Articles

Jun 18 2013

Review: The Huntington Library Rose Garden Tea Room

Author: Jenna

Rose Garden Tea Room

The standard for tearooms in Pasadena and Los Angeles—according to the casual partaker of afternoon tea—seems to be the tearoom at The Huntington Library. When people discover that you are a tea aficionado and are trying all the tearooms you can find, they usually ask if you have gone to The Huntington yet. So at the behests of Once Upon an Afternoon Tea readers, I took the plunge and made reservations for this must-do afternoon tea.

Follow the Signs to Afternoon Tea

First Impressions and Service

The first thing I noticed when we entered the one room restaurant was the noise, followed by the beehive of servers running around like rabid dogs were nipping at their heels. I understood that it was a Sunday and the place was full, but was it necessary to seem so panicked? A good server who is overwhelmed knows how to hide that from the customers. Server 101, Lesson 1: Your guests should never know that you can’t handle your section. Once seated, the server situation only felt worse. No sooner had we sat then she ran over with a breadbasket of mini scones, rattled off the flavors, and pushed us into ordering the house tea. The entire hour we were there (and note most afternoon teas we do take between 90 minutes and two hours from start to finish) we felt like they wanted nothing more than for us to scarf down food, pay our check, and leave so they could flip our table to another party. It became an act of defiance to sit there and sip tea slowly. I personally would rather have an almost nonexistent server than one who overzealously tries to push me out the door.

Décor

The walls, curtains, and upholstery were all in shades of “old crazy cat lady” yellow, tan, and peach. The curtains were an ancient floral pattern in desperate need of updating. But the worst part of the décor came not from the paint or fabrics, but from the room’s arrangement. You are literally less than six inches from the nearest table with only the narrowest of walkways behind your chair for the mad servers to run behind. China is no china at all, but plain white porcelain? Whatever the material that typical restaurant plates and coffee cups are made out of? Nothing felt comfortable or inviting in the slightest. It was less a tearoom than a room that serves little sandwiches and desserts and whose only beverage is tea.

Tea Selection

What selection? If The Huntington had a tea selection, we had no knowledge of it. There is no tea menu (there is no menu at all) and our aforementioned pushy server immediately did a hard sell for the house tea. She never said anything about other options of tea, so we kind of assumed that there wasn’t another option until we heard her tell the table next to us—or rather on top of us—that if they weren’t going to succumb to her forcing the house tea on them, they could choose Earl Grey. By then we were almost done and the blackberry black tea was fine enough to drink. I wonder if she makes commission on how many tables order the blackberry tea?

Hope you like blackberry

On top of that, warming up the tea consisted of adding hot water to the tea already brewing and becoming bitter in our table’s teapot. I don’t understand how people really believe that adding hot water makes a difference in the bitterness of over-steeped tea, because it doesn’t. The tea is just as over-brewed with extra water as it was before the second pouring.

Food

The Huntington Tearoom does not do a traditional afternoon tea service, no matter what they claim on their website. Instead of the typical three-tiered stands with finger sandwiches, scones, and little desserts, they have a buffet in the middle of the room. While great for those with appetites that surpass a usual afternoon tea quantity, a buffet only serves to enhance the feeling of being rushed through like cattle for the rest of us. Note, however, that at the end of your meal the server will bring by a plastic bag for you to bag your scones to-go in, so eat your fill of the sandwiches and desserts and save the scones for later to get the most out of your money.

Take them away…literally

Sandwiches

The advantage of a buffet is that there are more options than most tearooms offer for finger sandwiches and if you like particular ones you can have more of those and not waste your stomach on those you dislike (no mayo for me! Extra smoked salmon!).

Grab only what you want to try :)

A debate between Mom and me arose with the Tarragon Chicken Sandwich (chicken, tarragon, mayo, walnuts, and celery on wheat bread): She tasted tarragon; I did not. I felt that there was too much of a mayonnaise and relish taste to the sandwich, but Mom still insists that there was tarragon mixed in with the nicely not pureed chicken salad. We did both agree that the bread tasted very fresh.

The Carrot Ginger Sandwich (chopped carrot and candied ginger with cream cheese on fig walnut bread) was definitely a new favorite that I want to recreate. It was sweet, more like a finger sandwich best served for breakfast than lunch, and the fig-walnut bread was a sophisticated take on cinnamon raisin bread. I had two of these!

Salmon Canape, Carrot-Ginger, Cucumber-Mint, Chicken-Tarragon

Mom’s assessment of the egg salad on white bread was that the bread was once again soft and fresh, but that the salad needed more flavor. There was no seasoning or herb mixed in, so the egg sandwich literally taste like simply egg and bread.

The Cucumber Mint (freshly sliced cucumber and mint with cream cheese) fell victim to the not enough cucumber trap of cucumber sandwiches. Although the mint was strong and refreshing, without any cucumber for substance the sandwich was just too airy.

There is also an assortment of salads.

The smoked salmon (smoked salmon with cream cheese Dijon spread, dill dollop, and cucumber garnish on marble bread) was surprisingly good. I think dill is the best herb to pair with smoked salmon, but not enough places combine the two, choosing capers instead for that briny taste. But dill brings a touch of the pickled sourness of capers with a more refreshing note. This open-faced canapé was tangy, creamy, and worthy of seconds and maybe thirds.

Scones

Every table gets a breadbasket of mini scones in different flavors. The flavors are luck-of-the-oven, completely dependent on what the kitchen is churning out in mass quantities when you sit down. The table next to us received maple bacon scones and chocolate chip scones. We were given almond, cranberry, and apricot scones.

You can take them home.

In hindsight, I don’t think it really matters what flavor you are brought, since they all sort of tasted the same. I liked how they were brought warm to the table, but since you should take them home anyway it doesn’t really make a difference. All the flavors were rather bland with only little pieces of their mix-ins for not much added flavor. When topped with jam and cream, they all taste the exact same. The texture was nice, particularly noteworthy since they were mini scones, which tend to end up over baked and dry.

