My first afternoon tea menu

I've finally done it!   My first afternoon tea menu has been created, implemented and served - yay!!

le menu

I created this tasty tea assortment as the result of partnering with Kim Murphy, the activities director at Heron Manor, a local assisted living facility just down the street from my home.

Kim contacted me several weeks ago with the idea of putting on a royal tea for the residents in commemoration of Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday.  I was all ears.

la table

I was responsible for all the food planning, preparation and set up, and Kim kindly provided the tables, linens, assorted tea cups and saucers (many of which belong to a 97 year old resident there!), place settings, tiered servers and rose nosegays.

Everything but the fig spread and the strawberry jam was made by my own two hands.  I love that. 

orange currant and lemon scones

finger sandwiches

sweet treats

salted caramel, chocolate and lime ginger shortbread

It was a grand time.  There were a handful of men in the largely female audience of 25 attendees.  Some of the ladies donned lovely hats or tiaras in addition to dressing up for this queenly occasion.

Kim had chosen Earl Grey tea with vanilla and lavender, as well as a lemon herbal tea to serve alongside the goodies.

I spoke briefly about the practice of afternoon tea, and Kim presented some interesting facts about Queen Elizabeth along with showing a series of royal photos covering her life and reign.

A lovely afternoon with even more lovely people.

And so it has begun.

Strawberry pistachio feuilletés

Forever scheming about ways to use ingredients I have on hand, whether in the freezer or cupboard, I hit upon feuilletés, puff pastry cases filled with whatever your little heart desires.

Our local grocery store, Meijer, has recently started carrying local Michigan, greenhouse-grown strawberries, which look world's better than the usual year round California giant, and often anemic looking, berries.

not bad for "out of season" fruit

I also had some pistachio paste on hand and decided on a pistachio pastry cream filling topped with fresh strawberries and pistachio crumble for this particular adventure.

I rolled out my puff, cut squares and fashioned the turned-corner feuilletés as seen in the photo below.  I popped them into the freezer while heating the oven to 425ºF.

Once the oven came up to temp, I brushed them with a little milk, sprinkled on some vanilla sugar and baked them with an overturned cooling grid across the top of the sheet pans - this technique keeps the puff even as it rises.

After about 10-15 minutes I removed the cooling grids and continued baking until nicely puffed and golden brown (another 10 minutes or so).

just out of the oven

love those layers!

I had made a classic crème pâtissiere au pistache earlier that day.  I added a bit of whipped cream to lighten the chilled pistachio cream.

Once the feuilletés were cooled, I simply pushed down their centers to make room for the filling, piped in some pistachio pastry cream and topped them with slices of strawberry.  Pistachio crumble finished them off, along with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Et voila!

These made for a delicious flaky, buttery, creamy, fruity, crunchy treat after a traditional Easter dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, asparagus, strawberry spinach salad, carrot souffle and more.

Tasty.  Now just get into YOUR kitchen and create your own version of feuilletés!

Yes indeed.