Green Tea Pudding without Eggs

I called this green tea pudding without eggs because this pudding was not made with eggs and baked in a water bath.  I used gelatin to harden it.  I got the inspiration from Nasi Lemak Lover's Soymilk Pudding and a commercial I watched on youtube.  That commercial featured vanilla pudding, coffee pudding and green tea pudding and it just caught my eyes.  Since I have one last packet of powder gelatin to use and all other ingredients at home, I set to work.  I revised the recipe using my Reduced Fat Panna Cotta that I made earlier.  The difference was no heavy cream was used in this pudding.

If you loved green tea, you would love this.  Just make sure you use a good quality green tea powder or matcha so that the color will come out green and the taste of green tea will be strong.  It does makes a difference so don't buy a cheap green tea powder for baking or making dessert (I had learned my lesson).  I recommend Redman's green tea powder for baking if you live in Malaysia.

This pudding is delicious and all of us loved it.

Ingredients:

7g powder gelatin + 1/4 cup water

(A)
2 cups 2% milk
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. good quality matcha or green tea powder

Method:

1.  Mix water and gelatin together, let it set.

2.  In a medium saucepan, add in (A) and bring it to a boil and stir to dissolve the sugar.  Remove from heat and add in 1.  Stir until the gelatin is dissolved.

3.  Sieve into prepared cups and let it cool at room temperature.  It is normal to have some matcha that won't be completely dissolved and pass through the sieve and sink at the bottom of the cup.

4.  Move to the refrigerator to let it set completely.  About 2-3 hours.  Bigger cups take longer time.  Preferably overnight.

Green Tea Pumpkin Seeds

I always wanted to roast some pumpkin seeds.  My opportunity came when I had a bag of pumpkin seeds given by a library event (pumpkin carving) that we went to.  I loved green tea flavor and so automatically I wanted to try green tea flavored roasted pumpkin seeds.  This is definitely good and make a great snack.  Me and my girls all loved it.

Since this was slow roasted for an hour, we can certainly pop the whole thing in the mouth.  It's totally edible with extra fiber and crunch.  You can taste the green tea and salt.  Of course if you choose to just eat the seed, you can do that too. I did that while watching my korean drama.  LOL!

Ingredients:

1- 1 1/4 cup whole pumpkin seeds (cleaned, remove pulp and strings, wipe with paper towel and let dry)

1 Tbsp. canola oil

1/2 Tbsp. Kosher salt

1 tsp. green tea powder or matcha

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 275'F.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

2.  Mix the ingredients in a bowl and spread it on the foil lined baking sheet.

3.  Bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Let cool and store in an air-tight container.

(Double the recipe for 2 cups of pumpkin seeds)

Green Tea Buns with Green Tea Crusted Topping

My twist on Rotiboy (or Mexican Buns)! Instead of the coffee flavored that we have known and loved, I made it into green tea flavored. As my readers know, I love green tea powder or matcha and I had done some baking based on it as well. This recipe came about while I was looking at my previous Rotiboy's post, I thought of this idea, why not experiment it in a different flavor and green tea just stood out. So, I have this recipe in file for me to try for months, but just never gotten to really make it (blame my laziness). I finally made it today because my store-bought bread is running low and I am short of posts to post in my blog. So, that did it, I had to take my breadmaker out and start working. :P

These green tea buns came out so good, soft and fluffy (it even left a dent when my fingers picked out the buns to cool) with the crusty sweet topping that I loved. Simply delicious! If you love green tea, you should give this bun a try! I will certainly make more of this. :)


Resting and proofing until double in size.


Then, pipe the topping into spiral on top of each bun.


Add a little black sesame seeds in the center of each bun.


Like this! Don't spread the sesame seeds all over, just place it in the center as the topping will spread out when baking.

Green Tea Buns: (Yield about 18-20 buns)

230ml cold water
1 Tbsp. milk powder
1 large egg
5 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. green tea powder for baking
2 3/4 cup bread flour
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. bread improver
1 Tbsp. instant yeast



Method:

1. Add everything according to your bread maker manual. Turn on the dough function and let the bread maker do the work.

2. When done, take the dough out, give it a few kneads and roll the dough in cylinder shape, cut out individual portion, roll it into ball and place it on a baking pan lined with parchment paper.

Note: You can add filling you like at this point such as cream cheese, red bean paste or salted butter. (I omitted filling to cut down on calories and fat)

3. Cover with plastic wrap and let it proof for 45-60 minutes depending on the temperature of your room (or double in size).
4. When double in size, pipe the green tea topping on top of each bun in spiral motion and add some black sesame seeds in the middle. Bake in the preheated 375'F oven for 10 minutes.

