HIGH TEA IDEAS AND RECIPES

HIGH TEA IDEAS AND RECIPES
High-tea sandwiches (1)
Buy a loaf of fresh white bread from your local bakery. Cut it into thin slices and spread with soft butter or mayonnaise. Make sandwiches with combinations such as shaved ham and thinly sliced cucumber; shaved beef with a little mustard and a few rocket leaves; and smoked salmon and cream cheese with some finely shredded lettuce. Cut the crusts off the bread and dip one edge of each sandwich into finely sliced fresh chives or alfalfa sprouts.

Flower-shaped mango cakes (2)
Drain one can of mango slices and reserve the juice. Cut the fruit into smaller pieces. Beat together 250ml butter and 300 ml sugar until light. Beat in five large eggs, one at a time. Sift together 625 ml cake flour, 5 ml baking powder and a pinch of salt. Fold in alternately with 75 ml milk and 50 ml of the reserved mango juice. Fold in the fruit. Pour the batter into flower-shaped silicone cake moulds. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 20 minutes or until cooked through. Cool and remove from the moulds, then dust with icing sugar.

Strawberry and rose-petal cheesecake (3)
140 g digestive biscuits, crushed
60 g butter, melted
FILLING
15 g gelatine
45 ml cold water
500 ml sour cream
150 g brown sugar
400 g ricotta
5 ml vanilla essence
100 g fresh strawberries, chopped
fresh rose petals and strawberries, to decorate
Mix the biscuits and melted butter together. Press into a 20 cm spring form tin and refrigerate.
FILLING
Put the gelatine into a bowl and cover with the cold water.
Leave for two minutes then melt in the micro-wave and stir to dissolve.
Heat the sour cream and sugar together in a saucepan over a low heat until the sugar has melted. Remove from the heat and stir some of the mixture into the gelatine mixture, then stir the gelatine mixture into the remaining cream mixture. Set aside to cool.
Process the ricotta in a blender until smooth. Add to the sour cream mixture and blend again. Add the vanilla essence and pour into the base. Stir in the chopped strawberries. Refrigerate until firm. Decorate with the rose petals and the fresh strawberries.

Lavender scones (4)
80 ml (75 g) cold butter, cubed
410 ml (225 g) self-raising flour
45 ml (40 g) castor sugar
10 ml chopped fresh lavender flowers
1 large egg
30 ml buttermilk
berry or cherry jam and whipped cream, to serve
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Rub the butter into the flour. Add the castor sugar and lavender. Add the egg and buttermilk and mix together quickly; don’t over mix. If the dough seems a bit too dry, add a little more buttermilk.
Roll out to 2,5cm thickness on a lightly floured board. Cut out scone shapes with a scone cutter. Place them onto a greased and dusted baking tray. Brush with a little extra buttermilk and dust with a little flour. Bake in a preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool and serve with jam and whipped cream.

Cheat‘s savoury croissants (5)
750 ml (410 g) cake flour
25 ml baking powder
50 ml (45 g) butter, cubed
400 ml grated Cheddar cheese
125 ml crumbled feta cheese
6 slices of salami, chopped
15 ml finely snipped chives
1 large egg, beaten
180 ml buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Sift the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt together in a bowl. Rub in the butter, then stir in the cheeses, salami and chives.
In a separate bowl, combine the egg, buttermilk and 60ml water. Stir into the dry ingredients. Divide into two. Roll each portion into a circle (about 26 cm in diameter) on a floured surface. Cut into eight slices (like pizza slices). Roll each slice up, starting at the rounded edge and ending at the point. Turn the outer corners inwards to form a crescent.
Place onto a greased baking tray and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Cheese and herb quiche (6)
60 ml butter
6 sheets phyllo pastry
3 leeks, thinly sliced
250 ml grated mature Cheddar cheese
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
150 ml cream
30 ml each chopped parsley and chives
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Heat a saucepan and melt the butter. Brush a sheet of phyllo pastry with the butter. Cover with another sheet of pastry. Repeat to make six layers.
Cut large enough to fit a rectangular or round quiche tin, allowing extra so the pastry can hang over the top of the tin.
Fry the leeks in the butter that remains in the pan. Once they are soft, spoon into the prepared pastry.
Whisk the remaining ingredients together and pour into the pastry. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until set and golden.

Apple cake with Earl Grey apples (7)
125 ml (115 g) soft butter
250 ml castor sugar
5 ml grated lemon zest
3 extra-large eggs
230 ml Bulgarian yoghurt
1 green apple, peeled and diced
400 ml (260 g) cake flour
5 ml ground cinnamon
2,5 ml bicarbonate of soda
5 ml baking powder
Earl Grey apples (see below)
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Beat the butter and castor sugar together until light. Add the lemon zest, then the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the yoghurt and the apple.
Sift the flour, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder together and fold into the butter mixture. Spoon into a greased and lined 20cm cake tin. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Cool, then ice with a glacé icing and decorate.

EARL GREY APPLES
Heat 350 ml water in a sauce-pan. Add three Five Roses Earl Grey tea bags. Simmer for three minutes. Remove tea bags and discard. Add 250ml castor sugar and simmer for 10 minutes to form a syrup. Cut two Pink Lady or red apples into very thin slices and place in the syrup. Leave for half an hour. Place on the cake just before serving.

Mini banoffee pies (8)
These mini versions of the dessert favourite are really cute. You could make the pastry cases and toffee filling well in advance.
For the pastry
250 g/9 oz plain flour
125 g/4½ oz cold butter, diced
2 tbsp sugar
pinch salt
2 free-range eggs yolks only
1 tbsp double cream
For the toffee
250 g/9 oz brown sugar
50 g/1¾ oz butter
142 ml/¼ pint double cream
For the banana mousse
2 ripe bananas
500 ml/18 fl oz double cream
4 tbsp icing sugar
For the topping
125 g/4½ oz good-quality plain chocolate, shaved with a knife
Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400\F/Gas 6. Grease a 12-hole petit four tin.
For the pastry, place the flour, butter, sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and enough cream to bring the mixture together to form a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the toffee. Heat the sugar and butter in a pan until the sugar has dissolved then stir in the cream and pour the mixture into a bowl. Set aside to cool.
Roll the pastry out on a floured work surface, cut out 12 circles and use them to line the holes of the petit four tin. Bake in the oven for 12-16 minutes or until the pastry is golden-brown and crisp. Carefully transfer the pastry cases to a wire rack and set aside to cool.
For the mousse, mash the bananas with a hand held blender. Whip the cream until it holds soft peaks then fold in the bananas and the sugar. Pour into a bowl and chill in the fridge.
To assemble, spoon a little toffee into each pastry case. Spoon the mousse into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle and pipe on top of the toffee. Scatter over the shaved chocolate.