Rich Tea & Early Grey Cookies

Tea and biscuits are kind of a universal language in the UK. It’s what you have while watching TV, after a long rainy day, during a quick catch-up with friends, or when someone says, “I’ll put the kettle on.”

No matter your age or background, most of us can think of a moment that involved dunking a biscuit into a hot cup of tea and taking a pause from everything else.

I wanted to turn that feeling into a cookie.

Toasted rich tea biscuits that bring that familiar crunch, while Earl Grey adds that unmistakable tea-shop aroma, with brown butter tying everything together to create something comforting, cosy, and instantly recognisable.

I find it hard to make Browned Butter!

I know people can find browned butter intimidating, but here are some simple steps in this recipe that will help you to not overdo your browned butter:

• Choose your tea bag; Traditional early grey pull on a classic black tea blend whereas others such as lady grey appeal to more citrus notes. include cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger, and black pepper.

• Ground your earl grey: If available use a pestle and mortar to further ground down your tea leaves, to deeper penetrate the brown butter.

• Melt the butter: Melt it over medium heat in a light-colored pan to monitor browning.

• Brown the butter: Continue cooking until the butter turns golden brown and smells nutty, and starts to foam, roughly about 5-7 minutes. ( If you can no longer hear the butter foaming, its time to take it off the heat!)

• Add tea bag contents : Once off the heat, and add your tea leaves. Stir gently.

Recipe

Yields 5 100g cookies (adjust as needed)

Important Note: This recipe uses the pan-banging method, allowing for crisp edges but a softer centered cookie.

Ingredients

• 100g salted butter

• 110g light brown sugar

• 75g caster sugar

• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (ACV) or lemon juice

• 1 large egg

• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

• ½ tsp baking powder

• 150g plain/all-purpose flour

• 1 tbsp potato starch or cornstarch

• 1 tbsp malted milk powder

• 1 bar of blonde chocolate

• 1/2 pack of rich tea biscuits

• 2 bags of your preferred earl grey tea

• 1 tsp vanilla bean extract

  
  

Instructions:

1. Grind your tea leaves: using a blender or pestle and mortar, grind down your tea leaves, this will allow for the tea leaves to deeply penetrate the brown butter.

2. Brown butter: Melt the butter over medium heat until the milk solids turn gold brown and foamy. ( Once you hear the butter stop bubbling its time to take it off)

3. Mix tea leaves and brown butter: Once off the heat, add your tea leaves to your brown butter and mix gently. allow to col slightly and then pop in the fridge/freezer to harden ( around 15- 30 mins this stops the cookie from being greasy)

4. Toast your biscuits: Whilst the butter is hardening, crush your rich tea biscuits and lay on a cookie sheet. Place in an oven at 350°F (175°C), and bake until browned and toasted.

5. Mix sugars and butter: Take out the butter and in a large bowl, cream together the brown butter with the sugars and until light and fluffy.

6. Add egg and vanilla: Add in the egg and vanilla extract and ACV, until well combined.

7. Combine dry ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, bicarbonate soda, malted ilk powder, potato starch and toasted rich tea biscuits until well combined.

8. Mix dry into wet: Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined. Avoid over mixing to keep the cookies tender. ( hands are always the best for small batches!)

9. Cookie Size: Shape your cookie dough to 100g sized balls, and roll them around in the remaining toasted rich tea biscuits. They do't need to be perfect balls lean on the side of irregular!

10. Chill the dough: Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours. This helps the flavors meld and prevents spreading during baking.

    
    

Baking

• Oven temperature: Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C)

• Baking time: Place your cookie dough balls ( 4 per sheet) on a baking sheet and bake for 22 minutes. At 10 minutes, take your cookies out and gently tap your baking sheet on a kitchen surface. Do this again after at minute 16 and finally when they reach their fully baking time. This creates ripples allowing the cookie edges to be crispy owhilst the centers remain soft.

• Cooling: Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

• Storage: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. You can also freeze these as well.

  
  

Why These Cookies Stand Out

The key to these earl grey essence in these cookies lies in the brown butter infused with the early grey tea bag contents. Earl grey is aromatic in nature, pulling on floral and citrus notes, being rounded out with a strong black tea foundation. This combined with the nutty and caramelized flavor of the browned butter create a deep and complex flavour which compliment the toasted rich tea biscuits

Experimenting with Variations

Once you master the basic recipe try these variations:

• Add nuts: Chopped pistachios or almonds add crunch.

• Chocolate: Mix in dark chocolate chips for a sweet contrast to the spices.

• Glaze: Drizzle a simple vanilla or earl grey glaze over cooled cookies for extra sweetness.