The whipped cream is very sweet and fluffy (which I don’t like, see my clotted cream rants). I can’t comment on the marmalade because as I discovered at one of my first tea places, I really don’t like marmalade. These two toppings set me up for disappointment with the watery jam, but I actually was surprised at how tasty the raspberry jam was. It had a great flavor, not too sweet and not too tart, and its only problem was consistency.

Desserts

Dessert Buffet

The brownie and the chocolate mousse cup were laughably polar opposites. While the brownie was rich, thick, and basically a block of fudge (nothing wrong with that 😉 ), the mousse cup was light and airy and shatters in one bit. Talk about dessert antithesis.

The fruit tart’s custard was rather bland, no strong vanilla flavor like so many excellent fruit tarts have, so it tasted more like a raspberry topped cookie than a fruit tart. I will say, though, the fruit they used was wonderfully ripe and fresh. You can taste that it was made that day and not defrosted from mass baking earlier in the week. The nature of a buffet probably makes a difference with that aspect as the food turnover is high.

The pecan bar was a disappointment, especially as I just recently learned at my job that I like pecan bars. Maybe that liking only applies to the pecan bars at work? This one was heavy on the pecan, but there was something about the filling that just didn’t work. I don’t know ingredients of pecan bars yet so I couldn’t put my finger on where it went wrong. And my crust fell off which is always sad.

Grab extras of the tea cookies. They are nice and crumbly like Russian Tea Cakes without all the powdered sugar and if you sneak a couple extras into your scone basket before the plastic bag comes, they’ll blend right in and you’ll have dessert to go.

Tea Cookies

On the dessert side was also an assortment of fresh fruit and cheeses. I like the addition of fruit because it allows me to trick myself into thinking that afternoon tea is healthy.

Extras

Stroll around the gardens before and then again after your afternoon tea. The Huntington has the most beautiful themed gardens and right now the roses are in bloom. And since you have to pay for admission to the Library in addition to your tea, you may as well get your money’s worth.

I can officially say that all those who rave about The Huntington Tea Room need to try some of the other places I’ve reviewed. A few food items stood out as good offerings, but between the buffet style service and the being rushed and pushed throughout the whole meal, this place no where near lives up to its reputation as a must-do tearoom. With so many better tearooms minutes away in Old Town Pasadena, unless you are coming for the gardens, The Huntington can be skipped at no loss.

Visit The Huntington’s Rose Garden Tea Room at 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA, 91108. (626) 683-8131. Closed Tuesday. Cost per person $29.50 plus cost of admission to The Huntington Library.

Jun 16 2013

Recipe: Strawberry White Chocolate Coconut Scones

Author: Jenna

They say that inspiration comes from everywhere around us, and I’d agree. I am constantly walking along, minding my business, when out of the orange colored sky, FLASH! I see something that inspires a new scone flavor. It literally happens anywhere.

This combination has a magical inspiration behind it. Disneyland, in fact. During the strawberry harvest, Disneyland’s candy makers cover the most gigantic sweet strawberries in the world with the most incredible dark, milk, and white chocolate coatings. They were probably the most delicious fresh made treats those candy makers could have offered us. And my favorite coating–which I haven’t found in years–was the white chocolate and coconut covered strawberry.

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

These scones were my attempt to recapture that incredible flavor of a childhood treat, and I have bad news for you: say good bye to your waistline and apologize to your friends now because not only will you not share these, but you will eat the whole batch in an unprecedentedly short time span. I brought some in for a few of my coworkers to taste test, and already their parents are requesting them (though how the parents snagged a bite I’ll never know). Rest assured coworkers, I’ll be bringing these to the staff meeting this week.

You’d think that based on the combination of sweet flavors from white chocolate, sweetened coconut flakes, and strawberries (again from Harry’s Berries) this scone would be cavity-inducing sweet, but since the base is my basic cream scone, there is a pleasant mildly salty element to counteract the sugar. Which makes them totally acceptable for mass consumption, right?

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

Strawberry White Chocolate Coconut Scones

Ingredients

200 g self rising flour
1/4 tsp salt
50 g ultrafine baking sugar
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, divided
150 mL heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 220°C or 450°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Sift together flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add sugar. Toss in strawberries, white chocolate, and 1/4 cup coconut until well distributed.

Work in whipping cream until all ingredients are fully combined. This is a very wet dough! Don’t worry you didn’t do anything wrong.

Turn out onto a heavily floured workspace and knead a few times. Pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Dip scone cutter in more flour before cutting scones out (5 cm) and placing on baking sheet. THIS IS ESSENTIAL. Because the scone dough is so wet, you need a hefty additional amount of flour to make everything manageable when kneading and cutting. Knead offcuts back together and repeat process until most of the dough is used.

Brush tops of scones with water and sprinkle remaining coconut on tops.

Bake 8-10 minutes until starting to brown. These scones don’t rise, but they do spread out so make sure you have left some space in between the scones on the baking sheets.

Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool.

These scones not only don’t require a topping of cream or jam, but a topping would probably ruin them (way too many flavors in too small of a package) so forego any clotted cream, curds, or jams when serving these scones. Their deliciousness speaks for itself.

Strawberry, White Chocolate, Coconut Scones

And make about 4 batches at a time, just to be safe 😉

Jun 14 2013

Origin of the Word “Scones”

Author: Jenna

I love scones. Read almost every blog on this site, can you not tell? They are my favorite part about afternoon tea, and also the part I’m harshest on. But when I think about the power of an amazing scone to make you feel comforted and content with life, I accept my scone obsession and invite everyone to join me.

But how did the name come around? Scone sounds like kind of a funny word, and like many funny words there are debates on its origin and even on how to pronounce it. Does it rhyme with gone as in “skahn” or like own as in “scoan”? Will we ever agree on the pronunciation? Probably not, but it’s interesting to learn that the word for this common British delight may not even be British in origin!

