Pulel Tea Pastries

Made from Pulel tea, these pastries are a common comfort food up the eastern coast of Yatràpà and into the Koni mountains.

Ingredients

• 4 cups flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1¼ tsp. baking soda
• ½-1 tsp. white vinegar (In the south, this is often replaced with lemon juice. Deeper in the mountains, people use buttermilk. The amount varies depending on the type of honey used.)
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¾ cup butter, cubed
• 1 egg
• 1 cup pulel tea, room temperature
• 3 Tbsp. honey
• Optional: 2 tsp. pulel tea leaves

Cooking Process

The exact steps and process vary from family to family, but on average the traditional recipe goes like this.
First, the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt are mixed together. If tea leaves are included, they're added here. Then the butter is slowly mixed in until incorporated. Then mix the wet ingredients together in another bowl. Once mixed, the wet ingredients are slowly drizzled into the other bowl as its mixed.
After the dough has come together, its rolled out on a floured sheet pan to 1½ cm thick. Traditionally, these are then cut into small rectangles. They're then baked until light golden.

In Culture

Pulel tea pastries are common in households throughout the fall and winter. The tea inside is good for illness and Mana Deficiency, so the freshly baked pastries are both comfort food and treatment for those affected by the chill winter months.
They are traditionally baked by the mother or grandmother in a household from the house's own tea plants.
In the south where pulel herb is less common, the recipe is amended with local flowers and teas. Only the rich in Rubefià can afford to have the tea imported in enough quantities to have the traditional pastry on a regular basis. The nobles frequently have a serving of these at their feasts to show off their income rather than for medicinal purposes.

Item type

Consumable, Food / Drink