Tea-time: Crescent rolls, scones and gingerbread.... oh my!

       Alright, I sort of skipped blogging last week, but luckily this weekend my kitchen was TEAming with bakers as myself and some TEAmmates had a nice TEAparty for no good reason other than we wanted an excuse to drink and eat pastries (there really isn't a need for any better reason than that).  I have never really been a big tea person, until the last couple of weeks.  My roommates drink tea a ton, so I suppose I was indirectly peer pressured into buying my first box of tea. And apparently most forms of tea (namely green tea) is supposed to be TEAriffic for your health so I figured it is not exactly a bad thing if I become a tea-drinker....along with the fact that tea is not that expensive so its quite the sTEAl(I'm obviously super excited about it since I am being super sTEAlthy with all these puns... I'll stop).  I forgot to mention it also makes me feel refined and civilized.. nothing wrong with that!  Anyways, on Saturday we had Gertrude fired up for about 90 minutes... and I must say she was on her best behavior... for the most part.

The first thing that was made by one of my lovely roommates was crescent rolls filled with mini chocolate chips.. yum! Crescent rolls are particularly vulnerable to being burnt, but we were able to take them out of the oven just at the right time, before the wrath of Gertrude could ruin their flakey and gooey deliciousness.  I have never really baked with pre-made crescent rolls, but I have realized the possibilities are almost endless.  Just pop the dough out of the tube, unroll each one, and fill it with whatever you want- candy, peanut butter, marshmallows... anything!.  Last week, she filled it with chocolate hazelnut spread (sorry as an NCAA athlete I'm not allowed to endorse specific products) and those were fantastic as well.

       The next delectable treat that was made by me, was chocolate chip scones.... what is a tea-party without scones, right?? The recipe I used washttp://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Chip-Scones-104462 and I pretty much followed the recipe to a TEA (sorry, that one came naturally).  The recipe said it made six scones, so I was considering doubling the batch to make sure there were enough for the tea-party, but selfishly decided not to so I could save the extra chocolate chips to sprinkle in my oatmeal :)  However, it is good that I didn't, since I was able to cut up the dough to make 18  scones from the batch.... perfect! I guess some people like GIANT scones? I guess I could see that... these were pretty darn good! I just wanted to stay away from the whole heart-attack in scone form by making these guys a little smaller.  And aren't you supposed to have little food items at tea-parties, like mini sandwiches and such? 

      I had a close call with Gertrude, since you were supposed to brush milk on top of the dough right before baking, and then sprinkle some sugar on. Since I do not have a brush (note to self, add to Xmas list), I just tried to spoon little bits of milk on each one and spread it around... FAIL.  Most of the milk ended up on the pan, and when some of the sugar ended up there too, it caused some nasty burning action on the pan that almost tainted the delicious scones... Lucky I was able to salvage most of the scones, but I must say Gertrude... you almost got me! 

The last thing that was made by my other roommate (who I also want to give a shout-out to for letting me use her camera.. notice the slightly better quality!) was gingerbread.  Not gingerbread cookies, or gingerbread men... just Ginger Bread.  She made it from a box mix from a store I suppose I cannot disclose the name of... but it was delicious! Moist and gingery, just as I would imagine gingerbread to be.  I suppose gingerbread cake would actually be the best way to describe it.  

So there we have it! I'm sure next weekend I'll have a nice festive post and I have a holiday get-together that involves a dessert competition! Everyone better watch-out, Gertrude is going for the win!