Here are the leading theories on the base of the word scone:

1. The Scottish claim that scones were named after a stone that Scottish kings sat upon once they were crowned. This stone is called the Stone of Destiny, but apparently the word stone was once scone and the Scots confused a rock with a pastry. Maybe back then they overbaked their scones. This is why I say 8 minutes my dear Scots!

Stone of Destiny

2. A derivation of the Gaelic word “sgonn”, which would make the pronunciation of scone rhyme with gone. Sgonn means a shapeless mass or large mouthful. Obviously the Gaelic didn’t have 5 cm scone cutters.

A cut in half shapeless mass or mouthful

3. One of the two claims that the Oxford English Dictionary supports is that of the Dutch “schoonbrut”, meaning fine white bread. The first scones were made mostly of oat though, so I wonder why the OED thinks this claim is so likely.

I would call this a fine, white bread

4. The second OED supported theory is that the origin is the German word “sconbrut”, in English meaning a fine, beautiful bread. At least the OED acknowledges that the German sconbrut is so obviously related to the Dutch schoonbrut as to make them nearly identical that supporting these two theories is more like supporting only one.

A fine, beautiful bread with chocolate, almonds, and dried cherries?

So which answer is the truth? Which root word gave rise to our favorite risen pastry for afternoon tea? We may never really know…and yes insert ominous tone of voice right there for some fun.

Jun 09 2013

Recipe: Zebra Scones

Author: Jenna

What’s black and white and red all over? A chocolate and cream scone topped with strawberry jam!

Did you laugh? I know you probably didn’t. I know I’m not that funny. Sad Face Moment.

If you did laugh at my joke, that means you get scones! Though since I’m not a cruel person, if you didn’t laugh you can have scones too. There is no reason in the world to deprive a person of enjoying a scone, particularly when chocolate is involved.

Zebra Scone atop a cream and a double chocolate scone. It’s a Scone Tower!

This recipe came around when Mom and I made double chocolate scones and had some leftover double chocolate scone dough after rekneading and recutting the scraps. As it so happens, we also had some leftover cream scone dough for the same reason. It was my humble mother who doesn’t give herself enough credit who came up with the idea to combine the two scraps, and Zebra Scones were born.

These scones have the same great texture and rise as my go-to cream scone recipe but the flavor has an extra richness from the dark chocolate throughout. Anything with chocolate immediately lends itself well to something fruity and red, so these are a natural base for some strawberry or raspberry jam. Plus, since the cream portion is a tad savory and the chocolate half is a bitter dark chocolate, the sugar in the jam is a delicious treat.

And I dare you to come up with a better joke than mine 😉

Zebra Scones

Zebra Scones (Chocolate and Cream)

For cream scone dough:

Ingredients

200 g self raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
50 g ultrafine sugar
150 mL heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 220°C or 450°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Sift together flour and salt. Add sugar and mix. Incorporate the whipping cream and knead until ingredients form a dough. Continue kneading until dough has just become smooth. Cover with a dish towel and set aside.

For the double chocolate dough:

Ingredients

100 mL heavy whipping cream
60 g dark chocolate
200 g all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cocoa powder
50 g ultrafine baking sugar
80-100 mL water

Pour cream into a microwave safe bowl. Break chocolate into pieces and add to cream. Microwave on high for 1 minute, stirring afterwards until the chocolate melts into the cream and is smooth. Set aside and allow to come to room temperature.

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and mix.

Pour in the chocolate cream and mix until dough is beginning to moisten and cream is incorportated. Stir in just enough water to fully combine dough and knead until smooth.

Knead together the two doughs (cream scones and chocolate scones) until you get a swirled/striped/speckled/zebra effect. You do not want the doughs to fully blend with each other or else you won’t get the fun color contrast.

Roll out dough onto a floured surface. Pat down to desired thickness (1 cm) and use a floured scone cutter (5 cm) to cut scones and place on baking sheets. Bake scones for 6-8 minutes until risen and browning on top slightly. Remove immediately to cool on a wire rack.

Top with a sweet, red fruit jam and think of funny, possible punny, jokes. Leave said joke in comments under recipe because yours are just that much better than mine.

E.T. Scone Home!

Jun 04 2013

Review: Ye Olde Kings Head

Author: Jenna

Hidden behind the pub is a tearoom

I always knew about this British pub on a main street in Santa Monica. When I was moving to England, my mom and I ate there a few times to get me used to British cuisine (ironically while I was in England I rarely ate at pubs so it was all for nothing) and I always popped in to the attached shop to survey the British groceries and trinkets. But it was only recently that I discovered that this pub also had a tearoom, and was housing a secret that nearly made me weep for joy.

First Impressions and Service

Afternoon tea menu

The tearoom is hidden behind the main restaurant and the attached pub/bar. I imagine that it would be quite amusing to be enjoying afternoon tea during a rugby match or other high stakes sport, since your teatime would be punctuated with drunken brawls. As for service, maybe it was the day of the week (a weekday) or maybe they just brought British restaurant service to the States (notoriously slow), but it took a very long time to receive anything. We were sitting there for 10 minutes before our tea order was taken, then after ordering it took another 20 minutes or more for the stand to arrive. The waitress was nice and checked up on us a few times, but we definitely felt neglected. The rest of the restaurant wasn’t busy either so there really was no reason to abandon their two tea girls.

Décor

Think the quintessential British pub with white tablecloths. The walls are dark wood paneling surrounding red paint, and each little section has a portrait of a famous British king—including my favorite Henry VIII so the décor gained major points with me. Everything is wonderfully authentically British.

I am a Henry VIII fanatic!

The china all matches and was imported from Stoke-on-Trent. The food came with a little Union Jack stuck in the middle. The whole place is small, slightly dark, and very old-fashioned feeling, so basically like a true British pub outfitted into a tearoom. I couldn’t tell you how cramped you would feel or how loud it would be if the place were full; we were the only customers the entire afternoon.