5. Cool on wire rack and keep the leftover in the air-tight container. If the topping turns soft (should turn soft) the next day, just toast it in the toaster oven for 4-5 minutes, the topping will turn crispy again.



Really very soft and fluffy. Delectable!

Green Tea Crusted Flavored Topping:
1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp. sifted cake flour
1/4 cup sifted icing sugar
4 Tbsp. of soften butter (or 1/4 cup)
1 large egg
1 tsp. green tea powder for baking

Step:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Whisk until well blended and put it into a piping bag (or a zipper bag and cut the corner off) in preparation for spiral piping on top of each bun.

Iced Matcha au Lait

I always used matcha in my bakes, didn't know it can be so refreshing and tasty in a drink too, such as this iced matcha au lait recipe from matchasource.com. I was surprised at how tasty it was and my girls just drank it up especially Edda who even asked for more.

Matcha is a powdered green tea from Japan. It is naturally sugar free, rich in nutrients, anti-oxidants, fiber and chlorophyll-a renowned detoxifying agent. Matcha contains caffeine which stimulated the body and amino acids which relax the mind. Tea plants are covered with bamboo screens several weeks prior to harvest. Under the screens, plants must work harder to grow, and they increase their levels of chlorophyll and amino acids. Harvested tea leaves are then steamed, air-dried, de-veined and stone-ground into powder. Therefore, with matcha, whole tea leaves are consumed, thus the vibrant green color, and why the taste of matcha is grassy and full-bodied. I always have readers asking me where they can purchase matcha in the states. Well, you can visit matchasource.com to order, read about the traditional way of serving matcha, for more tips and browse through the recipes or interviews.

Recipe provided with courtesy from matchasource.com:

Ingredients: Serves 1

1 tsp. matcha
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup hot water
3/4 cup cold milk
3-4 ice cubes
6-inch stalk of lemon grass (I omitted this)

Method:

1. Mix the matcha with the sugar, add the hot water, and stir until the paste becomes smooth.

2. Add the cold milk and stir. Add the ice cubes.

3. Serve with the lemon grass for added flavor.

Green Tea Castella or Matcha Kasutera

We were going away for a three days two nights camping trip and I wanted something easy to serve as breakfast. What easier than having two pieces of cake and a cup of instant 3 in 1 coffee or milk tea? Since I made the Castella cake earlier and we all loved it, that sponge cake was my easy picked. I read that the original Japanese sponge cake does not called for oil/butter/margarine so I was interested in experimenting. However, I was too careful to remove all the oil because I was afraid that it might be too dry thus I reduced half of the oil and some sugar. I added 1/2 tablespoon of green tea powder for a change too. Since I reduced the oil, I also tried the method mentioned in my previous post that was to place the cake in the refrigerator while still warm but I didn't brush the top with honey water (I didn't want it to be sticky).

The resulted cake had fine crumbs and more compact than my previous one. Still soft and light like a sponge cake with the tint fragrant of green tea. Still tasted good after reducing the oil.



Makes one 8×8 x 2-inch pan
Ingredients:

5 large eggs

150 grams granulated sugar

200 grams all-purpose flour

1/2 Tbsp. green tea powder

100 ml whole milk, at room temperature

4 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons canola oil

Method:

1. Grease the square pan with baking spray. Cut out a parchment paper the size of the pan for the bottom of the pan and place it on the pan, spray it with baking spray too. Preheat oven to 350 degree F and place a rack in the middle of the oven.

2. Mix eggs and sugar with a stand-in mixer for about 5 minutes or until batter forms a ribbon when the wire whip is lifted, the color should be light yellow.

3. Whisk together the flour and green tea powder. With the mixer running on medium speed, pour the flour mixture into the batter slowly. Next add the milk, mix it well. Then add the honey and mix it again well. Last, add the oil and make sure it is incorporated into the batter thoroughly.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Place it in the oven and bake for 10 minutes in 350 degree F. After that, lower the temperature to 325 degree F and bake for 35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

5. Remove from the pan as soon as it is done. Place it on the cooling rack and when it's not too hot to handle (still warm), wrap with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for at least few hours. Then, take it out and let it sit at room temperature overnight wrapped. Cut it the next day.

Green Tea Muffin with Red Bean Paste

Received this as a suggestion from a reader. And since I have some canned red bean and water chestnut paste in my pantry, I decided to give it a go. I used my green tea yogurt muffin recipe and added a dollop of red bean and chestnut paste in the middle before baking. I thought red bean paste pair better with green tea flavor, so I tried it with green tea muffin. It yields 18 muffins for me, so again I have to give some away and freeze some for later consumption. I will take it out a night before and let it defroze and be ready for breakfast the next day.

Green Tea Flavored Baked Donuts

Adding green tea powder for a change. You can add cocoa powder for a chocolate flavored donuts as well (recipe won't be the same as you will need more cocoa powder to bring out the flavor).


