Dried Haw Slices with Apple Honey Tea

Heard of Chinese Hawthorne? Er ... What's that? Do you like to eat Haw Flakes ? ... Er ... what's Haw Flakes ? ... Do you like "Zhan Zha", 山楂饼 ? {In Mandarin, the Chinese Hawthorne is pronounced as "Zhan Zha"(mountain berry)} Yes ! Well, my big kids know only 山楂饼, as they like to munch this sour sweet reddish thinly sliced titbits in cylindrical wrapped paper.

But I'm not going to make 山楂饼 for them. Instead,  make this sour sweet drink or dessert soup cos it is not uncommon to them that I've made quite often when they were young.  Once I asked the owner of the traditional herb shop what drinks I could make to whet the young kids' appetites?  I was given this very easy recipe : Water + dried haw slices + some apples + some honey or rock sugar and boil about 25 minutes.  Because of the sour sweet taste (I think), it helped to whet their appetites ... hee.. hee.. Occasionally, I made this as tea or dessert, served hot or chilled to enjoy be it on cold or humid weather.

Dried Haw Slice with Apple Honey Tea
Serves 4 pax
Ingredients
Water about 2 litres
Dried Haw Slices 50g
Red Cooking Apples 4 (peeled, cored and cut into big chunks)
Honey 2 - 3 tablespoons to taste

Method
1) Wash the dried haw slices a few times. Ensure that any small seeds are removed. Drain and discard the water.

2) Put all the ingredients (except honey) in a cooking pot with about 2 litres of water and boil over medium flame. Once boiled, lower the flame to low-medium and continue to boil for about 20 minutes or till you could smell the fruity fragrance infused into the tea.

3) Stir in the honey when the soup is warm.  Serve as drinks or as dessert. Warm or chilled to your preference.

Do adjust the sweetness to your preference.

Here's how we enjoy this dried haw infused & apple honey fragrance drinks :

Enjoy a cup of dessert drink with some soft apples

Serving a  bowl of sour sweet dessert

After meal, have a cup of warm sour sweet fruity honey tea ease indigestion.

Relaxing and enjoying a cup of Dried Haw Slices with
Apple Honey Tea in my cosy corner

Hope you enjoy this sour sweet fruity fragrance honey tea in any ways, much like we do :)
Have a great weekend ahead ! 

  

Submitting this post to Little Thumbs Up March 2016 Theme Honey which is organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen from My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Joycescapade.