Tea with milk and spices

I hosted a Tea Party last week and there is a recipe for those who found it interesting.
This recipe makes 8 cups. You will need:
- 1 qt.water
- 1 qt. whole milk
- 1/2 tsp. ground cardamon (I didn't add it, it was too expensive to buy)
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp.ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 tsp. loose tea leaves (I used 4 bags of fruit berry tea, LDS version)
- 1/2 cup honey

Combine water and milk in large saucepan; bring to boil. Reduce heat to very low. Add spices and vanilla. Cover and simmer for 12 minutes. Remove from heat, add tea and steep for 5 minutes. Strain into a pitcher or pot, add honey and mix well.

That's it! Warm up with a cup of winter tea!

Cake "Fruit Maze"

I get it now. They say, "Never try a new recipe on friends... if you still want to keep them!" I hope I didn't loose my friends last Saturday, but I tried a new recipe for cake known as "Fruit Maze".

You don’t perm your hair the day of prom, wear new shoes to run a marathon, or apply self-tanner before a job interview (quote by A. Goto). But I was talking to my aunt in Russia and she tried a new cake on some one's birthday party. From her words recipe sounded really easy and I decided to try it for the party....My kitchen ended up being very messy, almost like this cartoon.


And I didn't think that the cake was a big success, but I took some leftovers to work and my co-workers found it tasty. Ha-ha-ha! That's the secret ingredient - cake needs to be tree days old to start taste good!

So, if you are brave enough, let me introduce you recipe for my new creation "Fruit Maze"!!!
You will need:
For the dough: 1cup of sour cream, 2 eggs, 1 cup of sugar, 2 TBS soft butter, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 3-3 1/2 cups of flour.
For liquid cream: 3 cups of sour cream + 1 cup of water, 1 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 TBS vanilla.


For filling: 1 1/2 cups of raisins, washed and dried.

1 1/2 cups of dried apricots, chopped.

1 1/2 cups of dried pitted prunes, chopped.

I also added 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts. They go well with dried fruits.


Dough: mix flour with baking soda. Add soft butter. Add sour cream. , sugar and eggs. Mix well into ball.

Divide into 3 smaller balls.

Roll each ball with rolling pin into flat circle about 5 mm width.

Spread each dried fruit filling over the dough circle. Sprinkle with walnuts, if desire.

Fold the edge of the dough covering part of the filling.

Carefully roll it into Swiss roll. Press ends sealing the edges.

Repeat with two other fillings.

Place rolls filled with dried fruits and walnut onto greased baking sheet.

Tricky part is baking. This kind of dough needs really low temperature. 350F or 180C is the highest temperature you can afford. It takes about 20-25 minutes to get rolls done.

Coll them down. Cut into small pieces about 1/2 inch wide.

In a meantime, mix 3 cups of sour cream with water and sugar, add vanilla. (Water is necessary to make your cream runny.... (Это русскую сметану не нужно разбавлять водой, она и так жидкая. А вот в американской сметане стоит ложка, поэтому добавляю воду, чтобы можно было обмакивать кусочки рулета в жидкий крем..)

Now fun part. Dump each piece into liquid cream mixture and line them into shallow dish layer by layer. Make sure you dip them generously. It will make your cake softer and moist.

After you use all liquid cream, cover it up with plastic and let stand for 4-5 hours at the room temperature. Than 24 hours in a fridge. That amount of time will let cake soak into sour cream mixture. Remember, it was good on the third day in my case?

It was a little bit of a time-consuming recipe, but new and fun to try. Happy cooking!

Русская версия рецепта:

Для теста: 1 стакана сахара, 2 яйца, 1 стакан сахара, 2 столовые ложки мягкого масла, 18 гр соды (1 ч.л.), муки сколько возьмет, где-то 3-3.5 стакана.

Начинка: 300 грамм чернослива, 300 грамм изюма, 300 грамм кураги.

Крем:
1 л сметаны 20%. Она должна быть жидкая.
1,5 стакана сахара, ванилин

Муку смешать с разрыхлителем и растереть с размягченным маслом. Добавить сметану, сахар и яйцо и замесить пластичное тесто.
Готовое тесто разделить на 4 части. Каждую раскатать в прямоугольник толщиной около 5 мм, намазать начинкой и свернуть рулетом. Рулеты выпечь при 180 градусах до готовности (минут 20). Остудить.
Остывшие рулеты нарезать кусочками толщиной 1,5-2 см.
Форму диаметром 22 см выстелить внутри пищевой пленкой. На дно налить немного крема и плотно уложить кусочки рулета плашмя. Залить кремом. Опять кусочки рулета и крем. И так, пока рулет не закончится. Сверху залить кремом.
Готовый торт оставить пропитываться на сутки, причем первые 4-5 часов при комнатной температуре.
Через сутки перевернуть торт на блюдо, снять форму вместе с пленкой. Залить шоколадной глазурью.

Для начинки курагу и чернослив распарить до мягкости и попустить через мясорубку. Хорошенько перемешать.

Для крема сметану смешать с сахаром и ванилином. Взбивать не нужно.

Приятного аппетита!