A honey-inspired high tea
A high tea inspired by honey is this month’s In Season offering. Virginia Winder talks to a woman who loves to get busy baking and making.
Five years ago, honey was just a natural sweetener to Erin Aldridge. But since her brother Callum Old became a beekeeper, the world of honey has come alive along with hives for the Witt hospitality staff member.
She has used bush, po¯ hutukawa and floral honeys to make a high tea featuring wee fruit cups topped with yoghurt and praline, blue cheese and walnut scones, banana and peanut butter cupcakes and a raw slice with nuts, chia and chocolate.
‘‘I like little busy things,’’ she says. ‘‘I love to bake – that’s my thing. I like little cute stuff and things looking pretty.’’
Erin says a high tea can be served for any occasion.
Her sister didn’t want a 40th birthday party, so they had high tea in the garden.
The best idea is to create a variety of bite-sized items and serve on plates, three tiers tall. ‘‘A high tea should have mixture of everything – colour, crunch, texture, flavour, sweet and savoury,’’ she says. ‘‘When they are small you don’t feel like you have eaten too much.’’
Even better is knowing that many of the ingredients are homegrown, including the honey. Out at Makahu, her parents have a farm, an autumnladen walnut tree and some of her brother’s hives.
‘‘He has some of his own hives and he’s in partnership with Gold Leaf Honey. There are hives around the North Island, but his are mainly based in Taupo¯ and Taranaki.’’
Honey has seeped through her wha¯ nau; Erin’s two sisters have some of Callum’s hives on their properties and their parents help make the bee boxes, which Erin’s mum paints in pastel colours.
‘‘It’s a family affair,’’ says Erin, who has yet to have a hive land at her place.
‘‘I’m a lot more residential than my sisters, but given time Callum will put one there.’’
In the meantime, he supplies Erin with honey, which she believes is an essential pantry item for jobs like glazing the Christmas ham, cooking corned beef, marinating meats and making a bunch of sweet treats.
The scones for In Season are made using her parents’ walnuts, brother’s honey and old-time baking tips from generations before.
‘‘My mum and nana taught us girls how to make scones when we were quite young.’’
Her main tip: ‘‘Don’t overwork the scone dough.’’
For the cupcakes, she recommends using bananas that aren’t too green. ‘‘The riper the better because that’s going to give you a moister, softer cupcake.’’
The cups of fruit goodness use whatever is in season, although in this case Erin has chosen raspberries, blueberries and fresh pineapple cut to the size of the berries.
She has added chopped mint, a touch of salt and gently mixed in a chilled honey and water syrup. Once placed in the tiny cups, these are topped with Greek yoghurt, a drizzle of honey, a sprinkle of praline made from caster sugar, water and mixed toasted dry nuts, and prettied with rosemary flowers from Witt’s own garden.
The raw slice, a delicious chocolate-and-nut surprise, is filled with goodness and crunch from the chia seeds. ‘‘They burst in your mouth.’’
All of this is served with a honey fruit tea punch, perfect for special occasions.
Her recommendation is to use teas that make bright colours, like berry flavours or blood orange. The infusion of tea bags, lemon juice, honey, lemonade, mint and orange segments must be served cold.
At Christmas she made the punch and added strawberries from a sister’s garden.
Her one piece of advice for serving the punch is: ‘‘Try to put it in a nice glass jug.’’
Beside the high tea tower and honey samples, the drink glows with promise, just like a family occasion inspired by bees.
Banana, honey and nut cupcakes
Ingredients
2 cups wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda Pinch salt
tsp ground cinnamon
4 x large bananas cup brown sugar cup manuka honey
1 Tbsp coconut oil (melted)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence cup peanut butter
2 Tbsp walnuts, chopped cup milk
Icing
250g cream cheese cup peanut butter
1 cup icing sugar
1-2 Tbsp cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
Method
Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line muffin tin with paper cases. Peel bananas and mash with fork until smooth. Place in a mixer, add the brown sugar, honey, coconut oil, egg, vanilla and mix well. Add the peanut butter and beat until smooth. Sieve in the dry ingredients and, lastly, the chopped walnuts and milk. Mix until just combined. Spoon mixture into muffin cases and bake for about 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Dust with icing sugar or frost with peanut butter icing.
Raw chocolate, chia and nut slice
Ingredients
11⁄2 cups chopped dates cup cacao cup chia seeds cup shredded coconut cup dark chocolate
2 Tbsp honey cup sliced almonds cup walnuts cup pistachio nuts
1 tsp vanilla essence Pinch salt
Topping
cup dark chocolate 1 Tbsp coconut oil melted Method
Grease and line a square cake tin. Put dates into a food processor and blend until they are smooth and form a paste. Add cacao, chia, coconut, dark chocolate, honey, almonds, vanilla, salt and walnuts; blend until thoroughly mixed. Add pistachio nuts and give a quick pulse. Push mix into cake tin and refrigerate until firm. Melt chocolate and coconut oil and pour over slice. Allow to set and then cut into slices.
Blue cheese, walnut and honey scones
Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
80g diced butter
2 Tbsp chopped, toasted walnuts
30g blue cheese
1 egg
1 Tbsp honey
80-100ml milk
Method
Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Sieve flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Rub in butter. Add the walnuts and blue cheese. Make a well, add in egg and bit by bit the milk. Mix in with a bread and butter knife. Don’t overwork the dough. Turn dough out on to a floured bench, pat out with your hand and cut out desired sizes with cutters. Place on floured oven tray, brush tops with milk and bake for about
10-15 minutes. Serve with butter.
Honey fruit tea punch
Ingredients
4 fruit tea bags (700ml hot water, infused & chilled)
2 fresh lemons, juiced cup manuka honey
100ml hot water
330ml can lemonade
Fresh mint leaves
Orange slices
Method
Infuse hot water and tea bags and let sit for about 5-10 minutes. Cool. Mix manuka honey and hot water. Chill. Put chilled tea, manuka syrup, the juice of two lemons and some mint into a jug. Add lemonade and stir. Garnish with orange segments. Serve chilled.