7.28.2011

Afternoon Tea Time with Strawberry and Rhubarb Pudding


As much as I love spending time with my kids, I do need some alone time as well. And I got some for the first time in a long time one afternoon. Instead of hassling through my alone time with chores and work, I decided to relax and enjoy my quality time. Afternoon tea all by myself at home. This is luxury. (But of course, that's after getting props ready and taking all the photos for this posting...)

I am a self-certified Anglophile. I love fancy English style afternoon tea. I have to have it when I go to England. It might be touristy, tacky and girly, but I don't care what people say. I LOVE IT. I think about it all the time. This post is inspired by English afternoon tea. Someday, I'll attempt to make a proper one when I'm ready for it.



One, and I mean ONE sunny day, the kids and I went strawberry picking north of Seattle after the farm finally opened for picking. This summer the weather has been- rain, cloud, rain, cloud, rain, cloud, a bit of sun, more sun, no sun, rain, cloud, cloud, cloud, rain, rain, rain......

The strawberry field was filled with burning red delicious looking strawberries. The kids and I couldn't wait. I took a bite while picking. Delicious.

The kids were having fun, stuffing themselves with strawberries, getting juice all over themselves. They were little red-smeared clowns. Now we could make tons of jam with "some" added sugar at home. More fun!



My son and I smashed the strawberries and made a very tasty jam with them. I kept it simple and only added granulated sugar and lemon juice. Then I turned to my guru Jamie for a recipe inspiration. In his book, I found this plum pudding recipe and twisted it around a bit by using strawberries and rhubarb.




I love this kind of simple pie/pudding recipe. It really works and you can make it with many different kinds of fruit. It also can be savory. Great one to try with the kids too.






Recipe (makes 6-8 muffin-size puddings)

Pudding Crust:
1 cup of flour
1 stick of butter softened
2-4 tbsp of milk
1/2 cup of sugar
a pinch of salt
3 eggs

Mix butter and sugar in a food processor, mix until it becomes soft and fluffy. Add eggs one by one. Mix flour and salt, add it into the mixture slowly and mix until the dough is formed. Adjust the texture by adding milk. Roll out the dough into 1/3 inch think and cut them out with a 3-4" wide round cookie cutter.


Mixture:
2 cups of rhubarb jam (chop 4 cups of rhubarbs into small pieces and cook them with 1 tsp of lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups of sugar in a pan for 20 min.)

1 cup of strawberry jam (mash 2 cups of strawberries with 1 cup of sugar, one tsp of lemon juice and 2 tbsp of corn starch for about 30 min until it becomes half the amount.



Combine and mix cooked rhubarb and strawberries roughly.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease the baking cups. Pour a couple of spoons of mixture into the baking cups. Cover each cup with a round dough. Apply egg wash on top and bake it for 20-30 min.

(Optional: top it with Greek yogurt and honey sauce.)
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4 comments

  1. I love afternoon tea! My half australian dad introduced me to afternoon tea as a young child. I blame him for my caffeine addiction. Those look delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Cloud, rain, cloud..." it's like this summer in Moscow!)
    I am going to try this recipe too, it's look amazing!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey, i absolutely love the composition and the light in these photos, it's so inviting!

    ReplyDelete

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