My Aunt Susan generously gave me her sterling tea set, and Mother’s Day seemed like the perfect occasion to put it to use. After going to afternoon tea at the Jefferson this year, I had lots of ideas I wanted to try at home. It was quite fun pulling recipes for a tea-themed luncheon. I can’t wait to share some of the recipes I used!
A traditional afternoon tea is served in three courses, with the first course being sandwiches. Because we have several vegetarians in our group, I wanted to focus on vegetarian sandwiches. After much debate I decided upon: turkey & cheese with artisanal pickles on sourdough, curried carrot on multigrain, cucumber on classic white, almond butter & jelly on white, and minted avocado-pea on multigrain. They were ALL fantastic! The curried carrot truly was suburb.
The second course is typically tea breads and scones served with clotted cream and jam. I have been trying more paleo baking and wanted to incorporate a grain and dairy-free recipe. I think even folks without dietary preferences would like the zucchini bread– it wasn’t super sweet but still tasty. You can find the recipe I used here. I took a traditional route for the scones, picking a recipe for “British style” scones with currants (or rather raisins, because that’s what was in the pantry). As much as I wanted to to serve clotted cream, I couldn’t muster the energy for another recipe and plain old butter worked just fine.
The third course is the BEST course– sweets! I served Russian tea cookies and jelly thumbprints which used the same base dough, which was a big time-saver. I finished the dessert tray with chocolate-covered strawberries since that seemed like a “mother’s day” sort of sweet.
As for the tea, we drank darjeeling, peppermint, and a chocolate black tea followed by a course of “beer” tea. It seems one can’t host an event in Richmond without incorporating craft beer in someway.
All and all, it was a wonderful afternoon and fun to try something different that the typical sit-down dinner. I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day too!
Make your own tea party with these recipes:
The turkey & cheese sandwich is self-explanatory, however the pickles are what MADE the sandwich. I’ve been making my own pickles using plain-old grocery store pickles. They take 2-3 days to “cure” in the refrigerator.
Refrigerator Pickles
Slice 2 large cucumbers into “chips” and place in a large glass jar. Add 1 tsp dried dill, 3-4 cloves sliced garlic, ⅓ cup dehydrated onion, ½ TB mustard seeds, ½ TB peppercorns, and 1 TB pickling salt (or a little more to taste). Add one cup white vinegar, then fill the remaining space in the jar with water. Seal the lid and give it a good shake! Place in the fridge & taste every day or so, they should be done after 2-3 days.
Curried Carrot Sandwiches
- 2 medium-sized carrots, grated
- 2 TB cream cheese, softened
- 2 TB good-quality mayonnaise
- 1 tsp. sweet ginger paste
- ½- 1 tsp. Curry powder
- 1-2 TB raisins
- 1-2 TB chopped walnuts
- Salt and pepper to taste
In a medium bowl, combine carrots, cream cheese, mayonnaise, ginger paste, curry power; add salt and pepper to taste. Mix in raisins and chopped walnuts. If you are not ready to serve the sandwiches the filling can be refrigerated up to 1 day before preparing the sandwiches.
When ready to fill, spread a thin layer of the curried carrot filling on one piece of bread, then top with baby spinach or micro greens. Press together, then cut off crusts to serve.
Cucumber Sandwiches
- 3 TB cream cheese
- 1-2 TB mayonnaise
- 1 tsp. Dill
- ¼- ½ tsp. Garlic powder
- 1-2 tsp. Lemon juice
- 1 English cucumber
Mix cream cheese, mayo, dill, garlic, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Spread a thin layer of filling, then top with cucumber slices. I like to serve them open faced.
Minted Avocado Pea Sandwiches
- 1 avocado
- Zest & juice of 1 lime
- ½- 1 tsp. Sriarcha
- 1 tsp. Fresh mint, chopped plus more for topping
- 2 TB thawed green peas
Mash avocado, then add lime zest, lime juice, chopped mint, sriarcha and salt and pepper to taste. Adjust seasoning to taste.
To assemble sandwiches, top multigrain bread with avocado mass, followed by peas and fresh mint. Serve immediately as avocado will brown over time.
Raisin Scones
- 3 cups flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 8 Tbsp butter (unsalted)
- 3/4 cup dried raisins, soaked in hot water at least 5 minutes
- Zest of one lemon
- 1 cup whole milk (or cream)
- 2 eggs
Heat oven to 350 F. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut butter in several pieces and add to the dry ingredients. Pulse in food processor until it looks like small crumbs. Whisk together milk and eggs. Add to flour mixture and pulse until just combined into a ball. Dump the dough on a floured surface and add raisins and lemon zest. Knead dough 25-30 times on well-floured surface with well-floured hands until the surface of the dough is smooth and doesn’t have any cracks.
Flour your rolling pin and then roll out dough to 1 inch thickness. Cut out scones using a round biscuit cutter. Transfer scones to a lined baking sheet. Gather remaining dough into a ball, knead a few times, then roll it out to 1 inch thickness. Cut out the rest of your scones and transfer to the baking sheet. Brush the top of the scones milk and sprinkle with granulated sugar.
Bake scones for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Serve with butter, clotted cream, whipped cream, lemon curd or jam. Yield: 12-16 scones
Russian Tea Cookies & Raspberry Thumbprints
Base Dough
- 1 cup (2 sticks or 226 g) unsalted butter, softened
- ⅔ cup (80 g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 2 egg yolks from large eggs
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp. Salt
- 2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 325ºF and line baking sheets. Using an electric stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or handheld electric mixer, beat butter until creamy and smooth. Beat in confectioner’s sugar and mix until well incorporated scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula when necessary. Add egg yolks, vanilla extract, and salt; mix until well blended. On low speed, gradually add flour and mix until just fully incorporated. Once again, scrape the bowl with rubber spatula when needed. Do not chill the dough, instead immediately split the dough in half to prepare both recipes below.
For jam thumbprints, scoop dough and form small balls, then roll in sugar. Make a thumb imprint, then bake until cookies are just beginning to lightly brown, about 15 minutes. Once out of the oven, fill with your favorite seedless jam. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
For Russian tea cookies, mix in ½ to ⅔ cup of pecans or walnuts. Scoop dough and form small balls. Bake about 15 minutes, cookies should be lightly browned. Once out of the oven, carefully roll in powdered sugar. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.