Sabor Eats

Sabor for the kitchen & tea for the soul.
Sabor Eats is an experimental food blog created by Erica and Wasc, two students who love food, culture, and travelling.

Whole Wheat Tart Cherry and Almond Cocoa Cookies with Lychee Black Tea

Since the theme for Sabor Eats is “Sabor for the kitchen, tea for the soul,” I thought maybe I should finally post a dessert with tea. I love tea, it’s normally a staple drink for me. Have to have tea everyday. However, I’m a bit picky about my teas. They have to be loose leaf for a natural and bold flavor. Tea just tastes more fresh to me if it’s been steeped with loose leaves. I am also biased towards Asian teas. I don’t really care much for English/Western teas like Earl Grey or Chai. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions to this rule— Like the tea Wasc bought while we were in Shibuya, Japan from a French company. I wish I had a picture for you, the brand has a really cool design for their packaging, but alas…Wasc has the tea.

In any case, lets switch topics!

Cherries have been a long time beloved fruit to be eaten in snacks for me. I especially love, love, love cherry danishes from Panera Bread or Target. MmmMMmm… I don’t particularly care for the sugar drizzled over the danish though. I also love fresh cherries, but find the de-seeding process to be a bit annoying. Ah well, such is the price you usually have to pay to eat delicious fruits like cherries, and pomegranates…

I’ve been trying to stay away from sweets since the New Year started, but after 13 days and eating Fiber One cereal topped with a couple of dried cherries… I was really craving a sweet snack with cherries in it! I doubt I will be making anymore sweets anytime soon though, as I have made a resolution to eat mostly veggies and healthy foods…like couscous, quinoa, and tofu with fresh, raw vegetables. It’s actually yummier than you think. 

In any case, back on to the subject of the cookies, I think these would go really well with tea time. If you do not indulge yourself in tea time, I recommend that you give it a try. It’s more than drinking tea and consuming sweets—It’s about relaxing and taking time to enjoy the flavor and depth of your tea, the sweets, nature, life, and the company of others (if you have others around to share teatime with). 

This particular pairing feels Zen to me. That is to say, you will feel zen when you drink the tea and eat the sweets. I have stacked the cookies in the bowl so that they resemble Zen stones (can you tell?) :) It just happened to work out that some cookies were smaller in diameter in others so that it gives a sense of stones getting smaller and smaller as they are stacked.

I chose to have the cookies with some black lychee tea. The dark tea really complements the cocoa taste of the cookies. You may try to have the cookies with regular black tea, or maybe even oolong tea. The tea and teacup were both bought during my trip in Beijing, China last summer.

Having fun with this photo. Now they look like the color of the Zen stones ;)

-Erica

Whole Wheat Tart Cherry and Almond Cocoa Cookies (adapted from AZ Cookbook)

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup chilled butter (equal to 8 tbsp) cut into slices
  • 1/2 cup roughly chopped dried cherries
  • 1/3 cup ice cold water
  • 3/4 tsp almond extract

Recipe:

  1. Combine wheat flour, sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt in a mixing bowl.
  2. Mash up slices of butter.
  3. Add chopped dried cherries into butter and mix.
  4. Mix cherry butter into the flour mixture.
  5. Combine ice cold water and almond extract.
  6. Pour water/almond liquid 1 tbsp at a time into the flour mixture, mixing with a fork after each addition.
  7. Use a hand mixer (or stand mixer) to blend ingredients together to make the mixture smooth(er) than before. It will still be “grainy/cornmeal-like,” that’s okay, it’s supposed to look like this.
  8. Roll dough into roughly 12 inch logs using plastic wrap.
  9. Refrigerate logs for 1+ hours.
  10. After refrigerating for 1 or more hours, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  11. Unwrap the logs and slice into 1/2 inch slices. NOTE: You may have to reshape the slices into circles after slicing.
  12. Place slices 2 inches apart on baking pan that has been lined with parchment paper and sprayed with oil (so that the cookies come off of the parchment paper nice and easy).
  13. Bake for 15 minutes, being careful not to over-bake. NOTE: The cookie tops will be slightly soft, but will harden during the cooling process.
  14. Let cool for 10 minutes.
  1. saboreats posted this