English Tea Party: English Muffins

Well, we’re finally at the end of our English tea party adventure.  Sad, isn’t it?

After I raved about the tea scene between Gwendolen and Cecily in my teacakes post, my sisters pointed out to me that the best scene in The Importance of Being Earnest is the muffin scene.  I admit, now that I think about it, that I agree.  And fortunately, that particular muffin scene is very relevant to this final post, since Julie and I definitely made English muffins for our tea party!

Instead of quoting from this scene, you guys have to watch it.  It’s hilarious!  Colin Firth and Rupert Everett are brilliant.  This scene is a continuation of the tea scene between Cecily and Gwendolen, when the women find out neither of their lovers are called Ernest.   You can expand the screen by clicking on the link at the top of the video that says "Colin Firth - Importance..." It will open a new window on the YouTube page.  Watch from 1:03 until 3:10. 

Don’t those muffins look delicious?  Here’s how to make them!  I got this recipe from Anna (who will be writing on here next week).  I have no idea where she got it from, but it’s an excellent recipe!

English Muffins

• 1 cup Milk (even better with buttermilk!)

• 3 Tablespoons Butter

• 2 Tablespoons Honey

• 1 cup Warm Water

• ¼ ounces, weight Yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)

• ¼ cups Cornmeal

• 5-½ cups Flour

• 1 teaspoon Salt

1. Combine milk, butter, and honey in a saucepan over medium heat. Warm until butter starts to melt, then whisk briefly. Remove pan from heat and allow liquid to cool to lukewarm.
2. Pour water into a mixing bowl and sprinkle with yeast. Stir gently with a fork. Set bowl aside for 10 minutes, or until yeast has dissolved.
3. Line baking sheets with waxed paper and sprinkle with a generous amount of cornmeal.
4. Pour cooled milk mixture into yeast mixture and gently stir until well blended. Add 3 cups flour and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until smooth. Beat in remaining flour and salt until the dough is no longer sticky. Scrape the dough onto a floured surface and dust with flour. Flour hands and knead dough for 3-4 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes.
5. Roll out dough with rolling pin to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough into circles (we used the lid on a chicken bouillon container, 3" diameter). Transfer muffins to prepared baking sheets and sprinkle with cornmeal. Cover with a dry, lightweight towel and let rise until doubled in height, 35-45 minutes. (You may have to wait longer than that, unless you put them somewhere warm)
6. When muffins have risen, heat a stainless steel skillet over medium-low to low heat (Be careful not to get it too hot – the muffins turn black fast!).  Carefully lift muffins from the pan and place on the ungreased skillet. Cook about 5-7 minutes (depending on how hot the pan is - for me the ideal was 5 minutes exactly) on each side until sides are brown (but not black!), using a spatula to flip them. Transfer to a wire rack to cool before splitting with a fork and toasting them.

Nutrition Facts: http://tinyurl.com/englishmuffinsnutritionfacts
Note: We did half recipe, which yielded 6 3" muffins and 3 2" muffins.

This is about the color you want

Poke holes with fork around the middle.  Then pry it apart.

Delicious toasted English Muffin

Also, I forgot to post our last butter recipe!  We made raspberry butter (a recipe I also got from Anna), and it was delicious!  I’m pretty sure it was everyone’s favorite spread.

Raspberry Butter
½ cup soft butter
½ cup raspberries, crushed
2 Tbsp. sugar

1.   Using a wire whisk on Kitchen Aid (electric mixer), beat butter on high speed until fluffy, up to 10 minutes. Scrape the bowl occasionally.

2.   Add raspberries and sugar.

3.   Continue to beat, scraping bowl occasionally with a rubber scraper, until well mixed, up to 10 additional minutes. Chill overnight.

Nutrition Facts: http://tinyurl.com/raspberrybutternutritionfacts

All three spreads

This butter is excellent on the muffins, as were all the other spreads.  It had a light tartness, but was mostly just creamy and sweet.

This concludes our English Tea Party series.  If you would like all of the recipes we cooked in one location, leave a comment below with your email address, and we will email you our full Tea Party Cookbook.

Also, just so you guys know, I totally messed up the order of courses on here.  Julie was leading everything in so well, and then I botched it.  Here is the order in which you should have your teatime treats:

1. Tea (you also have tea refills with each of the courses below)
2. Sandwiches
3. Muffins (with raspberry butter, pumpkin honey butter, and clotted cream)
4. Teacakes
5. Tea bread

The point is to just have small samplings of everything, and to work your way from lightweight foods to the heavier sweets. 

