Earl Gray and Orange Syrup

We have theory nearly everyday, and every Friday we get to make something we've been talking about in theory. For the past couple of weeks we have made jams, and preserves of some kind from an amazing book by Christine Ferber called 'Mes Confitures: The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber".

It's full of seasonal, kinda bizarre jams and preserves. At school we made a caramel pear jam, a chocolate orange preserve and a marmalade made from mandarins. Some of the ingredients are a smidge obscure, but for the most part most of the recipes are easy to make and rather fascinating in their combinations.

I am currently obsessed (yes utterly obsessed) with tea. And as such, I thought I'd try making one of her preserves that contained tea (several of them do, there is another one in her book which has Jasmine tea in it).

This ended up being a seriously orangey preserve, rather sweet, with a hint of bergamot from the tea. My friend Ayumi adds it to her tea in the mornings and says it's mighty tasty in that!

Paris Fog Ice Cream

Not the prettiest picture really but some seriously tasty ice cream. I made a simple custard base for the ice cream and then infused the cream with my favorite tea of the moment ([please excuse the product placement] Harney & Son's "Paris" tea). It's a black tea with a bit of Earl Gray (bergamont) and vanilla. A totally good, strong but not overwhelming dark tea.

When I was working at a pastry shop a while back, we would sometimes get customers who would want steamed milk over a tea bag, we called these "London Fog" drinks. I also used to go to a wonderful coffee shop in Seattle called Vivace (http://www.espressovivace.com/retail.html) and they added a dash of vanilla to theirs and called it "Beautiful Stephane". So I made an ice cream that combined both; tea and a bit of vanilla. It worked out wonderfully! And I hereby dub the flavor "Paris Fog" ice cream.