Tea Selection

The tea selection is not extensive, only five teas and really only four since the fifth is a decaf version of one of the others. They are pretty much exactly what you would get if you ordered tea in a general British restaurant and not somewhere that specialized in tea: English Breakfast, Decaf English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Darjeeling, and Green Tea.

China from Stoke-on-Trent

Most people in England drink one of these four, so it isn’t surprising that Ye Olde Kings Head wouldn’t specialize in an extensive tea menu. But in truth, you are coming here for the British ambiance and experience and not a high quality tea. All the teas are brewed loose leaf, but the tea leaves are left in the pot so the tea gets bitter.

Pour over a strainer

You pour it into your cup over a strainer to catch any extra leaves. Thankfully hot water was brought midway through so the tea was warmed back up and lightened to slightly remove the bitterness. We both went with Earl Grey, and can really say nothing other than it was a standard expected Earl Grey. I really don’t think any Earl Grey is going to seem special after Buckingham Palace Garden Party.

Food

We shared the Afternoon Tea for Two service, which is basically a high tea as it comes with meats and quiche in addition to the typical sandwiches, scones, and desserts. All of their afternoon tea options that have sandwiches also have the sausage and quiche, so unless you order simple cream tea, be ready for a heartier meal than normal.

Sandwiches

Savory Course

Unfortunately for me, most of the sandwiches contained mayonnaise so I ended up not being able to eat them. The British obsession with adding mayonnaise to everything was a struggle while I was living there, but it also seems to be a trauma I blocked out of my memory as I definitely was not prepared to taste mayonnaise with my salmon. And all the sandwiches were triple decker, supplying more surface area for mayonnaise.

The egg salad with watercress on white bread and the salmon and cucumber both had mayo and the mayo was a very prevalent, overwhelming taste. You can try those and let me know how you like them. Enjoy mine as well.

The turkey, cream cheese, and cranberry on white bread was the first sandwich out of most tea rooms where the meat was so pureed or so thin that you couldn’t taste it. Here you are able to identify the meat as turkey because there is a real slice!

The final sandwich was an herbed cream cheese (possibly thyme?) and walnuts on wheat bread. It was pretty bland like most of the other sandwiches and savory offerings.

The sausage was made with beef and pork and surrounded in a pastry. As it was beef, I opted against trying it, but Mom did and said it was okay but needed some mustard. And American mustard at that because I’m warning you now, British mustard has a lot of horseradish in it. Definitely will clear your sinuses before you expect it. The quiche had a strong pepper flavor in the pastry; you can actually see the pepper flakes. The eggs inside are bland and don’t hold up to the overly hearty pastry. Unfortunately, their sandwich and savory course here falls into the stereotypical bland British food.

Scones

Scones!!!!

Here is the moment you have all been waiting for with bated breath; the scones almost made me cry. These were AUTHENTIC British scones, from texture, to taste, to toppings, to size. They were tender and only slightly crumbly. The predominant flavor is the butter not the sugar as in so many American scones. The mix-ins were golden raisins and sultanas! Literally I was brought back to my happy days in England, when my mom would visit me and we would have cream tea throughout the country in every town we visited.

And then there was the clotted cream.

CLOTTED CREAM!!! This stuff is the real deal.

Real, authentic, magically creamy clotted cream from Devon, England. I can’t even begin to describe to you the taste and mouthfeel experience of a bite of scone with true clotted cream and strawberry jam. Transcendent may be adequate? Heavenly? Pure? Comforting? Every positive adjective you can possibly think of can describe some aspect of this singular bite. Who cares about the bland sandwiches? Who cares about the overbrewed tea? Everything melts away with this scone.

Desserts

2 eclairs, a chocolate petit four, and a vanilla petit four

Only two desserts per person are served (which is totally okay considering for the first time ever Mom and I each ate an entire scone instead of sharing one and bringing leftovers). The chocolate éclair was surprisingly good. The choux was nice and chewy and the vanilla cream light and sweet. The chocolate glaze and powdered sugar were not overpowering either. It was a solid éclair and in the correct portion size (here’s looking at you The Andersens).

A cream ball?

The petit four was a simple sponge cake with a ball of cream on top of it covered in a sugar frosting. The cake was dense and the cream was pointless and the frosting was pure sugar. The chocolate one was mildly better, but in general the petit fours should go the same way as the sandwiches.

Extras

Attached to the entire restaurant building is a British store and bakery that sells anything British. Everything is imported from the UK and almost, almost, feels like walking into a mini Tesco, but more based in knickknacks and candy bars. The bakery sells their scones—we now have 11 in our freezer—and other British baked goods such as Eccles cakes, flapjacks, and tiffins. If you’ve been to England, the bakery case is like a peek into memory lane. They also sell clotted cream, real clotted cream, so stock up while you’re here! There is also an adorable selection of British teacups and teapots that are really difficult to resist.

Beauties

The tea service is by far not the best as a whole, but I will be returning here for one reason alone: the scones. Don’t waste your money on the full shebang of high tea at Ye Olde Kings Head. Come for the scones, stay for the scones, and leave with scones and clotted cream in your bag as well as your belly.

Visit Ye Olde Kings Head at 116 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA, 90401. (310) 451-1402. Cost per person for afternoon tea: $17.98.

Jun 02 2013

Recipe: Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Author: Jenna

My favorite fruit is strawberries, but this comes with a problem. When strawberries are bad, they are terrible, tart, and tasteless. Luckily, the strawberries sold at my local farmer’s market are the best strawberries you will ever taste. Gaviotas they are called by the farmers at Harry’s Berries, but they should be called Perfection. These are the most incredible strawberries I have ever tasted.

So naturally, I had to turn them into scones. Only logical progression, right?

