3 Recipes with Matcha

For those who have been ‘studying’ healthy food for some time, it won’t be surprising when we say: “green tea is a super antioxidant”.

Do you want to integrate this super antioxidant even more into your healthy lifestyle? Dive into the matcha world with 3 of our favourite matcha recipes.

Green tea contains anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory polyphenols, more specifically the catechin EGCG which is one of the largest fighters of free radicals.

Matcha tea contains even more EGCG than green tea because of how the tea is made; Matcha leafs are steamed, not roasted.

Mini Matcha Truffels

Matcha truffles are pure indulgence with a cup of coffee or tea. They look enticingly beautiful on a table and depending on your preference and taste, you can make them as sweet or as bitter as you choose.

Matcha truffles with white chocolate are the favourites of those who prefer something sweet. Those who eat bitter chocolate and are not such a fan of sweets, can replace the white chocolate in the recipe with pure dark chocolate or milk chocolate. A little different in flavour, but just as delicious.

Because the matcha is not mixed with other ingredients, the pure flavour of matcha is preserved in this recipe. Matcha is also the first thing that will reach your tongue and therefore the first thing you will taste.

Because of this, it is important to choose and use a matcha of high quality for these matcha truffles. Opt for pure matcha, with umami, an ultra-fine grain and a fresh, green colour, such as the Kotobuki from Amanprana.

Ingredients for 20 truffels

250 g white chocolate, dark chocolate or milk chocolate
80 g fresh cream
20 g butter – room temperature
20 g grated coconut
Some Kotobuki Matcha – ceremonial matcha tea

Preparation mini matcha truffels

1. 1. Cut the butter into smaller pieces.
2. 2. Chop the chocolate and put into a bowl.
3. 3. Heat up the cream gently and add the cream to the chopped chocolate pieces. Mix well, allowing the cream to melt the chocolate.
4. 4. Add the butter and the grated coconut to the mixture. Stir until the ingredients are mixed together.
5. Cover the truffle mix and put it in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours to allow the mixture to harden.
6. 6. Shape the chocolate truffle mix into small balls and roll the truffles through the matcha. Make sure they’re covered with enough matcha.
7. 7. Store the mini matcha truffles in the refrigerator.

Tip

These matcha truffles are a delicious way to end your breakfast. Enjoy it with your last cup of coffee of the morning and enjoy the increased focus throughout the morning thanks to the L-Theanine in matcha. L-theanine is an amino acid that neutralises the caffeine / theine of matcha: matcha makes you alert (like coffee) but thanks to the L-Theanine you do not experience any ‘nervousness’ or agitation.

Recipe from Aiya, producer of high quality Japanese tea and matcha

Gula Java Matcha Tiramisu

Everybody knows tiramisu. “Tiramisu” literally means ‘pick me up’. Said differently, it’s a dish that will cheer you up and make you happy. It’s a worldwide favourite. Do you love coffee, amaretto or mascarpone? Then you’ll love tiramisu.

Have you tried giving this old classic a new twist? To make it just a tint more greener? Literally… You can do this very simply: add 2 tablespoons of Gula Java Matcha to your mascarpone mixture. The cream will get a light green colour and flavour of green tea is subtly present.

With the recipe for Gula Java Matcha Tiramisu below, you can change it up even more. This is a lightly sweet tiramisu, without eggs. Less heavy for the stomach and healthier for the body.

Ingredients for 4 people

250 ml cream (to be whipped)
2 tablespoons Gula Java Matcha
2 tablespoons amaretto
250 g mascarpone
Up to 50 g Gula Java Fin Coconut Blossom Sugar
100 g wholemeal cookies crumbs
50 g cocoa powder

Preparation Gula Java Matcha Tiramisu

1. 1. Whip the cream and mix with Gula Java Matcha, amaretto and mascarpone. Sweeten to taste with Gula Java Fin.
2. 2. Put a layer of the wholemeal cookies crumbs on the bottom of the serving cups or glasses or at the bottom of 1 large serving pan. Sprinkle some coffee onto the crumbs.
3. 3. Add a layer of the mascarpone mix, add another layer of the crumbs and finish with an extra layer of mascarpone mix.
4. 4. Let the tiramisu rest for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator. Sprinkle the cocoa powder as a finishing layer right before serving the tiramisu.

Tip

Replace Gula Java Matcha with 1 teaspoon of pure matcha if you want to use even less coconut blossom sugar. The quality of the matcha also determines the flavour. Opt for matcha of imperial quality, like the Kotobuki Amanprana, or try Akashi from Aiya.

Recipe from Chantal Voets, from the book Healthy Food, Happy People

Matcha Shortbread Cookies

As soon as you decide to bake with matcha – and the matcha is heated as a result – choose for ‘regular’ matcha or green tea powder. Matcha of high quality is too expensive and precious to use for oven-dishes or recipes.

The typical flavour of matcha disappears with high temperatures (which is why it is best to prepare your matcha drink with water of only 80°C). By heating the powder with high temperatures for a longer period of time in the oven, matcha starts to taste bitter. This always occurs, regardless of the quality of matcha used. There is no more umami. What remains is the trusted flavour of green tea.

The quality of matcha can be recognized through price, colour, texture and flavour.

• • - The production of matcha is time consuming. To produce 40 g of ultra-fine matcha, the tea leafs are ground for 1 hour in the granite mill. This is done very slowly to prevent the powder from oxidizing due to the heat that may be caused during the grounding process.
    To offer matcha at cheaper prices, the matcha needs to be ground quickly. This is at the expense of quality.

• • - Matcha of high quality is only made from the tea leafs from the top layer of the tea trees. Picking these leafs is very labour intensive and the yield is limited.
    Cheaper matcha is often not much more than green tea powder, for which all tea leafs can be used.

• • - Matcha tea leafs are shielded from the sun for 4 weeks, so that they produce more chlorophyll. Matcha of these shielded tea leafs has a fresh, bright green colour.
    Matcha of lesser quality often has a duller green colour and comes from tea leafs which have not been shielded from the sun or shielded only for a limited amount of time (and therefore have not produced sufficient amounts of chlorophyll).

• - Finely ground matcha of high quality is a tea powder with texture similar to make-up powder.
  A coarse grain is a clear indication of inferiority or ‘fake matcha’.

Ingredients for 25 cookies

150 g butter
70 g fine sugar
250 g flour
2 teaspoons matcha suitable for baking

Ingredients for icing

150 g icing sugar (powdered sugar)
juice from 1 lime
pink food colouring

Preparation matcha shortbreads

1. 1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F)
2. 2. Mix the butter and the fine sugar in a food processor.
3. 3. Mix the flour and matcha in a different bowl.
4. 4. Add the flour-matcha mixture to the butter and sugar.
5. 5. Knead the dough with your hands into a ball. Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.
6. 6. Roll out the dough and use your cookie cutters to get your desired shapes.
7. 7. Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes in the pre-heated oven. Let them cool.

Preparation icing

Take a small bowl. Mix the lemon juice slowly with the powdered sugar.
Add the pink colouring and mix well.
Add the icing to the cookies when they have completely cooled down.

Tip

Looking for a natural alternative to pink food colouring? Use raspberry or cherry juice.

Recipe from Chantal Voets, from the book Healthy Food, Happy People

How do you use matcha in your kitchen?