Please share a favorite tea snack, especially if it is a treasured recipe!

To be honest, I drink tea all day, every day… so there isn’t one particular thing that I have to have with my tea. However, there are some things that if I’m eating them, I need tea. It’s like Frank Sinatra says, “you can’t have one without the other.”

• Chocolate: I just find it gets too rich and sickly-sweet in my mouth. My boyfriend is a chocoholic, so I often hint towards a cup of tea when he brings out the tin of chocolates.
• Peanut butter: I love peanut butter on toast, so it is a wonderful breakfast combo with my morning tea
• Biscuits: such as HobNobs, McVities Light, Arrowroot, or any other sort of digestive. I love dipping them in tea! My mouth gets too dry if I eat them plain.
• Cookies (different from biscuits): They are also good dipped in tea, but not necessarily vital. Just, enjoyable!
• Morning: In order to wake up, I enjoy tea. It’s not so much the caffeine, since I have it before I sleep too, but I think it is the routine.

If I needed to pick a snack or a recipe, I’ll share my new Pumpkin Spice Loaf (Starbucks style). I searched the internet everywhere, and literally tons of websites claimed that this recipe was “thee” Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Loaf. WRONG. I tried so many recipes, and had tons of wasted ingredients (although my dad enjoyed the baked goods)… until I found a recipe that was pure pumpkin loaf. I added my own mix of spices and, voila! A perfect Starbucks-tasting Pumpkin Spice Loaf… and I’m gonna share it!

Starbucks-style Pumpkin Spice Loaf

Makes 1 loaf

• 1½ c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 5 tsp. pumpkin spice (see recipe below)
• 4 eggs
• 1 c. granulated (white) sugar
• ¼ c. light brown sugar
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. canned pumpkin
• ¾ c. vegetable/cooking oil

Prepare pumpkin spice (makes 8 tsp.) by combining 4 tsp. ground cinnamon, 2 tsp. ground ginger, 1 tsp. allspice and 1 t.sp nutmeg. You can tweak this to your particular tastes later by using more/less of a particular spice.

1. Set the oven to 350 degrees (F); Grease a loaf pan
2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin spice; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugars, and vanilla until combined.
4. Add dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Add pumpkin and oil and mix well.
6. Pour batter into greased loaf pan.
7. Bake for approximately 90 minutes, check with toothpick; if toothpick doesn’t come out clean, bake for another 10 minutes, and check again; continue this until toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool on a wire rack before slicing and eating.

We’ve still got a few more days left in January to have some tea talk. Make sure to visit the blog if you’d like to join in!