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Gaviotas are incredibly sweet on their own and have a very strong flavor, so I felt that my usual scone recipe would have a too marked taste itself to meld with the strawberries. The two would be battling for supremacy, not enhancing each other’s deliciousness. Instead, I chose to mellow the scone’s flavor using a mascarpone cheese base and adding vanilla bean paste for supporting the Gaviotas.

Mascarpone is a mild Italian cream cheese reminiscent of butter or British clotted cream (that wonderful spread that improves almost any scone); using it as the binding agent and fat source in the dough made for a wonderfully creamy and delicate scone. The scone’s interior will literally melt in your mouth as the essence of the strawberries permeates every bite.

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Strawberries–or at least this variety–are an interesting fruit to bake with. Most berries seem to become almost more tart and brightened once heated, but these strawberries seemed to mellow. Maybe it was the mascarpone and vanilla’s influences, but these strawberry scones were not strawberry-candy-esque, but rather the summer British dessert of Strawberries and Cream turned into a scone.

These are perfect for a sophisticated, feminine occasion like a baby shower tea party. Do not top with anything other than the thinnest layer of clotted cream. The scones are moist enough to not need a topping, and an additional flavor will overwhelm the soft strawberries.

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

Ingredients

200 g all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
50 g ultrafine baking sugar
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
1/2 tsp vanilla paste or 1 scraped vanilla bean
200 g mascarpone
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 220°C or 450°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add sugar and mix until well blended. Toss in strawberries until they are well dispersed.

Work in the vanilla paste and mascarpone until the dough has formed even sized clumps. Sprinkle water over dough and knead until clumps come together. This is an extremely wet dough.

Place on a heavily floured work surface and pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Cut out scones with a cutter (5 cm) dipped in more flour and place on baking sheet. Knead scraps back together and repeat until the majority of the dough has been used. In between kneading rounds, replenish the work surface’s flour coating.

Bake for 7-9 minutes until lightly browned on top. These will rise only a little bit.

Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Savor.

May 28 2013

Review: Paris in a Cup

Author: Jenna

Even napkins are in theme

You walk into a 1940’s movie set in Paris: the outdoor café, the primped poodles, the quintessential combination of French pink and black behind the silhouette of the Eiffel Tower. Sure it may seem overly touristy and not authentic to what walking through the streets of Paris is actually like to experience, but who cares? This is Hollywood’s take on Paris, and you are ready for your close-up. Welcome to Paris in a Cup, a tearoom in Orange, California.

First Impressions and Service

You initially walk into a cluttered store that sells all manner of things tea and France related. Here the hostess takes you to your table to be waited upon by a French maid. No, seriously, all the employees are wearing all black outfits to showcase their frilly “French” aprons. I wonder if the kitchen staff is wearing aprons too. Our server was nice though bland, and her service skills were average. We never felt rushed, which is a good thing for an afternoon tea. But she didn’t seem very knowledgeable about the teas, more like she was just remembering the names of the menu items without any particular expertise or opinions about what she was naming off. We also had to ask multiple times for a few items, but she was always good about checking up on us. Overall the placed seem well staffed and there was nothing to complain about regarding service, but nothing to rave about either.

A nice accommodation they make is any purchases you wish to make in the store can be added to your dining check; there is no need for two separate transactions.

Décor

Tea Salon

As I set the scene above, this tearoom’s décor was inspired by the owner’s favorite Paris-set films of the 1940’s. Everything is a variation on that French pink, black, and brown color scheme, from the walls to the menus, from the upholstery to the wrought iron canopy over a large table. It is like stepping straight into tourism Paris. It reminds me of a Parisian salon in a rather upscale hotel.

Table setting

Which in this case is honestly not a bad thing. Unlike many tearooms, Paris in a Cup is not overly kitschy and floral. The space is rather open, airy, and sophisticated. There are crystal chandeliers, vases of fresh flowers, and plenty of space between tables. Another great thing about the room is the perfect noise level. It is not so loud that you can’t hear your tea companions, but is not so quiet that you feel uncomfortable having a conversation without being overheard.

Tea Selection

The teas are all brewed loose leaf and removed before your pot arrives at your table; in my opinion this is the best way to serve tea! No overbrewing your leaves, no bitter tea, and no tea bags J. Unfortunately like most other places there was no means of keeping the pots hot much less warm, so by the end of the meal our six-cup pot of tea was once again cold.

The selection is well sourced from a variety of tea sourcing companies like Mighty Leaf, Harney & Sons, and Les Palais de Thes. This means that not only are there the options of white, green, oolong, black, and tisane teas, but there are multiple options for individual flavors. Want an Earl Grey or an orange black tea? You can choose the distributer you prefer. This would be an interesting touch if the waitress had known more about the nuances of the teas we were asking about.

Vanille with milk and sugar

We ordered the traditional Earl Grey selection that we always choose as well as a vanilla tea for me. The vanilla tea (Vanille from Damman Freres) was nicely sweet even before adding milk and sugar and was well balanced between the strength of the black tea and the notes of vanilla bean. The Earl Grey (Earl Grey The des Lords from Le Palais de Thes) lacked the listed notes of safflower petals, so out of the Earl Grey options this would not be recommended.

Food

All famous French women eat cake

Le Menu is an adorable ode to French women, with combinations of items with such names as Juliette, Geneviere, Madame du Barry, and Marie Antoinette. There is a selection of sandwiches, salads, and soups that sound very appetizing, but we went with the The Pour Deux: six assorted tea sandwiches, two scones with crème and jam, and six petit fours.

The Pour Deux

And tea of course (by the way, the is French for tea). This meal was the perfect size to split between two and satisfy us with no leftovers.

Sandwiches

The presentation was fantastic. Each sandwich had its own unique design so they were easy to differentiate.

Parisian Egg Salad

The Parisian egg salad was made with a red pepper along with the mayonnaise, and that pepper flavor masked the mayonnaise enough to where I could have eaten the sandwich if there had been no other food options available to me. And that is high praise. It was served on a delightfully hearty wheat bread.

