Green Tea White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm very much a green tea lover and I drink it daily and love to try all kinds of green tea flavoured items such as ice-cream, cakes, cookies... 

When I saw this on Just One CookBook last year, I decided that its going on my Chinese New Year cookie baking list. Who can resist green tea cookies embedded with white chocolate chips! I loved the strong green tea flavour in this cookie and the white chocolate adds a nice crunch and texture to this delicious cookie.

I prefer my cookies a little more crisp and baked them a little longer than recommended when I baked these the first time. The white cookie chips turned slightly browned. The second time I made these, I ensured that the chips were not burned, but the cookie wasn't quite as crisp as I'd like it to be. Perhaps its my oven - I am wondering if there is anyway to overcome this problem? 



Green Tea & White Chocolate Cookies (36 cookies)
Recipe from Just One CookBook

Ingredients

• 240 g all purpose flour
• 15 g green tea powder (matcha)
• 150 g unsalted butter, softened
• 130 g powder sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Method

• Sift the flour and the matcha powder.
• Cream together the butter, sugar, and salt until soft and light.
• Add the egg yolks and beat well.
• Gradually add the flour/matcha powder mixture.
• Fold in the white chocolate chips.
• Shape the dough into 2 round logs and wrap them in plastic wrap. Place your wrapped log on a bed of rice to chill to prevent one side from being flattened. Chill in refrigerator for several hoursor, better yet, overnight.
• Preheat oven to 300F (150C) degrees. Remove the dough from plastic wrap and cut the cookies into slices of 7mm (1/4 inch) thick. If you put too many chocolate chips, this step can be a little tricky.
• Bake for 20-22 minutes then cool on a rack.

I am linking this post to the Bake Along event created by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours, lena of Frozen Wings and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids.

Chinese Tea Eggs (茶叶蛋)

My kids are all egg lovers and they eat hard boiled eggs on a regular basis though it can rather plain and boring! I decided to do something a little different by making these Chinese Tea Eggs. 

The combination of tea leaves and dried spices (cinnamon, star anise and cloves) and five spice powder filled the kitchen was a wonderful aroma even as the eggs gently simmered on the stove for that two hours. 

My kids enjoyed the Chinese Tea Eggs very much as they it has a distinctive and special flavour. It can be enjoyed dipped in soya sauce but I think its sufficiently flavourful on its own. You can leave it overnight so that the eggs develop a deeper flavour. It's an easy dish to make - what you'll need is patience to watch the fire while its cooking. 

Chinese Tea Leaf Eggs Recipe from Rasa Malaysia

Ingredients:

• 6-12 eggs (I used 6 eggs)
• 4 cups water
• 6 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce (I used 5 tbsp)
• 3 tablespoons pu-erh tea (I used tie guan yin tea leaves)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 star anise
• 3 cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Method:

• Add 4 cups of water to a medium pot and gently drop in the eggs. Make sure the water covers the eggs. Bring the water to boil on high heat. Boil for about 10 minutes or so to make sure the eggs are cooked.
• Transfer the hard-boiled eggs out of the hot boiling water and rinse them with cold water. Using the back of a teaspoon, gently tap the eggshell to crack the shell. 
• Return the eggs to the water and add in the remaining ingredients. Bring the tea mixture to a boil and immediately turn the heat to low. Simmer for 2 hours (the longer the simmering, the better the taste). Add more water if needed. Serve immediately or leave the tea eggs in the mixture overnight to further develop the color and flavor.

I am submitting this to the Little Thumbs Up "Egg" event organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY and hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out. 

Green Tea Swirl Loaf

I made this Green Tea Swirl Bread after seeing Lena's lovely loaf. Lena gave a good review of this bread and my family really liked it too. The texture of the bread is soft and fluffy and it leaves a lingering green tea fragrance as you bite into it. The best part was that it remained soft till the second day even though it uses the straight dough method. 

Different types of Matcha powder colour the bread differently. I'm a little disappointed that my Matcha powder, supposedly a good quality one from Japanese section of the supermarket, had such a dull and muted green. It is quite different from the green I see from Lena and Min's blog. Lena's bread was a bright green while Min's had a deep green. I really like their vibrant shades of greens and will continue my search for a different brand of green tea powder to make this again. Anyone has recommendations on where to find a better Matcha powder in Singapore?