I split it open to share the texture of this donuts. It's still soft the second day.



Ingredients :

(A)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon green tea powder

(B)
1 egg
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons milk (I used whole milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Toppings: sweeten coconut flakes & semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional). You can glaze it with green tea icing or coated it powder sugar before serving.

Method :

1. In a big bowl, combine (A). Whisk to mix well.

2. Push the flour to the side and in the center, add in (B). Mix (B) well with a whisk and mix the flour in to blend well. Set aside.

3. Spray the donut pan with nonstick cooking spray and divide the sweeten coconut flakes and chocolate chips at the bottom of each of the donut tube pans. Divide batter among pans. Place the batter only half full so that you will see donut hole when baked. 3/4 full will not be able to see any donut hole when baked.

4. Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire rack.

~Yield 12-14 baked donuts

Check out my other baked donuts:
1. Healthy baked donuts
2. Assorted baked donuts

I am sharing this dish with Culinarty's Original Recipe blog event. Check it out every month on the week of 15th for the round up. Thanks!

Green Tea Yogurt Cupcakes/Muffins

Looks like I am addicted in baking yogurt cake right? Actually it is also I bought a big tub of plain yogurt so I have to finish it. This time I tried adding green tea powder into the yogurt cake. This cake has a slight fragrant of green tea and not too sweet.

Ingredients:

(A)
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. green tea powder
(B)
1 cup plain yogurt
3 large eggs, whisk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup canola oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350'F. Place paper cups in the muffin pan.

2. In a big bowl, add in (A). Whisk to combine.

3. Then, add in (B). Whisk and blend until incorporated.

4. Lastly, scoop the batter into each papercups until 3/4 full.

5. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

*For the paper cups above, it yields 17 cupcakes for me*

Check out my other yogurt cake recipes:
-Dark Chocolate Yogurt Cake
-Pandan Yogurt Cake

Steamed Green Tea Cupcakes

I love the steamed banana cupcakes so I decided to make other variety of steamed cakes. Since I really love green tea flavor so this was an easy choice. For sure I will try out different flavors in the future. I steamed this in my newly acquired diamond shape Wilton's silicon cups. Hmmm...looks like these steamed cakes want to play "pee ka boo" with me! LOL!


How it looked when I took it out from the silicon cups and turned it the other side so that it didn't look like these cuppies were saying "pee ka boo". These steamed cuppies are soft and light, I really loved it. I also made it healthier by using skim milk and oil.



Ingredients: (yield 11 diamond shape silicon cups)

(A)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

(B)
67g canola oil (or vegetable oil)
180g skim milk (or any milk you have)

(C)
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp. green tea powder

Method:

1. Beat (A) with an electric beater until double in size.

2. Add (B), whisk to combine.

3. In another bowl, add (C), whisk to combine. Add into the wet mixture. Mix until incorporated.

4. Pour into the silicon cups and steam in a steamer for 15 minutes.

5. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes and release from silicon cups and let cool completely before storing in air-tight container.

Green Tea Oats Cookies

I was browsing through food blogs and then some and then I felt my hands itchy again. Itch to have some action and then my mind started to wander. I wanted to make something very easy without taking out my electric beaters and incorporating green tea powder (as I love it) and sort of healthy at the same time and thus this was created.

If you like crunchy oats cookies with green tea fragrant, this is the recipe for you. I used this Oats Cookies but instead of vanilla extract, I used 1/2 tsp. of green tea powder, omitted the raisins and choc. chips and used 1 cup of oats instead.



The resulted cookies of the day! The color and shape of this cookie seem to me very suitable to serve on Halloween. :P I can imagine adding two tiny choc. chips as eyes and I will have myself a plate of little green goblins starring at me. LOL! Surprisingly, this cookie was well received by my hubby and two girls.

Green Tea Milk Loaf

No bread at home but want to eat bread with the pork floss I bought so how? Have to take out my breadmaker and start making bread. Since it's freezing cold over here and I'm too lazy to shape and proof my bread, the easiest way is to let the breadmaker do everything. Yeah, I don't want to wash the extra pan nor turn on my oven!



I decided to play around with the recipe again and turned this milk loaf bread into Green Tea flavor. This is the recipe I used because I'm out of heavy cream and I really like milk loaf. I used 1 whole egg instead of 35g of egg, what am I going to use with the leftover half an egg huh? I also used 2% fresh milk instead of skim. In addition, I also added 1/2 tsp. green tea powder and 1 tsp. bread improver. Set my breadmaker to Basic, Light Crust and 1.5 lb. and have my bread ready in 2.5 hours.