Cucumber Flower

The classic cucumber was an open-faced white bread flower (not Wonder Bread!) topped with a dill cream cheese and a fresh cucumber slice. I love dill; I think it is the perfect herb to accompany cucumber. The presence of dill always elevates a simple cucumber sandwich to an ultimate height of refreshment, as it did here, while still maintaining a lightness. That is the beauty of this cucumber sandwich. It is light yet substantial.

Chicken Salad Croissant

Now the chicken sandwich on a mini croissant stole the entire meal from attention. Barely any mayonnaise meant that I could enjoy it! The croissant was either a little stale or it was toasted, which gave it a nice texture that could hold up the chicken salad. The salad was a mix of grilled chicken, mayo, almonds, red and green grapes, and chopped celery. This alone would make me return!

Scones

I’ve had bad scones, but I don’t feel like I can even call what they served scones, so I guess I can’t call them bad. Both flavors of scones were less scone and more of a thick disc cookie that crumbled before you could even consider adding cream and jam. The first was an orange-cranberry-white chocolate scone.

Orange-Cranberry-White Chocolate Scone

The flavor was too sweet and too pronounced; blending three strong flavors together into one small package made for overwhelming the taste buds. Don’t even think about topping it with the stiff “crème fraiche” or marionberry jam because that would just be flavor overload. The second scone option was a raw sugar scone, which was great if you were seeking a really good sugar cookie.

Raw Sugar Scone

But a sugar cookie is not a scone, and again it crumbled and couldn’t hold up the crème and jam. As for texture, there was no rise on the scones so there was little more than the crust part of the scone, barely any of the fluffy interior that you seek in a great scone. Nothing about the cream or jam stood out. In fact, this part of the meal was a huge disappointment.

Desserts

Desserts!

While failing at the scones, Paris in a Cup redeemed themselves a bit with the desserts. All of them were done very well and very decadently. The lemon curd tart with a crème fraiche topping was well balanced and complementary between the buttery crust, tangy curd, and sweet cream.

The raspberry topped cheesecake with a marble chocolate shard and graham cracker crust was also a great dessert to highlight how multiple flavors can complement each other. The crust was super thin, allowing the light and creamy cheesecake to take center stage. The raspberry white chocolate added some excellent body to the cheesecake layer.

Finally the chocolate mousse teacup was the ultimate in chocoholic indulgence. It was chocolatey!! Decadent and rich, the dessert was wonderfully creamy and dense. And I could totally picture my eight-year-old cousin trying to drink the mousse from the chocolate cup. Sorry, but it is definitely too thick for that!

Extras

Paris in a Cup Store

The attached store sells their teas, some French desserts like macarons, Paris decorated knickknacks, and jewelry. It is worth a look around. We picked up a magazine, a book on tea, and a jar of pistachio curd from L’Epicerie that I am dying to try out.

Paris in a Cup Store

Reservations are a good idea, but we showed up early and were seated early with plenty of open tables. The surrounding area is full of antique shops, literally the entire block, so this is the perfect tearoom to take a break from your antiquing.

Overall, Paris in a Cup is a nice respite from the flowered pink of other tearooms. It is full of little touches that make the place a great experience, from the décor to the menu names and the little store. But as the scones are subpar, when we next return we will be sticking to trying some of their enticing sounding items on the daily menu. Or maybe we’ll just split a full sized chicken salad sandwich!

Visit Paris in a Cup Tea Salon and Café at 119 S Glassell St, Orange, CA, 92866. (714) 538-9411. Cost per person: $22.00.

May 26 2013

Recipe: Butter-Me-Up Scones

Author: Jenna

Sometimes plain and simple is just what the doctor ordered. Though I doubt any doctor would encourage consuming massive quantities of these buttery goodness morsels, therapists definitely would. What could be a better mood elevator than one of these crunchy, fluffy, creamy, butter scones topped with a sweet red fruit preserve and thick clotted cream?

Answer: Nothing. Duh.

Most scones I make have heavy whipping cream as their liquid base, but these scones use butter and sour cream to give them that slightly salty tang that sets them apart. Their tops get a little brown and crunchy (which can be enhanced with an optional egg wash that I chose to forego) and just beg for a topping. They may be simple, but I prefer to call them classic. They rise quite a bit, like a solid scone should, and have a pretty amazingly light crumb interior.

These are great scones to taste test jams and curds on because their flavor is not overwhelming but rather complementary to anything you put on it. The slight amount of salt will really enhance any spread’s sweetness, all the more reason to try some lemon curd on these wonders!

Butter-Me-Up Scones

Butter-Me-Up Crunchy Butter Scones

Ingredients

200 g all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
70 g unsalted butter, softened and cubed
50 g ultrafine baking sugar
50 g sour cream
70-90 mL whole milk

Preheat oven to 220°C (450°F). Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs in texture (this may take awhile). Add in sugar and sour cream, then the milk–enough to form a dough. Knead until almost smooth.

Place on a floured surface and pat down to desired thickness (1 cm). Use a biscuit cutter to cut out scones of desired width (5 cm). Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Bake for about 8 minutes, until browned on the edges.

Serve with strawberry jam or lemon curd. Or eat plain 😉

May 14 2013

Review: High Tea Cottage

Author: Jenna

A back alley side street is the last place I’d think to look for a tearoom, but there one is in the heart of Thousand Oaks. Tiny, unobtrusive, and impossible to find unless you know exactly where you are going, this is not a tearoom you find by being a walk-in customer. High Tea Cottage is a tearoom find for the tea connoisseur, or at least the Yelp! tearoom stalker.

First Impressions and Service

High Tea Cottage is run by a British couple and is available only through reservations. I had to call multiple days before we could get in to try the place, but when we arrived there were plenty of empty tables and they sat us early. But since the husband is the only one managing the tea side of the menu and the wife takes care of all the food and additional service, they definitely could not handle a high volume of guests. I believe in addition to the wife, there is one chef in the kitchen who used to run the restaurant at The Peninsula.