Green Tea Swirl Loaf (1 Loaf)

Recipe adapted from Her Frozen Wings and Min's Blog

Ingredients

• 300 g bread flour 
• 30 g caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1 1/4 tsp instant yeast 
• 180 ml water 
• 20 g butter (I replaced with 20 g canola oil) 
• 1/2 tsp green tea powder  (I used 2 tsp green tea powder)

Method

• Combine flour, sugar , salt , yeast and water in a mixer and mix well till smooth dough is formed (I used my bread maker and churned it for about 5 mins).
• Add in butter (oil) till dough is smooth and shiny (I churned it for another 5 mins).
• Divide dough into 2 portions and add in the green tea powder into one portion and mix till dough is even colour. (I took out half the dough, added green tea powder into the other half and churned the green tea portion for another 5 mins to mix in).
• Clingwrap both dough and let it proof about an hour or almost double in size.
• Shape both dough into round shapes and let them rest for 10 minutes.
• Divide each dough into 2 portions, so now altogether there are 2 portions of plain dough and 2 portions of green tea dough. 
• Roll them out and shape them into rectangle.  Stack the layers alternately, flatten the dough and roll them up tight.
• Place in a lightly greased loaf tin (11cm x 11cm x 23cm) and let proof for second time for an hour.
• Bake in a preheated oven 180 degrees C for 30 mins. (I baked mine at 180 degrees C for 20 mins).  

This post is for Twelve Loaves and Wild Yeast Blog and Bake Your Own Bread and Made with Love Mondays by Javelin Warrior.

Green Tea Chocolate Eclairs

I came across Jo the Tart Queen’s Chocolate’s Matcha Eclairs recently and thought this would be something interesting to try out as its different from the normal chocolate eclair filled with cream. Chocolate and green tea is one a favorite combination of mine and I am always very intrigued by recipes which marries both these ingredients. 

The choux pastry crust is really good, though I think baking it for the recommended time seems rather long. When I took it out to check at the 50-minute mark, it smelled very slightly burned. Thank goodness after putting in the cream and coating it with chocolate, the smell was no longer evident. I think that the eclairs should be checked if its done after 45 minutes. 

I am not sure where I went wrong with the pastry cream. It’s supposed to be of a thick and piping consistency but mine remained liquid even after I cooled it down in the refrigerator. Nonetheless, it was a very delicious cream. Paired with the lovely chocolate coating, my family enjoyed these eclairs very much. There’s just a slight hint of green tea fragrance, so you may want to add more green tea powder if you like it stronger.

Chocolate Green Tea Eclairs (Makes about 20)
Recipe from Jo the Tart Queen

Choux pastry (eclairs)

Ingredients

• 188 ml tap water
• 65 ml full cream milk
• 100 g unsalted butter, cubed
• 8 g sugar
• 3 g salt
• 150 g plain flour
• 3 tsp matcha powder
• +/- 150g whole eggs, room temperature

Egg wash: (or use your preferred egg wash)
1 egg yolk
dash of full cream milk
pinch of salt

Method

1. Prepare trays for baking the choux by greasing it with butter so that they would not stick on the tray.
2. Place water, milk, butter, sugar and salt into a pot and bring it to a rolling boil. It should be bubbling furiously.
3. Remove the pot from the heat or turn down the heat and pour in all the flour and matcha powder at once and stir immediately and vigorously with a wooden spoon/spatula.  Ensure that there is no lumps of flour in the *panade. Cook out the mixture over low heat for another 2-3 minutes. You should have a glossy panade that can be formed into a ball that comes away from the sides of the pot easily.
4. Remove the panade and place it into your machine mixer bowl. Using a paddle attachment, put the machine on low speed in order to cool the panade down for about 5  minutes. You wouldn’t want to add in the eggs when the panade is still hot. You may end up scrambling the eggs. Remember that eggs start cooking at 60°C (140°F).
5. When the panade is not hot to touch, with the paddle attachment still on, start adding the eggs one at a time at medium speed (speed 4 on the Kitchenaid mixer). The mixture may look like it has cuddled and split at first but be patient and allow the machine to do its job to emulsify the mixture. It will come back together in a while.
6. Continue adding the eggs until you get a smooth, thick, glossy paste. When you lift up your spatula, it should fall after roughly 3 seconds. It should be able to fall from the spatula on its own but not be too wet that it can’t hold its shape. You may/may not require the entire amount of eggs as stated in the recipe, depending on the consistency of the choux paste.
7. Place choux paste into a piping bag with a plain nozzle/star shaped nozzle. Pipe them as evenly as you can and spacing them apart,  about 12-13 cm  length, about 2 cm width. Do not flick the piping bag or when it bakes, it will form ugly cracks and seams and it would not rise neatly and evenly.
8. Egg wash the choux pastry with a brush and at the same time flatten down the little tips. This is to ensure that the tips do not burn.
9. Bake immediately at 180 degrees C in a pre-heated oven for about 50 minutes to an hour. Choux pastry must be thorougly baked. if the sides of the walls are moist, when removed from the oven, steam will condense back into water and the still-wet walls will recoil. This will cause the choux pastry to collapse/ and flattened itself.
10. You can check if the choux pastry shells are properly baked by removing a shell from the oven and tear it apart to see if the entire choux is dry. Only remove the entire batch when they are dry.
11. Fill these choux pastry with the matcha crème patissière only after they have cooled completely. You can either slice off the tops with a serrated knife or using toothpick to poke a hole at the bottom of the choux pastry before piping the filling.

