Lavender Grey Churros

The other day at work I was faced with a bit of a problem. We had 150 booked in for an all day function with many dietary requirements to juggle. All was well until afternoon tea when.... my gluten free meals wnt missing!
I have no idea where they were- I hadn't eaten them! But I had 15 mins to come up with an alternative that was yummy, quick, and of course, gluten free. No ovens were on, there was only rice flour on hand.... I thought of churros.
With deep fryers on 12hours a day, that was one obstacle cleared, so I whipped up the batter, deep fried the little suckers, tossed them in some cinamon sugar, and volia! Sadly there was no chocolate sauce for dipping, just some cream, but at least it was better than a piece of fruit- the ultimate gfree standby in commercial kitchens.

Anyway, I knew I could gussy-up the basic recipe to make it much nicer, and with some minimal efforet came up with these Lavender Grey babies for you dining pleasure!

I believe I may have mentioned once or twice how much I love Dilmah Earl Grey Tea, it's sooooo lovely and just right for a pick me up any time of the day, so the starting point for my churros is a strong cup of tea. You could of course just use water, but why not use the best flavour at hand, and of course make an extra cup for sipping while you cook.



1 cup of strong Earl Grey Tea
2 cups of gfree flour
1/4 cup lavender sugar
1 tb butter or Nuttlex
3 eggs
Oil for deep frying
Lavender sugar for dusting

First of all, make you lavender sugar. You could use cinnamon sugar if you like, but lavender is just so much more lovely and goes so well with the tea that it's well worth while the effort.

Place the sugar and a couple of tablespoons of culinary lavender buds in the bowl of a food processor. I used Herbies lavender, but you could use some dried buds from the garden if you're sure they haven't been sprayed with chemicals or by a nieghbourhood doggie.
Whizz the sugar around until the lavender is chopped up and distributed evenly through the sugar. That's it, nice and easy.

Now onto the churros:


Put flour, sugar and butter in mixer bowl.

Pour in cup of tea, and mix well. The butter will melt.

Add in the eggs and keep mixing until a nice elastic batter comes together.

Put some batter into a piping bag fitted with a fluted nozzle. Pipe directly (and carefully) into the hot oil. If you hold it close to the oil it won't splash up at you. The mixture is thick enough to pipe in slowly and not wet enough to spit excess moisture.

Cook until nice and golden brown, you'll have to turn them over half way through with tongs so both sides share the love. They'll puff up and get nice and fat, so don't crownd the pan or all the little churros will stick together into a blobby mass.

Toss the hot churros straight into the lavender sugar and make sure they're covered top to toe.

Serve straight away while the little lovelies are warm and crispy. Enjoy with another hot cup of Earl Grey Tea! Not that you need an excuse to sip on a nice cup of tea anytime.

In the spirit of full recipe disclosure, I have to admit that the full rice flour churros stayed crispy longer, but they weren't as fluffy inside. The gfree mix was softer but with more of a doughnut vibe. Next time I might try 1 1/2 cups mix and 1/2 cup rice flour just to see if I can get a longer lasting crunch.

So my Dear Readers, how do you like your nice hot cup of tea?

Ginger Kisses

High Tea is just so lovely.

I once took my sister for her birthday to a Very Swanky Hotel that specialises in high teas. To go with your dainties you got a lovely glass of sparkling wine as well as endless refills of your choice of tea. The tea was hot, the music was subdued, the waitresses were ever so professional.... until one of the poor girls with a tray full of champagne glasses full of bubbly caught her heel on a rug and dumped the whole lot in my sisters lap! The management was apologetic and covered us in towels, new bubbly was bought at the double, dry cleaning charges were promised- but personally I think a private suite to dry off in while our clothes dried would have been much more appropriate :) We went on to have a nice afternoon of (now complimentary) nibbles and beverages, but I got my own back by taking all the smoked salmon finger sandwiches off the buffet, just eating the salmon and hiding my bread under scrumpled up serviettes. But don't tell, they might remember who I was.

The atmosphere, the slight sense of 'grownup' superiority that makes you wonder what all the little people are doing, the chance to gossip with friends, wear something a little dressy for a change, the scent of Earl Grey drifting from fine china teacups, and perfect tiny little morsels to nibble on- unless of course you're one of us InTolerants who just sip tea wistfully and nibble on an apple in the background or steal sandwich fillings when no one is looking....

I don't think Tea occasions should be just for those special times or just for those non-InTolerants who can eat out without fear. Nor do I think it's acceptable just to crack open a packet of biscuits that call themselves gluten-free, but are made of cardboard and sawdust either. That's why I made these little Ginger Kisses.

Ginger Kisses are tiny little sponges of loveliness, slightly spiced and tasting ever so gently of honey. Sandwiched together with buttercream custard marbled with glace ginger syrup.... Yummm...
More sophisticated than a cupcake, more elegant than a slice, definitely not made of sawdust.

Perfect with a cup of tea.

Ginger Kisses

2 eggs
1/3 cup of castor sugar
1 Tabsp Honey
1/2 cup gluten free flour
1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice - ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon

Put eggs, sugar and honey in mixer and whip until tripled in size. We want as much air in this as possible.

Triple sift the dry ingredients, the easiest way to do this is to sift onto a piece of baking paper or flexible cutting sheet then tip into the bowl at the end.
Gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, again be as careful as you can to keep the little air bubbles in so the cakes are nice and fluffy.

Put small spoonfuls into greased patty tins, just barely filling them. And by the way, aren't these the cutest little tins around? I found them in an old pile of junk that someone was getting rid of and ever so kindly took the tins out of their hands. I'm nice like that.

Bake at 180* for about 12 mins. The cakes should just spring back when gently touched with a finger.

Cool for a minute in the pans, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling.

When the little kisses are cool, and just before eating, sandwich these together with some custard butter cream, or whipped cream. To keep the ginger theme going I folded through some of the ginger sauce with some of the finely chopped ginger chunks for extra yumminess. This will make 12 complete little kisses, so you need 2 tins of with 12 holes each.

You can find my buttercream recipe back in the blog a bit, or just quickly make up a custard with 1/2 cup lactose free milk, 1 egg yolk, 1 tab gfree custard powder and 1tab sugar. Whisk over heat until thickened and cool.
Beat in 3 tabs room temperature butter and 1/3 cup icing sugar, until it's light and fluffy.
Fold in some ginger syrup and place generous spoonfuls between the sponge kisses.

These should be served with a lovely cup of Earl Grey Tea, with a side of ambiance and gossip!

So lovely Readers, do you enjoy High Tea?