Hello November
Hi [[name]]
We have 2 months left of 2023. Are you excited or nervous? Or
is it a bit of both?……
Download the November Newsletter and let us know what you think on our Social Media Platforms.
With Love from the Twins.
Hello September
Hi [[name]]
The sun is out, the birds are chirping, the air is nice and crisp, the flowers are blooming…
Download the September Newsletter and let us know what you think on our Social Media Platforms.
With Love from the Twins.
ROOIBOS PANCAKE CAKE WITH ROOIBOS MARSCAPONE FILLING
ROOIBOS PANCAKES
2 cups self raising flour
2 Tbls castor sugar
1 pinch of salt
3 cups milk
4 laagerrooibos teabags
4 eggs
1 Tbls oil
Warm up the milk up with the teabags, on medium heat in a saucepan, until the milk becomes ‘rooibosy.’ Just simmer the milk, don’t bring to a boil. Remove the teabags and allow the milk to completely cool down.
Meanwhile in a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients.
In another bowl, whisk together the rooibos milk, oil and eggs.
Slowly mix n the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until the batter is nice and smooth. Batter should be pouring consistency.
Divide the batter into two bowls and colour the one bowl with a drop of pink food coloring.
In a non-stick pan, on medium heat, using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, pour batter into hot pan, swirl around until the bottom of the pan is covered. Once the bubbles start to form, flip the pancake to cook the other side until golden brown on both sides.
Repeat until all the batter is finished. Set aside for stacking.
ROOIBOS MARSCAPONE FILLING:
2 tubs plain mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup rooibos syrup
Whisk the mascarpone with rooibos syrup until nice and loose. Add more rooibos syrup is preferred.
TO MAKE PANCAKE CAKE
On a cake stand, place a white pancake at the bottom, spread a bit of the rooibos filling ontop and place a pink pancake onto and repeat until all the pancakes and filling is finished.
The top later should be the mascarpone cream topped with fresh berries and a dusting of icing sugar.
Refrigerate until ready to eat.
LEMONY ROOIBOS ICED TEA
2 lemons, sliced
1 cup rooibos syrup
4 cups tonic water
1 bunch mint leaves, to garnish
In a jug, add ice, sliced lemons, syrup and tonic water.
Mix well with a wooden spoon.
Adjust sweetness.
Serve chilled and top with mint leaves.
FINE DINING PRACTICAL
Okay, so if you didn’t know… now you know that we absolutely love our chef students at Rietondale high school in Pretoria. These are some of the coolest kids we’ve met, and they are absolutely incredible.
On this particular evening the chefs were hosting over 50 guests for a 4-course meal and we were asked to come in and facilitate and make sure no fires break out, lol. These ‘Restaurant Aand’s’ as they call them are not as easy as anyone my think. You are literally throwing these students in the deep end and expecting them to swim…with the sharks.
If you’ve ever been to a chef school, you’ll know that they mainly focus on French cuisine and fine dining service and the students have to somewhat replicate that. And oh, this is for their final mark on their matric certificate, it’s a big deal.
Here’s the menu:
WELCOME DRINKS: Kiwi and Apple Cocktail Lime Cooler
HORS D’ OEVERES: Biltong and Parmesan Mousse Eclair + Caramelized onion, Feta Cheese and Mushroom Bouchees
HOMEMADE BREAD ROLLS WITH BUTTER
STARTERS: Roasted Butternut Soup
MAIN COURSE: Peppered Beef Fillet with Mustard Crust + Green Pepper Sauce + Potato Roses+ Baby Marrow Stir Fry and Honey Glazed Carrots
DESSERT: Vanilla Bavarian Cream with Berry Coulis
COFFEE AND TEA SERVICE: Chocolate Truffles
We will be the first to tell you that everything was absolutely beautiful. Of course, there were a few hiccups here and there (it happens in every kitchen), but the food got out and every guest got to eat and every plate that left the pass was beautiful. Every single student, from the front of house team to the chefs in the kitchen… they all did a great job. It’s also bittersweet for these particular students because this is the last time they get to cook together.
We are so proud of these amazing kids, and we love nights like this. They really make our lives a little sweeter. They will have the most beautiful futures, whether they decide to go into the hospitality industry or not.
What a pleasure.
With love, The Twins.
TEA MASTERCLASS
With Love From The Twins x Laager Rooibos
TEA MASTERCLASS
We absolutely love what we do with Laager Rooibos, developing absolutely fantastic recipes with the tea. We gave a fun cooking class to some of our favourite chef students. We got to talk about our favourite tea and answer some of their tea questions.
We demonstrated three recipes:
1. Fizzy lemon ice tea
2. Garden salad with a Rooibos dressing
3. Pancake cake with a Mascarpone and Rooibos cream
All these recipes were developed with one Rooibos base, a Laager Rooibos syrup.
The Laager Rooibos simple syrup is one of our favourite recipes and ingredients to use. It can be stored in the fridge for weeks, used for pancakes, a sweetener for your tea, a base for your ice tea or a honey for your dressing (vinaigrette or creamy). We love this because it is so diverse and multifunctional. We think we might have created something genius here.
The recipe is simple, 2 cups of water, 8 tea bags and 1 cup of sugar. Boil until it has reduced in half. Then cool down and store in the fridge.
It’s such an honour for us to invest a bit of our time and knowledge into students who might decided to choose food as their career path.
Let’s call this a cooking class pop up shall we? Head over to our Instagram for the videos.
With love, The Twins xx
CHEWY SPICE COOKIES
INGREDIENTS:
Chewy Spice Cookies:
1 cup butter, chopped into cubes
1 Teabag Tetley Masala Chai
2 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp chai spice
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
2 Tbls maple syrup
Cinnamon Sugar:
1 Tbls brown sugar
2 Tbls white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Mix together until well combined.
METHOD:
In a medium pan, add the chopped butter and loose Tetley tea leaves. Cook the butter until it turns amber in color. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl so it stops cooking. Cool for 20 minutes, and the place in the fridge for another 5-10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and spices together.
In another bowl, add the browned butter and sugar. Beat together for 1 minute. Add vanilla, egg and maple syrup and mix again.
Slowly pour all the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix well.
Cover and refrigerate while you preheat oven to 180 °C.
Line a baking sheet with baking paper Roll dough into balls and roll into the cinnamon sugar.
Bake for 12 minutes. Cool before eating.
2023 Laager Rooibos Campaign
We’ve been with laager rooibos for about 7 years and we have grown exponentially, as business women, as a brand and as recipe developers and chefs.
For the past few years, this amazing tea brand has given us creative freedom when it comes to playing around with the teas and testing different recipes. We have developed and tested over 90 recipes and they’ve all been fantastic. We’ve been forced to think creatively and out of the box and we appreciate that freedom.
Throughout the years, we’ve become very health conscious and more focused on nutrition. So you’ll notice most of our recipes will be a bit healthier, with the occasional cheat day of course. And this is why we keep falling in love with the brand, it speaks to us in every phase our food journey.
This year’s campaign was fun and beautiful to shoot, we hope you enjoy the videos, recipes and well curated content.
“You have to belong somewhere, choose where you are valued and respected.” We are so grateful to the Laager Rooibos team for keeping us around.
Enjoy.
With love, The Twins.
Hello May
Hi [[name]]
May this new month be kind to you.
May it bring life-changing, great news.
May this month start on a great note and set a prosperous tone
for the rest of the year.
Download the May Newsletter and let us know what you think on our Social Media Platforms.
With Love from the Twins.