I hope you guys learned as much as we did on our Victorian journey!  It was so much fun.  Seriously, guys, you should throw your own Victorian tea party right now!  Then come back and tell me what your favorite treat was!

P.S.  You know how we've been trying so hard to mimic clotted cream (first with cream cheese, and then by "harvesting underclots."  Ew...), and we're just not quite getting it right?  Julie pointed out to me before she left that they have jars of Devonshire Cream (clotted cream) imported from England at World Market.  So I went and bought some and finally tried it! 

What it looks like when you open it.

The verdict: It has the flavor of unsalted butter and the texture of thick whipped cream.  

For those of you who have tried it in England (or better yet, are native to the UK), does that sound about right?  The one I tried wasn’t fresh, so I’m sure it wasn’t quite the same (it had that after taste of preserved milk), but it’s the closest I can get until I can go to England again (whenever that is...).  Someday, I shall go to Devon and try real clotted cream!  Until then, my sad American substitutes will have to do.

Thanks for reading!  Harry Potter fans, tune in on Tuesday, July 5th, for the start of our Deathly Hallows: Part 2 celebrations! And don't forget to vote on the poll on the left sidebar!  Here's a sneak peek at some of the awesome food we're doing.  Can you guess what we're up to?

 

English Tea Party: Cucumber Sandwiches

I must confess: I don’t like cucumbers.

I don’t know why I don’t like cucumbers.  They have a very mild flavor and a cool, refreshing quality to them.  They’re a perfectly good vegetable.  I like pickles alright, and I love the smell of cucumber melon lotion.  But plain cucumbers?  Not my thing.  I guess it's one of those great mysteries of the universe.

So months ago, when Julie sent me a blog idea, I was a little hesitant.  She posted on my Facebook wall:

One thing we can make when I'm in California for our bloggy: Mrs. Haversham cake from Great Expectations?
Cucumber Sandwiches from Importance of Being Earnest?

What other epic things can we do?!

I actually totally forgot about the Mrs. Haversham cake until now.  Whoops!  I’m sure we will do that some other time.  In fact, I’ll put it on The List.  But when I saw cucumber sandwiches, I first thought, “Bother.”  But then I remembered The Importance of Being Earnest and thought, “Why not?”  And then we ran with the idea of doing a tea party, Victorian style.  (And now you know all about the birth of our English tea party.)

The reason I thought, “Why not?” was because of the scene from which cucumber sandwiches comes in Earnest.  It’s the very first scene in the play, where we first meet Algernon.  He has had cucumber sandwiches made for his Aunt Augusta, who is coming to his home for tea.  But while he is waiting for her to arrive, he starts eating the sandwiches.  Then when Jack arrives and tries to take a cucumber sandwich from the tray, Algy scolds him.

Algernon: Please don’t touch the cucumber sandwiches.  They are ordered specially for Aunt Augusta.  [Takes one and eats it.]

Jack: Well, you have been eating them all the time.

Algernon:  That is quite a different matter.  She is my aunt. (Wilde 2224)

Throughout the entire scene with Jack, Algy is sitting there eating cucumber sandwiches.  He ends up eating all of them. So when Aunt Augusta finally arrives and inquires after the cucumber sandwiches Algy had promised her, Algernon and his servant, Lane, pretend that there had never been any in the first place.

Algernon: [picking up empty plate in horror]   Good heavens!  Lane!  Why are there no cucumber sandwiches?  I ordered them specially.

Lane: [gravely]  There were no cucumbers in the market this morning, sir.  I went down twice.

Algernon: No cucumbers!

Lane: No, sir.  Not even for ready money.

Algernon: That will do, Lane, thank you.

Lane: Thank you, sir.

Algernon:  I am greatly distressed, Aunt Augusta, about there being no cucumbers, not even for ready money. (2228)

Every time I have read/seen this scene, I have always thought three things: 

1) “Algy, you trickster!”

2) “Poor Lane!”

3) “Lane is the coolest servant ever!”

Basically, I love this scene.  A lot.

Anyway, Wilde made such an effort to talk about cucumber sandwiches that when Julie mentioned them, I decided that even though I disliked the main ingredient, I had to try them. 

And let me tell ya:  I’m glad I did!

According to the recipe contributor on Food.com, this is the recipe they use for cucumber sandwiches at Queen Elizabeth II’s annual garden party.  I don’t know if it’s true or not, but based on how they tasted, I believe her.  There are lots of different variations on how to make a cucumber sandwich, but I figured that if these were fit for the Queen of England, they had to be the best!

