in the kitchen: chai tea muffins

Here's a recipe I tried this afternoon to get rid of some extra tea bags.  I love chai lattes from Starbucks but can't come close to replicating them at home, so when I found this recipe for "chai breakfast cupcakes" I decided to give it a go.  I didn't add the icing (although it sounds delicious!) in an effort to be able to legitimately call these "muffins" instead of "cupcakes" (because it just makes me feel better about eating them!).  I also used a ripe avocado instead of butter because I wanted to use it before it went really bad.  I have GOT to start eating those things faster.  :o)



Chai Muffins
(adapted from Lady Behind the Curtain)

The Ingredients.
1 1/4 cups milk
4 chai tea bags
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granola (I used apple-blueberry because that's all I had on hand!)

The Method.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a couple of muffin tins with nonstick spray or else use baking liners (heads up...the yield for this recipe is 24 muffins.  Mine only made 18.  Not sure why.  No biggie though).  In a small saucepan, heat up the milk until it's just barely simmering (be careful not to scald it).  Remove from heat and add the tea bags; allow to steep for 5 minutes.  Remove tea bags, pressing them to release the liquid back into the saucepan.  Set aside.
In a bowl, stir together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, and salt.  Set aside.  In a separate bowl, beat the butter with a handheld mixer until fluffy.  Add the vanilla and sugar; beat until well-mixed.  Add the eggs one at a time, and mix well after each addition.  Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk-tea mixture to the beaten mixture (beat on low speed and do not overmix or else the muffins will be tough!).
Fill muffin cups two-thirds of the way full and sprinkle the tops with granola.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Pretty yummy!  You can taste the tea but it's not overpowering at all.  I used vanilla chai tea because that's what I had, and that extra bit of vanilla really made it tasty.  Check out the original recipe at the link above if you want to make the yummy icing to drizzle on the top.  Maybe I'll do that next time.  :o)