Not bad at all. It's soft and fluffy with green tea flavor. My girls ate half of the bread while it's still warm so only got five pieces left for tomorrow breakfast. By the way, I find cutting the bread is a challenge, when do you supposed to cut the bread, when it's still warm or when it's cool down completely? The bread is so soft so I basically have to squeeze the bread to cut it with my serrated knife when it's still warm (the side crust is still a bit hard so I can grab hold on it). I'm afraid when it's all soft I will have no way to slice it. So, I sliced my bread when it's still warm and put them in an air-tight container. When and how do you normally slice your bread?

Hmmm...should have used the timer so that I can wake up with a fresh loaf of bread huh?

Green Tea Daifuku/ Mochi

Daifuku is a Japanese sweet consisting of a small round glutinous rice cake/mochi stuffed with sweet filling. Most Daifuku are covered in a fine layer of corn or taro starch to prevent them from sticking to each other, believe me this is one sticky dessert without the flour. I adapted my Green Tea Daifuku from Hugbear aka LeeLee and used the basic red bean paste as filling. I have tried it plain with toasted ground peanuts before and it was yummy as well.






Recipe adapted from LeeLee:

1 cup glutinous rice flour
1/2 tsp. green tea powder (for baking)
180ml water
1/4 cup sugar

Red bean paste for filling
Cornstarch for dusting (microwave cornstarch for 2 mins, let it cool completely before using)

Method:

1. In a glass bowl, combine flour, green tea powder and water. Stir to mix well. Then add in the sugar, stir til sugar dissolved.

2. Cover with a plastic wrap and microwave for 2 minutes. Remove and stir well. Return to microwave for another 30 seconds. Stir-well and check for doneness. If not, put it back for another 30 seconds, be careful not to burn it.

3. Flour the working surface with cornstarch and use a spoon to drop a ball of mochi on top and quickly cover it with starch. Divide into 8 or 10 pieces. Wrap the filling inside and cover with more cornstarch. Shape into balls and ready to serve.


Verdict: This daifuku is really soft with a strong green tea flavor and combined with the sweet red bean paste, what can I say but absolutely divine!

Green Tea Powder (Baking)

Since a few of you asked me about green tea powder, I thought I just post up a picture for you to see. So that whenever you are back in M'sia/S'pore you can go buy it yourself or ask someone to buy and ship it to you. :) This is the one I have been using and I really like the green tea fragrant it has.

Green Tea Pound Cake

I made a marbled green tea pound cake to a friend's house recently and Evy loved it. And since I have all the ingredients at home, I made another one for her but this time I made it all green tea. This recipe was adapted from Kraftfood~ Grandma's Pound Cake; and definitely a keeper recipe for me. It is just as good without changing anything in the recipe, the pure vanilla extract itself made the cake Mmm..so good.





My Adapted Green Tea Pound Cake Recipe:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 pkg. (4 oz) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 Tbp. baking powder
1 tsp. green tea powder (for baking)
1/2 tsp. salt
Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Beat butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 1 min. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition. Beat an additional 5 min. or until very light and fluffy. Add cream cheese; beat 1 min. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, green tea powder and salt. Add to butter mixture. Beat 1 min or until well blended. Pour batter into greased and floured 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes.

Green Tea Melting Moments

I have been wanting to make this cookie ever since I saw how easy the recipe was early this year. However, I was just not motivated enough to really make it. What did it for me was the picture of Connie's melting moments at KC. She reminded me of this melt-in-the-mouth cookie again and thus the result of this afternoon labor. Sometimes all it took was a picture to snap me into action. Okay, now who wants to help me finish all the cookies? ;o)







Ingredients:

(A)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar

(B)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. green tea powder
A dash of salt

Method:

In a large bowl, beat (A) until fluffy. Add (B), beating well until when pressed with fingers, it sticked together. Fold into a disk and covered it with a plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325'F. Rolled out the dough and used a few cookie cutters to cut out different shapes (Need to work quickly as the dough turned soft fast with warm hands). Place on a parchment paper on a cookie sheet and baked for 12-15 minutes, or until adges were golden. Remove to cool on wire rack.

Yields 2-3 dozen

Verdict: Melt-in-your-mouth with a hint of green tea flavor.

Powdered Fingers
-----------------------


For this, shaped the dough like a finger or long shape. Baked for 15 minutes. When the cookie was still warm, dipped and coated it with powdered sugar.

Green Tea Buns

I made Green Tea Buns the other day. Just use any basic sweet bun dough recipe and add 1 tsp. of green tea powder into the flours mixture. The green tea flavor is real subtle which is good for those who don't like the smell being too strong. I added mung bean paste as filling just because I have some leftover mung bean paste in the freezer. For stronger green tea flavor, add 2 tsp. green tea powder.