After hearing all sorts of talk about tea bread lately, I’ve been having a hankering to try it myself. The concept of tea bread is simple–replace the water in any recipe with tea. If I was a normal person, I would just make a loaf of Grandmother Bread with tea instead of water, but I couldn’t stop thinking I needed to make tea muffins. I don’t know why. I’m not really a big muffin person. I like muffins. NO OFFENSE TO MUFFINS. But I’m far more likely to make biscuits or yeast breads. (Now that I’ve said that, I’ll probably go on a muffin binge and make muffins for the next six months, nothing but muffins.)
Anyway. I couldn’t stop thinking about tea muffins. Only you really need milk in muffins. OR DO YOU? I decided to give it a try. I didn’t completely do away with the milk, but I replaced the one cup of milk that would ordinarily be in the basic muffin recipe with 2/3 cup tea and 1/3 cup cream.
To counter the bitterness of tea, I upped the sugar a little bit. What resulted is a very light, moist muffin with a distinct sweet tea taste and a hint of creaminess.
This is a very plain muffin, other than the cream tea twist, and you could easily change this up into your favorite specialty muffin by adding chopped fruit, nuts, etc. I wanted to experiment with the basic tea muffin first. Read all the discussion on the forum about making tea breads for more details and ideas. Technically, I didn’t do it right because I didn’t use the soaking method. I just made some tea and went for it.
You can use my homemade baking mix, Quick Mix, or any store-bought mix (if you must).
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How to make Cream Tea Muffins:
3 cups Quick Mix (or other baking mix)
2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
2/3 cup tea
1/3 cup cream or milk
1/3 cup oil
To mix, add sugar, eggs, tea, cream or milk, and oil all at once.
Stir just till moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.
Use liners, or grease muffin tins. I’m a liner girl all the way.
Bake at 400-degrees approximately 15-18 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. You can brush the tops with melted butter.
My pastry brush is having a bad hair day.
Sprinkle the tops with sugar.
These are wonderful with orange marmalade.
Oh, what the heck. Put some clotted cream on there, too.
You only live once.
*Makes about 15 muffins.
See this recipe at Farm Bell Recipes and save it to your recipe box.
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Michelle says:
I cannot for the life of me figure out how you keep from weighing 500 lbs!
On May 20, 2010 at 1:41 am
CindyP says:
Oh my, that last picture just looks scrumptious!
Isn’t that concept wonderful? Try it when you make your bagels next with a flavored tea!
On May 20, 2010 at 6:12 am
Barbee' says:
I am glad I ate breakfast before I opened this post, yummm. :yes:
On May 20, 2010 at 6:43 am
Rose H says:
Oh heck! I’m NEVER gonna loose weight am I?
On May 20, 2010 at 8:28 am
Tracey In Paradise,Pa. says:
OH JEEEEEZ…..They looked good but you just sent me over the edge with the cream….Oh man…YUMMMO!!
Granny Trace
On May 20, 2010 at 9:06 am
mamawolf says:
Scrumptious muffins. Suzanne doesn’t stay still long enough to gain any weight. If I did a third of what she does in a day I just might be able to lose some weight!
On May 20, 2010 at 9:21 am
Nita in South Carolina says:
Oh my goodness. I will try these this weekend. I’m going to make some with my favorite Chai tea, I’ll be they’ll be sooo yummy!
On May 20, 2010 at 10:37 am
KentuckyFarmGirl says:
Those look delicious!
On May 20, 2010 at 11:41 am
Holly says:
You give a pregnant woman ideas Suzanne…
Maybe I have to go make muffins. And tea.
On May 20, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Holly says:
Now they’re in the oven. Such a bad influence. 🙂
On May 20, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Susan at Charm of the Carolines says:
It looks just like Heaven in a little foil cup! Thanks for sharing!!!
Susan
On May 20, 2010 at 2:37 pm
rcmedici says:
I’ve made a version of the spaghetti pie for years now…always using left over spaghetti and sauce. Made it just a couple of days ago, and my son created a St Louis Slinger – leftover pie slive, topped with a fried egg, topped with left over sloppy joe and surrounded by leftover baked beans. Sounds awful, tasted wonderful – I only got a mouthful!
On May 20, 2010 at 5:15 pm
JoJo says:
Suzanne, another way to cut the bitterness of tea without adding more sugar is to make your tea normally but also add a pinch of baking soda. I know that sounds very strange and kind of yucky but trust me, it makes a ‘huge’ difference in tea. I make my sweet tea by adding a pinch of baking soda to my pitcher before adding in my boiling water and tea bags. After steeping, add in sugar to taste. YUMMY.
On May 20, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Gen says:
I tried these last night with leftover coffee and they were delicious! My husband loved them, thanks for the idea.
On May 21, 2010 at 11:16 am
Judy says:
Those look yummy!
On May 22, 2010 at 9:21 am
Nita in South Carolina says:
Made them yesterday with Chai tea. They are very good. I think I might make the tea a little stronger next time. My daughter warmed one up this morning and poked a hole in the top and filled it with strawberry spread and prounced it EXCELLENT.
To Gen above – brilliant idea to make with coffee! I’ll try that next time. I love coffee-flavored anything.
On May 24, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Sheila says:
I’m making these right now and I’m gonna try one for breakfast in the morning , they look soo good :hungry: :happyfeet:
On December 6, 2010 at 8:20 pm