I’ve been rolling a few ideas around in my head of what my first post should be for this blog. I’m legendary for being indecisive with these types of things. But when I woke up this morning to drizzling rain, I caught the baking bug. I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I think rainy weather and baking go hand-in-hand. My husband has been on a graham cracker kick lately. He’s been having a couple of graham crackers after dinner for dessert, so I thought some sort of whole grain crunchy, snap cookie would be nice, especially since we ran out last night.
Then I thought about my favorite shortbread cookie recipe that has little flecks of loose leaf tea running throughout. I love the simplicity of them, but they’re certainly not a cookie to be eaten regularly since shortbread requires at least two stick of butter. So, I combined the two ideas together: whole grain, crunchy cookie + loose leaf tea.
I chose whole leaf chai tea for this recipe, but you could use any black tea you desire. If you only have tea bags, make sure that the tea is whole leaf. Two bags of whole leaf tea should yield around 1 tablespoon. Ground teas tend to be bitter and inferior quality. The shortbread recipe uses Earl Grey, which would be nice as well. If you’re out of tea, consider using an aromatic spice like powdered ginger or even Chinese Five Spice, which is one of my favorites. I would start by using 1 tsp. of the spice since spices like that can be pretty potent. You can always add more next time.
I trimmed the edges of the end cookies, but they would make an excellent add-in for some Greek yogurt, especially if you can find a lemon or lime flavor.
They’ve got a snap and crunch to them, so they’re great for dunking. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
Tea Grahams
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon loose-leaf chai tea
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons canola oil (or any other neutral flavored oil of choice)
3 tablespoons of water
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Pulse together both flours, baking soda, salt, tea, and granulated sugar in food processor until well distributed.
- Add molasses, vanilla extract, oil, and water and pulse until crumbly, but holds together when pressed between fingers.
- Dump mixture on to baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Press down mixture into a rectangle on to sheet with your fingers as you would a graham cracker crust. If needed, use rolling pin or a smooth drinking glass to evenly flatten dough.
- Use pizza cutter or knife to score into 16 rectangle cookies.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes. Trim edges if desired. Cool and enjoy!
Yield: 16 cookies
Nutrition per cookie:
80 calories, 13 grams total carbohydrate (4 grams sugar), 3 grams fat, 2 grams protein, 42 mg sodium
An exercise in gratitude for good food and good health 