Besides making a cup of tea, what else can you do with tea leaves? With fragrant teas like Earl Grey (flavoured with bergamot oil) and Lapsang Suchong (with its strong smoky notes), one possibility is to grind it to use as a flavouring in biscuits.
I recently had some little Earl Grey biscuits from Fortnum and Mason, part of a mixed selection tin. They were very hard and not particularly appealing, and I thought I could do better.
Fortnum’s Earl Grey biscuit (left) and my own Earl Grey shortbread (right)
I love it when hotels provide a glass jar of home-made biscuits, typically shortbread, next to the coffee/ tea station in your room or residents’ lounge. I rarely make shortbread or indeed any other type of small biscuit. Here are recipes for Classic Shortbread (2020) and Lavender Shortbread (2014).
Today’s recipe is based on the simple shortbread from NY Times Cooking, which I slightly upgraded with the addition of ground Earl Grey tea leaves and orange zest. These two flavourings are ground with the sugar, then added to the butter, flour and salt to make the shortbread dough. Instead of making one tray of shortbread then cutting into pieces, I rolled the dough before cutting into slices then baking them individually.
Grinding the sugar with tea leaves and orange zest as a flavouring
The biscuits produced a lovely aroma when baking in the oven
For the Shortbread:
105 g golden caster sugar
1 tablespoon (around 8 g) Earl Grey tea leaves
Zest of two oranges, grated
225 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
270 g plain flour
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt (use ½ teaspoon if you prefer less salt)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon orange oil (I use Boyajian brand)
You will also need 2 large baking sheets, lined with baking paper.
How to Make:
First, make the flavoured sugar by grinding the sugar, tea leaves and orange zest in a small grinder until it is very fine. If using the Thermomix, grind 10 seconds / speed 10, scrape down the sides of the TM bowl, then repeat.
Place the butter in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer (I used a KitchenAid) fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat at medium-high speed until pale and creamy.
Add the flavoured sugar, flour, salt, vanilla extract and orange oil.
Continue beating on a medium-low speed until the dough just comes together.
Divide the dough into two, which should weigh around 305 g each half.
Form each half into a sausage and wrap in clingfilm. Rest the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
When you are ready to make the biscuits, preheat the oven to 160°C fan/ 180°C electric.
Remove one roll of dough from the fridge. Unwrap the cling film and slice the dough into ½ inch / 1.2 cm pieces.
Place the pieces a little apart on a baking sheet. Repeat with the other roll of dough.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until the biscuits are slightly golden around the edges.
Cool the biscuits on a rack. Store in a tupperware or tin when they are fully cooled.
The shortbread turned out very well, and my next biscuit bake would be the same using Lapsang Suchong tea leaves.
Sit the rolled biscuit dough in ‘crib’ made from the cardboard centre of a paper kitchen towel roll, so it remains round at the bottom when chilling
Simply slice the biscuit dough straight from the fridge
The biscuits before and after baking
