Our Indian Afternoon Tea was inspired by the book "Tea Parties Around the World" by Tea Time Magazine. This book is fantastic and is full of recipes for themed afternoon teas as well as suitable tea pairings. We adapted some of the recipes and served our Indian teas from The London Drum tea collection.
If you are wanting a bright, colourful and flavoursome afternoon tea, an Indian themed tea is the perfect choice. Your everyday teaware can be used, you only need bright flowers and a nice tablecloth to really set the scene.
Remember to have milk available for the Masala Chai, as well as jaggery or honey for those who like a sweetened Masala Chai. 

 India grows some of the worlds most globally acclaimed tea, so naturally, serving Indian grown tea just makes sense! What we served:
INDIAN MASALA CHAI is probably the most well known Indian style of tea and a favourite for many people, Blended with an bold Assam tea base with the addition of ginger, cinnamon, clove, cardamom and peppercorn, Indian Masala Chai is warming, smooth and very flavoursome. It pairs very well with any style of Indian food and in this case, paired perfectly with our Nankha Tai Cookies. Delicious black and unsweetened or equally delicious simmered with any style of milk and the addition of jaggery or honey.
DARJEELING MARGARET'S HOPE Darjeeling teas are famous worldwide for its unique characteristics. Lighter than most black tea, Darjeeling Margaret's Hope is picked later in the season, imparting the muscatel and apricot flavours this tea is famous for. This tea is best served without milk due to its lighter nature and pairs well with the Pistachio and Rose Scones.
​ASSAM DIKOM Assam teas are famous for their bold malt notes and robust flavour. This tea perfectly stands up to strong tasting foods like the Curried Egg Sandwiches and the Chocolate, Date and Coconut Tarts. While delicious without milk, this tea also takes well to milk. 

As always, refer to the label or our website tea page for the reccommended brewing instructions.

As previously mentioned, these recipes are an adaption from the book "Tea Parties Around The World". We used our base Scone Recipe with the addition of a few ingredients, omitted the ginger in the Chocolate and Date Tarts and added egg to our curried sandwiches. Here we go..

Serves 4 people (makes 8 slices)

INGREDIENTS
8 slices of your choice of sliced soft bread (we used white)
4 eggs, hard boiled
2 teaspoons of curry powder
1/4 cup of natural greek yoghurt
2 tablespoons of chopped corriander leaves
Pinch of salt

1. In a small sized bowl, mash the eggs, set aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl, stir the yoghurt, curry powder, corriander and salt with a spoon until combined. Add the mashed egg and stir together until all of the egg is coated in the yoghurt mixture.
3. Spoon mixture evenly over 4 of the bread slices, using a butter knife to spread evenly over each slice.
4. Place a plain slice of bread over top of each egg mixture slice and using a serated knife, carefully slice off the crusts and slice each sandwich into 2 rectangles.
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Serves 8 (makes 8 whole scones)
Cook time: approx 12 minutes

​INGREDIENTS
2 cups SR triple sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tb spoon unsalted butter
3/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons food-grade dried rose petals
1/4 cup finely ground pistachios
1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons icing sugar
Garnish: ground pistachios and rose petals
​Serve: orange marmalade

1. Pre-heat oven to 220 C
2. Sift flour, add pistachio and salt into a bowl together.
3. Rub butter into flour mixture using fingertips
4. Add rose petals, mix into a soft dough with the milk using figertips (do not over mix)
5. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until just combined and smooth
6. Roll out the dough to approx 2 cm thick and cut shapes using a round cookie cutter
7. Arrange on the tray (the further apart, the crustier the outer will be) and glaze with milk
8. Place above the middle tray in the oven and bake for approx 12 mins or until a light golden brown colour 
9. Lift onto cake cooler (scones do not need to be cool to add icing)
10. With a spoon, mix the cream and icing sugar in a small bowl. Use a spoon to spread icing mixture on each scone. Sprinkle scones with rose petals and pistachio.
11. Serve with orange marmalade

Makes 12
Approx 12 minutes cooking time

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup super fine caster sugar
1/2 cup ghee (clarified butter), soft
2 tablespoons ful-fat greek yoghurt
2 cups almond meal
1/4 cup chickpea flour (gram flour)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Note: Splash of milk may be needed if mixture becomes too dry

1. Preheat oven to 180 C
2. In a food processor, cream the sugar, ghee and yoghurt until fluffy
3. Add the flours, baking powder, bicarb soda, cardamom and nutmeg until combined (should resemble coarse bread crumbs). If too coarse to come together, add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until correct consistency.
4. Shape doughinto a ball, cover in glad wrap and refridgerate for 30 minutes
5. Line a baking sheet with baking paper
6. Roll out the dough using a rolling pin 
7. Using a cookie cutter, cut cookie dough (you should get around 12 cookies).
8. Using a metal spatula, carefully lift the cookies onto the baking tray, leaving a space of about 2cm between cookies.
9. Place an almond into the centre of the cookie dough. Be careful not to press too hard or you might break the dough.
10. Bake until cookies are lightly browned, approximately 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 14

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup pitted Medjool dates, divided
150 grams of 75% dark chocolate, chopped and divided
1 cup whole raw almonds
2 tablespoons liquid coconut oil, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1 cup coconut cream (not milk)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Garnish: whipped cream, grated chocolate, fresh raspberries, mint sprigs.

1. Lightly grease 14 small silicone moulds (mini sized muffins)
2. In a medium sized bowl, cover 1/2 cup of the dates with warm water and set aside for 10 minutes. Pat dry with paper towel.
3. Using a small glass or metal bowl, melt half of the chocolate by resting the bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Stir until melted.
4. In a food processor bowl, pulse together soaked dates and almonds until finely ground. Add the melted chocolate, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt processing until incorporated.
5. Divide the date mixture among the moulds and freeze until firm.
6. In a medium saucepan, heat together coconut cream, 1 tablespoon coconut oil and remaining chocolate until the chocolate melts.
7. In a food processor, process together the chocolate mixture, vanilla, 1/4 cup dates and 1/4 teaspoon salt until smooth.
8. Divide chocolate mixture among the frozen date shells and freeze for at least 2 hours. 
9. Remove from mould while still frozen, let thaw for 30 minutes before serving.
10. Garnish with cream, raspberries, chocolate and mint!

There you have it! A delicious Indian Afternoon Tea for friends or family! Happy sipping!
Remember to share your Indian Afternoon Tea moments on our Facebook Page album!

​Kristy

 Devonshire Tea, also known as Cream Tea, is deeply embedded in Australian afternoon tea culture. 
Some sources reveal that scones have been around since the 1500's, with Scotland being the original maker of these delicious breads. Those of us with a British, Scottish or Irish heritage probably enjoyed our first warm freshly baked scone with home made jam and thick cream (with a cup of milky tea), at our grandparents house as children.
​We are keeping this delicious Australian tea time family tradition going with this guide to putting on your own Devonshire Tea at home! The main thing to remember here is to keep it simple. 
You do not need fancy tea ware to put on a nice afternoon tea. You only need your favourite tea and a few staple items to make scones.
You can even make a batch of this scone recipe and freeze them ready for unexpected guests!

You might think that the tea choice doesn't matter, but there are some basic food pairing rules that should be considered when choosing tea for your scones. Here are the teas we recently served with our Devonshire Tea and why:
ENGLISH BREAKFAST is a full bodied tea, traditionally blended to replace ale as the morning bevereage. Blended to be stronger in flavour and tanin, it is able to take milk and to cut through hevier foods such as bread and cream. 
EARL GREY is made with a Ceylon tea base, making it lighter in strength yet strong enough in flavour to accompany the scone with cream. Earl Grey has the addition of bergamot oil, giving a fresh citrus flavour to the tea. Citrus pairs well with berries (the jam).  
As always, tea is best seved pre-strained to avoid bitterness when sharing a larger teapot, but can be strained by the guest to their liking if using one person teapots. Please follow the brewing instructions on the tea label to ensure the best cup of tea!

Our scone recipe is adapted from the book 'Cookery the Australian Way' 2nd edition, 1974. Very few ingredients are needed for this recipe, making them easy to throw together in a pinch. Bakers tip: scones should be baked on a high shelf in the oven, on high heat to get a nice crust. This is a foundation scone recipe, one which can be added to if you would like to make flavoured scones in the future like dates or cheese and onion for example.
Here is our adapted recipe:

Makes 12
Temp: 220 C

INGREDIENTS
2 cups SR triple sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tb spoon unsalted butter
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp natural vanilla essence

1. Pre-heat oven
2. Sift flour and salt into a bowl.
3. Rub butter into flour and salt using fingertips
4. Mix into a soft dough with milk and vanilla essence
5. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until just combined and smooth
6. Roll out the dough to approx 2 cm thick and cut shapes using a round cookie cutter
7. Arrange on the tray (the further apart, the crustier the outer will be) and glaze with milk
8. Place above the middle tray in the oven and bake for approx 12 mins or until a light golden brown colour 
9. Lift onto cake cooler

THE RASPBERRY JAM
Want to make your own jam? Follow the recipe below - you only need two ingredients!

INGREDIENTS
500g raspberries (fresh of frozen)
2 cups of sugar

1. Put raspberries in a pan over a low heat and mash until the pulp begins to boil
2. Slowly begin adding the sugar to the pulp mixture by pouring in a steady stream as you continuously stir the mixture until it has boiled for around another 3 minutes
3. Cool before bottling  

And of course, serve with thickened cream! (Stay tuned for a future recipe on making clotted cream)

We hope you enjoy using these recipes and tea preparing tips. Devonshire tea really is one of the most fuss-free ways to spend time with the family over the weekend.
​Put the kettle on and enjoy the moment!

Kristy

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