Cucumber Sandwiches

1/2 thin English cucumber

4 slices brown bread, sliced

4 slices white bread, sliced

2 ounces fresh butter

1/2-1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh mint

1/2 to taste salt and pepper

1. Peel cucumber and slice in paper-thin rounds. Salt rounds lightly and place in colander for 15 minutes to drain. Press to release water; pat dry with paper towels.
2. Spread sliced bread with softened butter. Put 2 layers of cucumber slices on bottom slice, sprinkle with finely chopped mint, salt and pepper to taste, and top with another buttered slice. Press lightly with palm of hand.
3. Cut all crusts off with a sharp knife. Cut sandwiches in half diagonally and then again into quarters.
4. Serve in alternate rows of brown and white bread sandwiches, points facing up!

Nutrition Facts: http://tinyurl.com/cucumbersandwichnutritionfacts

Drain for 15 minutes, to prevent soggy sandwiches

Mmm... Mint.

The final product.  Julie loaded on the butter, which made them delectable!

Long story short, these sandwiches are delicious!  And if I can say that as a cucumber hater, you know they’re good.  They are light and refreshing.  The mint compliments the cucumber so well, and they have just the right amount of salt to accent the flavor and provide a nice contrast to all the sweet things you typically have during teatime.  This was the only thing at our tea party, other than tea, of which I had seconds.  I know, I even surprised myself!

Fun fact about all this:  Did you know that the scene from which I quoted in The Importance of Being Earnest is what made cucumber sandwiches famous?  So the reason the Queen even serves her sandwiches at her garden party is because of Oscar Wilde!  I think it’s cool that a writer can have that much influence.  He has certainly influenced me.  I may actually start liking cucumbers, now!

By the way, are you curious about the difference between an English cucumber and a regular cucumber? 

An English cucumber is very long and thin (the one I bought was well over a foot long).  They are also softer and have fewer seeds.

Regular cucumbers are thick and short (about 5-7 inches long).  They are crispier, have more seeds, and they also have a tendency to be bitter (bleck!).

English cucumbers are more expensive (and they’re shrink wrapped!  Weird...), but there is more of it, and they taste better.  So it’s a judgment call on your part, but if you really want to be legit with your cucumber sandwiches (and you want a great taste), I recommend trying it with English cucumbers at least once.  And don't forget the fresh mint!  That's crucial!

P.S. Have you voted for your preferred Harry Potter treat in the poll on the left sidebar?  All it takes is 2 clicks!

English Tea Party: Teacakes

And we’re back!  Sorry you haven't had a food post from me in so long.  It’s been pretty crazy at my house with lots (anywhere between 2 and 10) of my nieces and nephews running around in the last month or so.  It was loads of fun!  But now we’re back to normal.  Time for tea! 

I don’t remember if Julie mentioned this, but we did base our tea party on a particular piece of literature.  As many of you know, tea is an essential part of English culture, so we could have pulled our recipes from just about any British book.  We focused our search to the Victorian Era of literature (during Queen Victoria’s reign, 1837-1901) and chose to settle on one of the most hilarious plays ever written, and certainly the funniest from the Victorian Era: The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde.

I’m sure anyone who has seen the play or movie is bouncing up and down with excitement.  If you are unfamiliar with this play, I’ll give you a quick synopsis.  Be warned – you might get a little confused.  It’s the nature of the play. (For those who have read/seen the play, you can skip this next paragraph.)

Jack Worthing lives a boring life in the country, and so pretends he has a wayward brother named Ernest, who often gets into trouble so that Jack must go to London to sort out his problems.  While in London, Jack calls himself Ernest so he can party with his good friend Algernon and court his love, Gwendolen.  Algernon, in turn, has an overpowering aunt that he likes to run away from, so he has invented a dear sickly friend named Bunbury who he must go to the country and attend to often.  One day, Algernon learns Jack’s secret that his real name is not Ernest, and also that Jack has a young and beautiful ward, named Cecily, who lives at his home in the country.  So Algernon tells everyone that he is going to visit poor sickly Bunbury, and then sneaks off to Jack’s home to meet Cecily.  There, Algernon introduces himself as Jack’s younger brother, Ernest, and he and Cecily quickly fall in love.  Chaos quickly ensues when Gwendolen comes to the country and meets Cecily, and they both profess to be in love with “Ernest.”