The Devonshire Cream and Jam cart

I was excited that the owners were from England, as I am obsessed with England and really miss the country, so I usually relish the opportunity to talk to British people, but the husband made us both feel rather awkward and unwelcome, not the sort of person I’m going to enter into conversation with. His wife, on the other hand, was lovely and we spoke for quite some time after our meal. Whereas anything related to the tea side we felt downright nervous to speak, with the food/merchandise transactions handled by the wife we felt like we were welcomed into someone’s home. But if I had to pluck up the courage to ask half of the service team for a simple fork (literally was afraid of the husband’s facial expression should I ask for an extra utensil), there is a bit of a problem. Again, though, the wife was a pleasure to interact with and I’m looking forward to future conversations with her.

Décor

The Sitting Room

The two rooms we could see, the “parlors,” were decorated like someone’s home. Nothing was over the top and gaudy, just simple, elegant, and what I would expect from a parlor in a typical British household. Some pink but not so much that you feel like you are in a dollhouse, white cabinets and shelves with assorted tea kettles and knickknacks, numerous small tables spaced well enough apart. There was one really cute table with two armchairs facing a window that seemed like it would be the most pleasant seat in the restaurant, also the one that would make you feel most like you were in a sitting room.

Matching china!

The china all matched, which is a departure from most tearooms. The obsessive-compulsive side of me was well satisfied.

Tea Selection

Yet another tearoom with an overwhelming selection, and many of them sounded delicious. To help with your selection, the husband brings over a tea cart with small jars of all the teas for you to smell and choose.

Tea cart, a brilliant idea with a chilly reception

But he warns you rather strongly that after smelling sevenish teas there is no more point to smelling them since your nose won’t differentiate anymore. I was paranoid of smelling too many teas after that. We started with the usual Earl Grey selection and smelled all four of their Earl Greys before settling on the best tea I’ve ever had: Buckingham Palace Garden Party. A lighter black tea, Buckingham Palace Garden Party is an Earl Grey with a hint of Jasmine and cornflower. We bought some to take home and have been enjoying it daily ever since.

Our second tea choice was a vanilla chai, definitely not a stellar choice. I was rudely instructed not to add milk to my tea as that would eliminate the chai flavor. Sorry, but I like a small splash of milk in my chai, though I chose to forgo that rather than get scolded. In the end I wish I’d stuck with Mom’s Buckingham tea.

So this is a tea cozy

The tea was left in the pot to overbrew, like almost every place it seems like, but at least the tea was kept warm throughout our meal because they wrapped the teapots in flowery tea cozies. And now I know what a tea cozy is, hereby enhancing my Harry Potter references (insert images of Dobby the House Elf dancing naked wearing a tea cozy, I dare you).

Food

High Tea Cottage offers a wide selection of set afternoon tea service menus designed around regions that partake in the afternoon tea tradition. There is an American, French, British, Traditional, and Australian tea service each with their own assorted selections as well as smaller options and a choose-your-own course menu. We opted for the Traditional Service (finger sandwiches, two scones with spreads, desserts, tea) and split it for an extra charge. The extra charge gets you an extra set of finger sandwiches, but the additional pot of tea is separate.

Sandwiches

With no choice as to sandwich selection (though I believe if you are vegetarian they won’t serve you the ham or chicken sandwich), what you are served is what you eat, luckily it wasn’t always a bad thing.

Cucumber and butter, chicken salad, egg salad, ham and butter, apricot chutney

The requisite egg (curried egg here) on half white half wheat bread had mayo. I know it’s standard for egg salad, but I still won’t touch it. Mom said it was nothing special, just tasted like curry powder.

Their chicken sandwich was a cranberry walnut chicken salad (mayonnaise and all) on wheat bread that was actually pleasant. Cranberries, nuts, and chicken is a fairly mild combination of flavors that I doubt anyone without a nut allergy can object to. A standard tea sandwich, and it was done nicely here.

Ham and butter as well as cucumber and butter (cucumber with butter as opposed to cream cheese is a very British swap) were both on white bread and nothing to write home about. Nothing to complain about, but nothing to stand out either. The cucumbers were fresh thin slices instead of the marinated cucumbers we’ve been seeing lately.

For me, the stand out finger sandwich was the apricot chutney, swiss, and butter on half white half wheat bread. It was a pleasant change of sandwich flavors and the tang of the apricot chutney blended nicely with the slight sourness of the swiss and the creaminess of the butter. I wish there had been another one of these instead of the egg, but again that’s based on my egg/mayonnaise phobias.

Scones

Raisin scones

The two raisin scones tasted like a revelation compared to the cookie/pound cake scones we’ve been tasting. These scones tasted like…scones! A novel concept in the tearooms of America it would seem, but the sweetness in these reasonable sized scones came solely from the raisins and not an excess of sugar being added to the dough. Mom doesn’t like raisins, but we both agreed that these scones have been the best thusfar. Again, they were not too sweet, but even better was the texture. There was a slightly dense, tender crumb, with the scone holding together nicely for topping with cream and jam. They didn’t puff up at all, which is a characteristic I usually associate with British scones, but I’ll overlook that for the flavor.

Devonshire Cream, Homemade Lemon Curd, Homemade Blackberry Jam

Devonshire cream was automatic, but we were given the option of two from lemon curd, blackberry jam, raspberry jam, and apricot jam. We chose blackberry jam and lemon curd, and both were excellent choices. The cream was more of the correct consistency instead of the sweetened whipped cream that passes for Devon cream elsewhere. It also wasn’t overly sweet, sugar being something the British don’t seem to require in the same quantities that Americans do. The lemon curd was a subtle balance between sweet and tart, and the jam tasted like the fruit it was made from. The combination of scone, cream, and jam/curd was perfection.

