Teapot Cookies #2

I had another occasion to use my teapot cookie cutter not too long after my last post of October 1st. When I bought the cutter I knew that it would be perfect for making cookies for a tea party. What I didn’t envision at the time was using it for cookies for a class, let alone a class on tea. This latest batch of cookies was made to take to a course on Asian teas that I was taking at a local university, being given by none other than Jeff Fuchs: explorer, rock climber, photographer and author of The Ancient Tea Horse Road. Since we were covering the topic of teapots at our last class, I had the idea of trying to emulate the natural bisque of Chinese teapots as cookies. I used a gingersnap recipe for the dough, piped the details in chocolate royal icing, then stamped the cookies with food colouring using stamps with the Chinese characters for either “water” or “earth”. When you stop to think about it all four elements are needed for tea: water for growing and for making the tea, earth for growing the tea plants and for making the teapot, fire for boiling the water, and air for both growing and drying the tea leaves.

For more on Jeff, read the National Post article: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2008/06/21/q-amp-a-with-jeff-fuchs-travelling-the-ancient-tea-horse-road.aspx