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Tea-Infused Holiday Food Gifts
Michele Lillie
In today’s crazy busy world, it is so tempting to make your gift-giving easy by purchasing something safe or even resorting to gift cards. Giving home-made food gifts is so much more thoughtful and unique but also show your family, friends and neighbors that you took that extra bit of care. What a wonderful thing that is!
To make those food gifts extra special, make something in which tea is one of the ingredients. When you pair that with a bag of the tea, you are making your gift one-of-a-kind. Here are two recipes to help you do just this. For other ideas, see our post on Cooking with Tea.
Chai-Infused Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients
12 oz bittersweet chocolate, plus extra for coating truffles
1-1½ cups heavy cream (see note below)
2 Tbsp loose-leaf chai tea
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
Directions
Step 1
Place cream in saucepan. Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil. Stir in tea. Take off heat, cover & let steep for 1 hour. Taste. If flavor is not strong enough, let steep a bit longer. Strain tea leaves & set aside.
Step 2
Chop chocolate & place in heat-proof bowl. Heat steeped cream to boil. Pour over chocolate & let sit for a minute or two. Stir until smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature layer.
Step 3
Beat softened butter in another small bowl until soft & creamy. Add butter a piece at a time to room temperature ganache & stir until blended. Butter should blend but not melt.
Step 4
Transfer to a glass baking dish, cover with plastic wrap & refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.
Step 5
Using two teaspoons or a small cookie scoop, scoop out cooled chocolate onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Roll the truffles into smooth balls. Return to refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.
Step 6
Chop & melt coating chocolate. Dip cooled chocolate balls in melted chocolate. Allow to set up.
Alternatively, combine ¼ cup cocoa powder & 2 Tbsp powdered sugar. Toss cooled truffles in mixture to evenly coat them. Refrigerate until firm. Can roll in mixture instead of coating with chocolate or immediately after coating in chocolate.
Notes and Ways to Make it You Own
With loose-leaf tea, the tea leaves will absorb quite a bit of the cream. Use about 1½ cups for loose-leaf tea but only 1 cup for tea bags. Or, you can steep in 1 cup and then top-up with more cream after removing tea leaves. The goal is to end up with 1 cup of cream after steeping.
Swap out flavors by changing the type of tea
Perhaps a raspberry flavored tea for a wonderfully fruity truffle.
Chocolate and peppermint is a classic holiday pairing. Try using our Peppermint leaves in place of the chai tea.
Swap out the type of chocolate
Use milk or even white chocolate in place of the bittersweet. Note that the ratio of cream to chocolate might need to be adjusted with these different types of chocolate.
Use one type of chocolate for the filling and another for the coating.
Choose your coating
Coat your truffles with finely ground nuts, colored sprinkles, colored sanding sugar and more.
Change the shape
Rather than roll into balls, purchase candy molds in fun shapes.
Pack creatively
Purchase either pretty candy cups or mini-muffin cups to display your candy and put them in a decorative box.
Matcha White Chocolate Bark
Ingredients
8 ounces dark chocolate
2 cups pistachios, roughly chopped
8 ounces white chocolate
1 tablespoon matcha powder
Directions
Step 1
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Step 2
Melt the dark chocolate in a microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between each interval. Stop microwaving once 80% of the chocolate is melted. Stir until all the chocolate is melted.
Stir half of chopped pistachios into the melted chocolate.
Spread melted chocolate mixture onto parchment-lined baking sheet in a even layer.
Step 3
Divide white chocolate into two microwave-safe bowls. Melt white chocolate in both bowls in the same way as the dark chocolate.
Sift matcha into one of the bowls of melted white chocolate. Stir until matcha is incorporated and the mixture is a uniform green color.
Step 4
Drop large spooonfuls of the white chocolate and matcha white chocolate over the dark chocolate.
Using a toothpick, lightly swirl the white and matcha chocolates into a marble pattern. Scatter remaining pistachios on top and gently press into the chocolate.
Step 5
Allow to cool completely. Gently break or cut into pieces.