Afternoon Tea At Home: Deliciously indulgent recipes for sandwiches, savouries, scones, cakes and other fancies

by Will Torrent

80 stunning recipes and inspiration for how to host and bake for the ultimate afternoon tea party with instruction from master patissier Will Torrent.

Arranged by season, and with extra chapters on a Classic afternoon tea and a Showstopper afternoon tea, Will showcases his no-nonsense approach to the techniques involved in patisserie, baking, chocolate work, and serving savory dishes. Beautifully illustrated and an invaluable source of inspiration, there are also six guest recipes from top restaurants and hotels: The Ritz; The Dorchester; The Gramercy Tavern; The Berkeley; Harrods; and Raymond Blanc's Les Manoir aux Quat'Saisons. Starting with a brief history of British afternoon tea, Will then offers up recipes for jelly, spreads, butters, and curds—everything you might need to serve alongside afternoon tea. Recipes include Smoked Salmon & Whipped Cream Cheese sandwiches, Cherry & Almond Bakewell Tarts, and Fruited Scones; as well as more adventurous offerings of Prosecco, Lime & Mint Jello and Lemon & Lime Matcha Tea Friands.

Genres: Cookbooks, Tea, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food and Drink, Food and Wine

176 pages, Hardcover

Published February 16, 2021

About the author

Since working with Heston Blumenthal at the tender age of 16, the ‘prodigiously talented young baker’, renowned Pastry Chef and Chocolatier WILL TORRENT has already achieved many great things in his career. After graduating with a First Class degree in Culinary Arts Management from the University of West London Will won the first ‘Medallion of Excellence’ for a British Pastry Chef at the prestigious WorldSkills competition in Japan, the Academy of Culinary Arts Awards of Excellence, the Craft Guild of Chefs Young Chef of the Year and the Acorn Scholar award, all in the space of a few years. His training also took in work with top chefs such as William Curley, Brian Turner and Gary Rhodes, as well as time spent working at The Dorchester, Claridges, The Lanesborough and The Fat Duck. Will continues to work closely with team WorldSkills, promoting and encouraging our youth and in 2012 was presented with the prestigious WorldSkills UK Outstanding Achievement Award.

Reviews

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love anything tea related and this book had some stand out recipes that I must try.


Deviled egg mayo sandwiches with micro herbs, beehive tarts, triple cheese scones with whipped mustard butter and earl grey and lemon tea pots. Besides the recipes sounding amazing the presentation is neat and fresh.


Highly recommended

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a simply lovely book . It includes many glossy, beautiful photos accompanied by the recipes.

[June Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author's work is amazing! I recently read one of his other books, 'Patisserie at Home', and enjoyed it very much too.

This book has the same great photography, recipes, and narrative as the 'Patisserie' book, except these foods are specifically designed for various types of teas (or picnics). Of course, everything this baker creates is beautiful, but the Cherry & Almond Bakewell Tarts, Chocolate & Peanut Butter Delices, Beehive Tarts, Chocolate & Cherry Tarts, and Strawberries & Cream Cakes are works of art!

I liked the Menu Planners chapter toward the end of the book. Here the author presents various menus for a birthday party, garden party, bridal shower, retro tea, and baby shower.

Highly recommended to fans of cookbooks, food history, cooks/bakers, and party planners.

--------------------------------

Borrowed from the New Book shelf at the local public library.

######################

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book although I thought that there should be more pictures, this is a fun book for tea time. Many of the recipes involved many ingredients and seemed quite complicated...that was the only downside. This is all my kind of food.

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice cook book with some cute photos.

Some of the recipes are fairly complicated and are miniatures from sweet to savory. There are a lot of options and the author has a little narrative about each recipe.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recipes to try:
- triple cheese scones
- Eccles cakes
- triple chocolate cookies
- malty egg custard tarts
- vanilla and chocolate Battenberg
- black fondant forest fancies
- coffee, walnut, and cardamom cake

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Turns out, I really just want to be served tea in a fancy restaurant, not make tiny but delicious foods at home.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good recipes, some not. only OK for me.

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a lovely cookbook. Photo of every recipe. Some are a bit complicated, true. But lovely to look at and imagine having the energy/resources to make.

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous cookbook - copied a few recipes down to try before this had to go back to the library.

[Gen Lawrence]

Macaroon recipe works (mostly!)

[Awwwtrouble · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last month I said I would count cookbooks as read if I read them and made at least one recipe. And now I'm breaking my rule, primarily because I want to count this in July, but also it's way overdue at the library.

I saw this prominently displayed st a bookstore and flipped through it - it's very pretty, gorgeous pictures, well laid out recipes, nice heft. On a chance I looked it up at the library and was pleasantly surprised they had it.

I am, of course, captivated by The Great British Bake Off. I've always liked baking, but never try anything too complicated. This book is full of complicated recipes, and I doubt I'd try most of them. But there are enough intriguing options that once it cools down a bit I could see some fall/winter baking in my future. There's a mince pie brownie that I definitely want to try. It's always difficult to read British baking books, with the measurements, differing ingredients, and different words for common ingredients (I simply can't keep the different words for different types of sugar straight in my head).

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out my review of Afternoon Tea at Home at Manhattan With a Twist!

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need to marry a chef in my next life. I'm not going to make any of this stuff but it did make me super hungry.

[Carma Spence]

When I was three years old, my family moved to Nairobi, Kenya. Because it was a former British colony, the culture had a lot of British influence, including the practice of afternoon tea at 4pm. I grew up with this habit, and to this day still favor a nice cup of tea — although not restricted to the afternoon!

This is why I was attracted to Will Torrent’s book Afternoon Tea at Home, the goal of which is to “bring the elegance of afternoon tea to your table at home.”

Read my full review here: https://www.carmascookery.com/book-re...