Not My Main Branch (blog)

The night before:

Tea infused berries:

Glass container/jar for all the blueberries and tea

2-4 cups hot water

3-4 Earl Grey tea bags (I prefer Twinings)

~2 cups of blueberries (I prefer frozen)

~1 tbsp vanilla extract

Nutmeg to taste

½ cup granulated sugar

Boil water in kettle. Add blueberries to jar with vanilla, nutmeg, and sugar.

Place teabags in jar and pour hot water over berries and teabags.

Steep for 5 minutes, then remove bags and stir.

Store in fridge overnight.

(You can also use uninfused blueberries.)

The day of:

Pearl Sugar (can be bought, or made)

~14 sugar cubes

~⅛ tsp water, or less

Granulated sugar (as needed)

Potato masher

Put sugar cubes in bowl, and very lightly dampen them with water.

Crush cubes with potato masher until in clumps.

If sugar is too wet and mushy, add more granulated sugar and mix until sugar forms clumps. Set aside.

Citrus Mascarpone

250g mascarpone (or 3/4 cup)

3 tbsp confectioner’s sugar (or more)

Zest and juice of 1 large orange

Mixer with whisk attachment

Add mascarpone cream and confectioner’s sugar to mixer, and whisk.

Zest an orange with a fine grater into bowl with mascarpone.

Take a small knife and stab zested orange, twisting to make juice come out. When juice stops coming out, stab it in another spot and do it again (twice total).

Whisk all ingredients on high speed until thickened/stiffened. Add more confectioners sugar in small amounts if this isn’t happening.

Put citrus mascarpone cream in a Tupperware container, then put in fridge to chill. Eat the leftover orange as a snack to tide you over until the squares are done!

Wined Blueberry Compote

2 cups blueberries (I prefer frozen)

2 tbsp granulated sugar

2-3 tbsp red cooking wine

1 tsp vanilla extract

Nutmeg (to taste)

Dutch oven or other oven-safe dish

Potato masher

Preheat oven to 400 F. In a Dutch oven or other oven-safe dish, combine all ingredients and stir.

When oven is preheated, put in blueberries for ten minutes. Stir them, then cook for another ten minutes.

Take blueberries out of the oven and carefully mash with potato masher until none or few whole blueberries remain.

If the compote is too liquidy, place dutch oven on stovetop and heat on medium heat. When the mixture is bubbling all over, lower to lowest heat and let cook until reduced.

Let them cool and then place in a Tupperware container, then put in the fridge to chill (not next to the mascarpone).

Tea infused butter

2 sticks salted butter

5 tbsp loose leaf Earl Grey tea (I prefer Twinings)

Large pan

Spatula

Mesh strainer

2 sheets of 2 paper towels

In large pan, melt butter until just liquid.

Add loose leaf tea and stir, then let sit on low heat for 5 minutes.

After that, take off heat, stir, and let sit for additional five minutes.

Place mesh strainer over mixer bowl, and line twice with 2 sheets of paper towel (4 sheets total).

Pour butter through the lined strainer, using spatula to scrape the pan and get as much butter and leaves out as you can.

Use spatula to squeeze butter out of tea leaves in the lined strainer. If the butter cools fast enough, carefully lift the paper towels with the tea leaves out of the strainer, and ball them up before squeezing remaining butter out of the balled paper towels with clean hands (BE CAREFUL, CAN BE HOT!!). Try not to squeeze too hard, or the paper towels can tear and tear leaves could come out.

Pancake Squares (Makes 15):

~2 sticks worth of tea butter

½ cup+ 1 tbsp granulated sugar

12 fl.oz. milk (optional vanilla extract and nutmeg to taste)

3 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

~1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder

2 cups tea infused blueberries, ¼ cup blueberry tea juice

Nutmeg (to taste)

Pearl sugar (all that you made, or ¾ cups if purchased)

Preheat oven to 375 F, and spray a 9x13” pan with cooking spray.

In mixer with paddle attachment, mix sugar into butter.

In microwave, heat milk (and optional vanilla extract and nutmeg) for 40 seconds on high. Stir, then heat for another 40 seconds on high. Stir again then add into butter and sugar, mixing again.

Add flour, baking powder, and protein powder into liquids and mix until a smooth batter forms.

Remove tea infused blueberries from jar with a slotted spoon or mesh spoon, and add into batter with a ¼ cup of the tea juice. Mix until fully incorporated (make sure no unmixed batter is at the bottom of the bowl, it will be a lighter color than the rest of the batter).

Pour batter into pan, and sprinkle nutmeg on top, then sprinkle pearl sugar on top.

Cook for 40-45 minutes. Test with a toothpick for doneness before removing from oven. Use a plastic pie cutter to separate edges of pancake from the pan, then let sit for 10 minutes to cool. Use pie cutter to cut squares in a 3x5 grid.

Eat 2 at a time with wined blueberry compote and citrus mascarpone on top (be careful to ration the toppings, or you’ll run out).

If you eat two in your first serving, place 7 in the fridge and 6 in the freezer! Now you have breakfast for a week!

Note: after removing blueberries from tea juice, top off jar with cold water to have blueberry Earl Grey iced tea!

This recipe can also be customized to use any fruit, type of tea, and variety of citrus! For example, I’ve used the same base recipe but with 1) white wine apple compote, Apple Blood Tea for infusing, and lemon mascarpone, and 2) red wine cranberry compote, Sangria Zinger Tea for infusing, and lime mascarpone!