Matcha

I think I'm on a green tea kick.  Not drinking it---eating it.  I've never liked green tea for drinking. Maybe it was the weirdo authentic Japanese stuff my friend Shusei had that turned me off.  We shared an apartment when I was in college and every day I cleaned out the tea pot that looked like it was filled with popcorn and grass.  YUM.

 Shusei and me
(long ago....*sigh*...look how young I look.  
The killer is he doesn't look a day older.  Just grayer.)

But ever since I had green tea ice cream in a Japanese restaurant back in the early 90's, I've been intrigued by its use as a dessert ingredient.  I've made {the ice cream} a couple times and have fine-tuned the perfect recipe to suit the strength of the matcha powder I have.  Matcha powder can be really strong and mine definitely seems to be.

Today I'm trying out a recipe for Green Tea Biscotti from a great blog {Laura} discovered called {Sprinkle Bakes.}  Beautiful food porn, interesting-sounding recipes. Sprinkles blogger Heather's recipe for green tea biscotti called for something I don't have, however.  It's called {Matcha Milk} and she describes it as "a gently sweetened green tea latte."  It sounds like something I might even drink!  It contains, in addition to {matcha powder,} sugar and nondairy creamer.  I checked all over the internet but I couldn't find a store that sells it.  Luckily I have Wegmans who will often order weirdo ingredients for me.

But I couldn't wait until I had Matcha Milk to bake these so I tried it with my plain old matcha.  I didn't add any additional sugar and I certainly didn't add any nondairy creamer (ew).  The dough was a litttle stiff but tasted sweet enough.  I also didn't divide it in half but instead baked one mammoth log (read recipes first people.  Learn from my mistakes).

 almost all the ingredients 

(missing: eggs and vanilla)

love the pale green of the matcha-y flour

little tip: use kitchen scissors to cut small pieces of {ginger}

it's extremely sticky

dough pressed into a log before baking

baked

sliced before baking again

and they're done (baked a tad too long)!

The results?  I really liked them--they're slightly smokey, although that sounds gross.  Green tea's flavor is so distinct it's hard to describe.  They're not too sweet and although it seems that as I get older, I like things less sweet, I think I would add maybe a 1/2 cup more sugar next time.  

The Matcha Milk used in the original recipe has that nondairy creamer in it which contains sugar.  Sugar while obviously providing sweetness also provides a bit of moisture, both of which I think these cookies need.  And I think I would add more ginger.  The Girl didn't like the ginger but I think it's delicious and a good counterpoint to the matcha.

 Another difference to the original recipe was that I used sliced almonds instead of slivered.  It seems like a slight difference, but it made for easier slicing.  Slicing can be a major pain in the ass sometimes with biscotti and the thinner nuts (heehee...thin nuts) made slicing easier. I would also follow the recipe and divide the dough in half, making two logs (heehee...logs).  That would've made slicing even easier.

So, fine the original recipe {here} and give them a try!