Desserts

Assorted homemade and imported desserts

Here was where I was afraid to ask for a second fork. It should’ve made sense to bring an extra dessert utensil knowing we were sharing the service, but apparently not. The first two desserts were from Switzerland: two mini tarts. Both tart shells tasted like nothing more than saltine crackers and butter, and when I say mini I mean mini. One bite mini. One was “filled” with a thimble of caramel and topped with cream and a blueberry; the other was “filled” with strawberry jam, cream, and topped with a strawberry and chocolate leaf. They were too small to even be of notice.

Now, I am a cream-puff girl. I know it sounds odd after my ranting about the Napoleon at The Andersen’s, but a well-done bite-sized cream puff is a pleasure in my book. Mom isn’t a fan of cream puffs, so I was more than willing to take the entire brunt of the taste testing on this dessert. And it turns out, I wouldn’t have wanted to share anyway. It may have been the best cream puff I’ve ever had. Soft and chewy choux pastry with a lightly sweetened vanilla cream rolled in powdered sugar. The only improvement would’ve been if it had been chilled, but I’m weird in that I’ll eat frozen cream puffs.

The best dessert was a slice of chocolate cake that was lighter than air. Midway through the slice was a layer of the most delicate raspberry vanilla mousse. One slice of that cake was definitely not enough, though with how excellent it was I doubt that an entire cake of it would be enough.

Extras

All of their teas are sold loose-leaf in the entrance to the tearoom, as well as an assortment of china teapots and teacups with beautiful floral designs. I believe all the china is imported from England, but I know for a fact that some of them are. If you ask, you can also buy scones to take home with you, and as they had just finished baking a batch of pomegranate scones, we snatched those right up out of the oven for car ride enjoyment. A few days later, I discovered that the pomegranate scones are even better than the raisin.

If you can tolerate the chilly reception from the husband and the hushed noise level, High Tea Cottage is a gem. It’s authentic British with a menu that will keep you coping back to try the other country-inspired tea menus. The tea selection is fantastic, but I know I will always choose the Buckingham Palace Gardens. I’ll be back here to review the other tea menus for sure, and I definitely won’t leave without a chat with the wife and a couple of scones to go.

Visit High Tea Cottage at 21938 Constanso Street, Woodland Hills, CA, 91362; (818) 887-2117. Cost per afternoon tea service: $22.00 for Traditional Tea Time for one with $10.00 split fee. Reservations required, closed Tuesday.

May 12 2013

Recipe: Rustic Chocolate Cherry Almond Scones

Author: Jenna

It’s a Sunday, which means I have a new recipe for the afternoon tea party I know you are throwing your mother or mother-in-law today. Mother’s Day is the perfect occasion for an afternoon tea, and it’s a great way to get the men in our lives hooked on one of our favorite pastimes. Because since it’s Mother’s Day, they have to go along with whatever their mothers want, and every mother should want afternoon tea. More importantly, every mother should want these scones at their afternoon tea.

Rustic Chocolate Cherry Almond Scones

Cherry and almond extract is a traditional combination; cherry and chocolate is a traditional combination. Chocolate cherry almond should be a required combination. The flavors just complement each other perfectly in a delightfully sweet scone. Baking fruit enhances and concentrates its natural sugars, so the cherry flavor really pops against the almond extract. Almond extract is a tricky ingredient. It seems that any recipe that uses even the slightest bit of almond extract tastes overwhelmingly of marzipan (anyone else notice that almond extract tastes nothing like the almonds we snack on?). So the fresh cherries and the semisweet chocolate are necessary contrasts to the strongly sweet almond.

I made these scones two ways as part of my fresh fruit vs. dried fruit experiments. You can use either, but the verdict around the house was that the fresh fruit was a small margin better than the dried fruit. But the dried cherries were tart, adding an new flavor profile to these sweet scones that cut through the saccharine almond extract taste.

As for the scones themselves, they don’t rise much, yet they aren’t dense so they retain their “sconeness” instead of becoming like a pound cake. The three flavors are wonderfully sophisticated and well-matched. The key to the flavors working is good, fresh, ripe cherries. When baking with fruit, your result really is only as good as the produce you use. So investing in sweet cherries is definitely worth it. Dad LOVED them. If we served them at afternoon tea, he’d be there every time.

These are best served with only an unsweetened whipping cream or traditional clotted cream (everything is improved served with clotted cream). Jam is a big no-no since there are already three flavors and a fourth would just overpower your taste buds and drown everything else out.

Happy Mother’s Day! So go make these incredibly delicious scones to make up for all the missed phone calls over the last year; you may even make up for some future ones!

Rustic Chocolate Cherry Almond Scones

Rustic Chocolate Cherry Almond Scones

Recipe adapted from Scones & Tea from TeaTime Magazine

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 ultrafine baking sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed (1 stick)
3 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup chopped fresh cherries or dried tart cherries
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp almond extract
almond slivers to top

Preheat oven to 425F. Place oven rack at the top of the oven. These scones don’t rise much, so don’t worry. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. Cut in the butter and cream cheese (the recipe says use a pastry cutter, but I use a different method that’ll be coming up in another post) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add cherries and chocolate chips, mixing until evenly distributed.

In a measuring cup, combine cream and almond extract. Add to flour mixture, folding it in until dry ingredients are moistened. (When doing the dried cherry version, the dough will be drier without the moisture from the fruit, so add more cream 1 tbsp at a time until the dough comes together. I only needed one additional tablespoon.)

Knead dough a few times until most of the ingredients are incorporated into a single ball of dough. Be careful not to overwork it. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll or pat out to desired thickness (my standard is 1-1.5 cm). Cut out scones with a floured 5 cm scone cutter. Place on parchment paper. Optional to sprinkle with slivered or sliced almonds.

Bake 11-13 minutes until scone edges are beginning to turn a golden color. Immediately let cool on a wire rack.

Rustic Chocolate Cherry Almond Scones

Serve with clotted cream, your favorite black tea, and a hug for Mom.

The Art of Afternoon Tea from Los Angeles and Beyond