinkled throughout.  I made the dish so that I knew it would soak for about 11 hours before being baked.  In the morning I checked on it and drained some of the liquid still remaining in the bottom and poured it over the top so it could soak in (at this point there was still about 2 hours until I would put it in the oven). 

 

 

Now a quick word of advice.  DEFINITELY put some tin foil on a baking sheet and place it underneath the 9 x 13 pan to catch the run off of the brown sugar and butter topping.  I did not, even though I did wonder for a minute if it would bubble over, but I thought to myself, nah,  it won't happen!  Then my oven started smoking.  There was a cloud of smoke in my house about 10 minutes after all but one guest had arrived. I guess it was a bit of excitement, since my friends were wonderful and running all over trying to help get the smoke out!  Luckily, the oven made it until right about the 40 minute mark and the casserole and the quiche were both done (and my fire alarm didn't go off).  After the smoke cleared I set everything out, and we were ready to go.  At that point the last guest arrived, and the first thing she said was my house smelled wonderful!  I guess caramelized range can be a good smell :).

 

I made a honey whiskey sauce to go with the French toast casserole (since it is really a bread pudding anyway :-P).  I also served it with maple syrup as Paula suggests in her recipe, but I though a tiny bit of the whiskey sauce on top instead was perfect! 

 

Honey Whiskey Sauce

 

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup whiskey (I used a tiny bottle of Jim Bean's Honey Whiskey liqueur)

1/2 cup sugar

 

1.  Warm over low heat, stirring constantly, until sauce is gently boiling.

2.  I poured the sauce into a creamer so it could just be poured over the bread pudding.

 





 

As I mentioned on the first Christmas Brunch post, I also had sausage balls that I didn't have a chance to cook and serve since I had to turn the oven off.  Sausage balls are delicious so I was double-ly sad (what with the smoke too).  After I called my mother after the party had ended to invite my parents and sister over for leftovers, the first thing she said is, "you could have cooked them in your toaster oven!"  This is why mom's know all.  Even if the smoke incident hadn't happened, the quiche and the casserole fit on different racks in the oven together, but the sausage balls did not, so regardless it would have been good to cook them in the toaster oven.  I did end up cooking the sausage balls for the after party, and 12 cooked perfectly after 25 minutes on the toaster oven's mini tray.

 

Sorry for the lack of new (or many) pictures, I was a bit overwhelmed after the smoke incident!

 

 

A Christmas Brunch

This past weekend I invited some friends over for a Christmas brunch--my first Christmas party of the season!  I had a really good time looking at ideas on pinterest to decide on dishes to serve.
 

 

I set the food buffet style on kitchen table starting with:

 

bacon and cheddar quiche, the dish my family eats every Christmas morning

 

 

French toast casserole with praline topping served with maple syrup and a honey whiskey sauce (a big hit!)

 

Carrie's Christmas scones (you can also see the whiskey sauce in the creamer near the centerpiece)

 

orange cranberry scones

along with veggies and a fruit salad.  I had also planned to serve sausage balls, but I had a slight smoke issue with the oven and had to turn it off--but more on that warning when I share the French toast casserole recipe (which I would totally make again...with proper precautions). 

After a break to digest, I brought out the desserts:

Gingerbread cookies:

 

 

and peppermint white chocolate cupcakes.

 

I served a couple of special beverages too:  cranberry mimosas and Christmas tea!

 

 

The Christmas tea reminded me a bit of wassail, but had a strong black tea as a base before adding fruit juices. 

 

I'll share many of the recipes from this party later this week.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

I'm sharing this post on the following tea blogs:

 

Bernideen's Tea Time, Collage, and Garden Blog Party 

 No Place Like Home

Tuesday Cuppa Tea

 





Chrsanthemum Tea Scented Mandarin Orange Parfaits

The last part of the Sunshine tea I will share with you is my recipe for the tea scented mandarin orange parfaits.

The night before the tea, I prepared the mandarin oranges. 

First, I made about two and a half cups worth of extra strong chrysanthemum tea, using about three teabags.  I think chrysanthemum tea tastes a lot like chamomile, if you would prefer to use chamomile tea---maybe even a lemon chamomile to match my color scheme :). 

I then drained two medium cans of mandarin oranges. 

After the tea steeped and was very strong, I put 2 tablespoons of honey in the tea and about one packet of sweetener (I used Splenda).

Pour mixture over the oranges and refrigerate overnight.

The morning of the tea, I drained the oranges of the tea mixture. 

Put enough oranges in the bottom of  glass you are using that they would be visible once yogurt is added. 

Cover with flavored lowfat or nonfat Greek yogurt until about 2/3 full.  I lucked out and found orange cream flavored Chobani Greek yogurt, though vanilla or honey would also work well.  I used about half of one of the normal 6 oz containers of yogurt for each glass.

Sprinkle chopped pecans on the yogurt. 

Cover pecans with oranges.

A Sunshine Menu

I figured now was a good time to share the recipes from my sunshine tea since this is what it looks like outside right now:

Yes, snow again.  All day.  Sigh.  At least it didn't stick to the roads!

 

 

I'll start going through the menu with the classics--sausage balls with sharp cheddar cheese!



 

I just use the recipe here at Allrecipes and it has always worked well.  Sometimes I use two different types of sausage (for example, Sage and Mild, etc.).  The most important thing that the recipe doesn't tell you is that you really have to work it with your hands to get the ingredients to combine.  The only problem with serving these at a brunch tea is that they do taste best hot and will get hard fairly quickly.  I've found that they melt deliciously if you pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds or so.

 



The vanilla bean scones I shared the recipe for last week here.

The mini bacon and cheese quiches are very easy.

Mini bacon & cheese quiches

 

15 ounce box refrigerated pie crust

Ready made crumbled bacon pieces

8 eggs

1/2 cup half and half

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray. Use a 4" round cookie cutter  to measure 12 circles on the pie crust (6 circles on each crust).

Press the circles into the muffin pan, and prick the dough on the bottom of the cups with a fork. a couple of times. 

Place crusts in oven for 5 minutes.  Remove from oven. 

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper and set aside. Add about 1 tablespoon of the bacon to each muffin cup.  

Carefully pour the egg mixture into the cups until almost full. Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top of each cup and bake pies for about 30 minutes or until the eggs are set and the crust is golden. Let pies cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes and serve warm.

 

I cook both the quiches and the sausage balls in the oven together at the same time, with the sausage balls on the lower level, a half an hour or so before the guests are due to arrive to make sure they are warm.

 

More about the parfait and tea tomorrow and Thursday!