Matcha crème patissière (Matcha pastry cream)

Ingredients

• 500 ml whole milk
• 1/4 vanilla bean (I used 1/4 tsp vanilla essence)
• 100 g egg yolks
• 100 g caster sugar
• 60 g cornflour, sifted
• 2 tsp matcha powder, sifted
• 35 g butter, cut into cubes

Method

1. Prepare and measure all the ingredients before you start.
2. Scrap the vanilla bean into the milk and bring milk to a boil.
3. In the meantime, whisk egg yolks with sugar until well-combined before adding the cornflour and matcha powder. Whisk till mixture is uniform.
4. When the milk boils, you will see the milk in the pot bubbling furiously. Take the milk off the heat and pour it into your egg mixture. At this point, whisk quickly to incorporate the milk mixture.
5. Pour the milk and egg mixture back into pot and continue to whisk without pausing. This step is crucial to prevent lumps from forming in the crème patissière.
6. Ensure that you whisk under low to medium heat until a smooth paste. Allow the crème patissière to cook for at least 2 minutes before taking it off the heat.
7. Stir in the cubed butter until well-combined.
8. Pour the crème patissière onto a tray lined with cling wrap. Ensure that the cling wrap covers the crème patissière completely. Cool it down in the fridge before using it.

Dark chocolate ganache glaze

Ingredients

• 55 g dark chocolate,  chopped ( I use 70% valhrona chocolate)
• 65 ml cream
• 1 tbsp glucose
• 10 g butter

Method

1. Heat the cream and glucose in a small pot over medium heat. Stir occasionally  Allow the cream to come to a boil.
2. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and butter. Stir to combine until uniform.

Assembling the parts

1. Slice the cooled eclairs with a serrated knife, lengthwise. Since they are baked thoroughly, they shouldn’t be soft and should maintain its shape so that they can be sliced easily.
2. Whisk the matcha creme patisserie until smooth. Fit your piping bag with a star shaped nozzle and fill your piping bag with the creme patisserie.  Pipe neatly over the bottom of the eclairs.
3. Dip the top half of the eclair into the dark chocolate ganache glaze. Use your fingers to clean away  the sides and assemble the top and bottom halves of the eclair.

Lower-calorie Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Green Tea Cream

I have never heard of Whoopie Pies till recently when I started blogging and read about them from other food bloggers. Made up of two round mound-shaped pieces of cake with a sweet, creamy filling sandwiched between them, the Whoopie Pie is somewhat a cross between a cookie, pie, and cake.

According to food historians, Amish women would bake these desserts (known as hucklebucks, or creamy turtles at the time) and put them in farmers’ lunch pails or lunch boxes. When farmers would find the treats in their lunch, they would shout “Whoopie!” It is thought that the original Whoopie pies may have been made from cake batter leftovers.

I searched the web for a healthier version as I always try to cut down on fats and sugar when making desserts for my family. Here is a healthier version that uses wholemeal flour, mashed bananas and low-fat milk. I was a little worried about how this would turn out (as often times, bakes without butter/oil are rather dry and hard). However, these chocolate pies turned out to be delicious. It was very chocolate-y with a hint banana flavour. Though it has a slightly chewy texture, these Whoopie Pies were not dry at all. I actually thought this resembled brownies in many ways.

However, the cream turned out to be too sweet for my liking though. My kids were not fond of the cream either though they ate the chocolate pies with great relish (they got rid of the cream first). Overall, it is definitely a lovely treat!

Lower-calorie Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Green Tea Cream (makes 18 pies)
Recipe adapted from Glamour

Ingredients:

Cookie

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup mashed banana
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup cocoa
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda*
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar*
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

* replaced baking soda + cream of tartar with 1 3/4 tsp of baking powder

Filling

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup Neufchatel cream cheese
• 1/4 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 tsp of green tea powder (my own addition) – adjust according to your preference on how strong you like green tea flavour; and also on the fragrance of the green tea powder.

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Spray nonstick spray on cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl cream together sugar and banana. Add eggs, milk and vanilla. In a small bowl combine the cocoa, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the liquids beating together until smooth.
4. Drop batter (about 2 tablespoons at a time) on to the cookie sheets to make 18 cookies (I pipped it on as its neater)
5. Bake 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
6. To make the filling, cream together the cheese and sugar add yogurt and green tea powder and continue to mix until well blended.
7. Assemble sandwiches by spreading the filling on the flat side of one cookie and topping with another pressing down to distribute filling evenly. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling (I pipped the cream on).
8. Wrap whoopie pies individually in plastic wrap or place them in a single layer on a platter as they will stick if stacked on top of each other.