There’s so much more to the story.  Every line is packed with wit, and the plot is intricately woven with heavy irony.  I highly recommend watching the newer movie, which has Colin Firth as Jack, Rupert Everett as Algernon, Frances O’Connor as Gwendolen, and Reese Witherspoon as Cecily.  These actors are amazing, and they leave you howling with laughter as you watch.  It’s also fairly true to Wilde’s original script.

The following scene is my favorite part in the play, when Cecily and Gwendolen think they are both engaged to the same man, Ernest.  As such, they are very upset with each other.

Cecily: May I offer you some tea, Miss Fairfax?

Gwendolen: [with elaborate politeness] Thank you. [Aside.] Detestable girl! But I require tea!

Cecily: [Sweetly.] Sugar?

Gwendolen: [Superciliously.]  No, thank you.  Sugar is not fashionable any more. [Cecily looks angrily at her, takes up the tongs and puts four lumps of sugar in the cup.]

Cecily: [Severely] Cake or bread and butter?

Gwendolen: [In a bored manner.]  Bread and butter, please.  Cake is rarely seen at the best houses nowadays.

Cecily: [Cuts a very large slice of cake, and puts it on the tray.]  Hand that to Miss Fairfax.

[Merriman does so, and goes out with footman.  Gwendolen drinks the tea and makes a grimace.  Puts down cup at once, reaches out her hand to the bread and butter, looks at it, and finds it is cake.  Rises in indignation.]

Gwendolen: You have filled my tea with lumps of sugar and though I asked most distinctly for bread and butter, you have given me cake.  I am known for the gentleness of my disposition, and the extraordinary sweetness of my nature, but I warn you, Miss Cardew, you may go too far. (Wilde 2250-51)

Soon after this, Algernon and Jack enter to reveal that actually neither of them are called Ernest, which leads to an even bigger upset.  It’s greatness!

Okay, so you may have noticed that this scene deals with tea.  This is largely what we based our tea party menu on (although there’s another piece to this scene that I’ll address in a later post, which includes even more teatime treats).  Julie already told us about tea and butter.  Now we’re going to talk about cake, and tomorrow bread.

When we originally put this tea party together, I was searching for a teacake recipe, not a cake recipe, because “teacake” was mentioned in Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte (this was before we settled on just using Importance of Being Earnest).  Teacake is different from cake – it’s more like a thick shortbread cookie.  So it doesn’t really go with what’s mentioned specifically in the scene from Earnest, but it is a classic English teatime treat.  And trust me, you do NOT want to miss out on these babies!  They were a huge hit at our little party.

English Tea Cake

(Source: AllRecipes)

Yields: 30

2 cups butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups all-purpose flour

Optional:

Walnut halves

Nutmeg

Strawberry Jam

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add flour. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls into greased muffin cups; flatten slightly. You have two options for the center:
1. Press a walnut half into the center of each. Press down the edges with a fork.  Sprinkle a little nutmeg on top.
2. Separate each tablespoon of dough into 1/3 and 2/3 portions.  Press the 2/3 into the bottom of the muffin tin.  Drop a teaspoon of strawberry jam onto the center.  Then take the 1/3 portion, flatten it on your palm, and poke a hole in the center of it with your finger.  Lay the 1/3 portion on top of the 2/3 portion so that the hole reveals the strawberry jam.  You can mold the dough to make the hole look nice and neat.  Press down the edges with a fork.
2. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans and placing onto wire racks.  Caution: Jam centers will be very hot!

Click here to view this recipe's Nutrition Facts.

Mixing dough

Julie adding walnut halves.  Don't her fingernails look fabulous?

Creating the top 1/3 for the strawberry jam teacakes

We did a half recipe, which seemed like plenty as we were baking them.  However, these little treats were the first to go!  They were absolutely delicious, and I’ve been craving them ever since.  And the great part is, they’re super easy and don’t use that many ingredients.  I highly recommend you try them, too!  Seriously, of all the sweets I’ve made for this blog, this is definitely my favorite.  I think cake is rarely seen in the best houses because it’s eaten up immediately!

Be sure to watch or read The Importance of Being Earnest!  You won’t regret it!  If you would like a little taste of what the tea scene is like acted out, click here to watch a clip from the movie (go to 8:51 to start at the beginning of the scene, 12:44 to just watch the part that I quoted).  Enjoy!

Work Cited
Wilde, Oscar. "The Importance of Being Earnest." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt, et al. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2006. 2222-2263