the gregarious homebody


Wednesday, March 10, 2010

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!

6 comments:

Trish said...

what the hell is matcha powder and where do you find that?

The Handsome Husband said...

Nice photos!!

jen said...

CLICK ON THE LINK!

mamacita said...

Nice work, Jen. Those look pretty tasty.

adozeneggs said...

I'm a little standoffish with all these matcha recipes, but maybe I'll try matcha cupcakes someday.
I do like green tea, to drink. And I've had green tea ice cream, so maybe I'll like it in baked goods.
Your biscotti look great and if I hadn't had to make so many when I worked in the restaurant I'd have never known to make two logs either!!
TWO LOGS..........

Judy said...

These were good. Lovely color.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails