December 7, 2008

Matcha!


Wow,It has been awhile since I have posted an entry. I've been cooking plenty,but that's pretty much all I have been doing. Just cooking. I haven't thought about taking pictures or writing about it. I have just been cooking.It's too bad because I've come up with some pretty delicious dishes.

One of the culinary projects that I have been experimenting in is chocolates.I have always wanted to send chocolates or some sort of confection as a holiday greeting to friends and family. I tried last year, but I was too busy to focus on them. This year I did it.

Matcha is a fine powdered green tea.It is most commonly used in japanese tea ceremonies, but is used to flavor foods such as mochi or soba noodles. I was given a bag of it, so I decided to make green tea bonbons.

Matcha has an acquired taste.It does have a bit of a bitter taste,so some people like it and some people don't. Personally, I love green tea. I was very happy with the ganache.

Matcha Ganache

7 ounces White chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons Matcha Powder

1. Heat heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium-high heat.I usually get it to a boil.
2. Whisk the matcha powder into the heavy cream and immediately pour over the white chocolate.
3. Whisk the chocolate and heavy cream together until the chocolate has fully melted.
4. Enjoy!

Edit:

I received a comment from an anonymous poster asking for more details on how I made these chocolates. These were molded. One day, I will talk about the process in my own words, but here is a video from the Today show that featured Norman Love who used to be the chocolatier for Godiva. In this segment, he goes through the process of molding chocolates. Very informative,imo. The way I achieved this color was to first spray the molds with plain cocoa butter. I let that dry and flicked black cocoa butter into the mold. After letting that dry, I sprayed the mold with a green color. At first, I was going to coat with white chocolate, but I decided that milk chocolate would be really great with the color.

10 comments:

gail said...

Looks absurdly delicious! I LOVE matcha too - mmm!

Anonymous said...

How did you make the coating?
Was it in a mold?
How did you color the chocolate?
They look great.

More details, please!

Thip said...

This is an artistic gift!
I love greeen tea because of its bitterness. It goes really well with white chocolate. I'm planning to make truffles for family and friends this year too. :)

V.Streit said...

Gail: Not very many people that I know enjoy matcha. Many complain about the bitterness. It's exciting that you enjoy it as well!

Thip: oooo! I hope you will post pictures. :D

Anonymous: I edited the post and included a video of norman love on the today show.One day I will talk about it in my own words.

Sarah and Gan said...

wow, the matcha ganache looked amazing!!

s

jd said...

Those look beautiful! I love the green (it's my favorite color)!

SweetThingsTO said...

Wow - these are just so gorgeous! The color, the chocolate molds and the pictures are great too!

Elaine said...

Oh my goodness, do those ever look good. I love matcha too and I'm just drooling looking at your matcha ganache!

Sildenafil said...

MMMM.... it looks very delicious even if it is a green shell, it makes me wonder and enjoy to know that I can taste this at home.

Matcha said...

Matcha Green Tea can be used to make a dreamy ice cream. Just scald 1/2 cup of whole milk over low heat and stir in 1/3 cup of raw cane sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves and then remove the milk/sugar from the stove. In a bowl, whisk three egg yolks together and then slowly pour about 1/4 of the milk/sugar mixture into the bowl with the egg yolks while continuing to whisk. Put the remaining milk/sugar mixture back on the stove on low heat and add your egg yolk mixture into the pot slowly. Stir continuously and wait for the mixture to thicken a little.


Then remove it from the heat and pour it back into your bowl. Mix 1 tablespoons Matcha powder and 1/8 cup water together to form a paste. Mix that with 1 cup heavy cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla and add that Matcha mix to your milk/yolk mix. Whisk them together, and allow them to cool. Add this mixture to your ice cream maker and enjoy!

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