How to prepare matcha tea (and 5 recipes with sweet and healthy matcha tea)

This delicate green tea fills your recipes with color, flavor and antioxidants. We tell you how to prepare matcha tea in infusion and how to include it as an ingredient in both sweet and savory recipes.

• How matcha tea is prepared
• How to Use Matcha Tea in Recipes
• Recipes with matcha tea

Matcha tea is a type of green tea that can be infused or used as an ingredient in numerous recipes. And it is, above all, an extraordinary food: it contains substances that activate detoxifying enzymes that help the body to purify itself and has an enormous antioxidant power, capable of preventing inflammation and premature aging of cells, which can lead to many diseases.

In addition, matcha tea stimulates brain chemistry, causing them to improve attention and other cognitive abilities. It also protects against cardiovascular diseases and strengthens the immune system.

HOW MATCHA TEA IS PREPARED

Matcha is presented in powder, a powder of a very characteristic intense green color. The most common way to prepare a matcha tea is by dissolving a level teaspoon of that green powder in a cup of hot water and drinking it as if it were an infused drink.

In Japan, this simple preparation has an almost ritual character, where attention is taken to detail from the quality of the water to the materials with which the matcha is going to be prepared, such as the bamboo stirrer with which they foam the infusion.

However, the great advantage of this green tea is that we can benefit from its properties by incorporating it into our dishes, as an ingredient in the recipe, and in a concentrated way. It provides nutrients and phytochemicals to our body, but also natural flavor and color to our recipes.

HOW TO USE MATCHA TEA IN RECIPES

Due to its richness in chlorophyll, matcha tea has an herbaceous flavor with a lot of character, but delicate on the palate.

It is an ideal ingredient for preparing pastry recipes, because its organoleptic qualities marry well with the sweet taste. With matcha tea we can enrich biscuits, cakes, cookies, smoothies and even ice cream. The matcha tea cake has an original green color and a spectacular flavor.

In savory recipes, matcha tea can also be used to color a vegetable cream, improve the flavor of a sauce or enrich a paste.

Sprinkling a little matcha on some preparations can help us get a more attractive and tastier recipe.

Matcha tea makes good crumbs with:

• Chocolate: Try including some matcha tea in a cocoa Plum cake or emunas cookies. You can also combine it with carob.
• Orange: the easiest way to taste this original combination is to add matcha tea to an orange juice.
• Pumpkin: Sprinkle some matcha tea over a pumpkin cream. It will give it a different touch of flavor and, in addition, it will contrast with its color.
• Cheeses and other dairy products and vegetable alternatives: matcha tea combines very well with dairy and it is not uncommon to prepare it with milk, but in cooking we can take advantage of this affinity very well with cheeses and their vegetable alternatives, for example combining matcha tea with mascarpone or with a cashew cheese, a mixture that can serve us perfectly to make a cake topping. It also combines very well with yogurt or its vegetable alternative.

RECIPES WITH MATCHA TEA

Here I propose five recipes with sweet matcha tea, so you can enjoy this incredible and healthy ingredient in your breakfasts and desserts.

MATCHA TEA CAKE WITH MASCARPONE CREAM AND STRAWBERRY JAM

INGREDIENTS FOR 6 PEOPLE

• 6 eggs
• 120 g whole cane sugar
• 120 g wholemeal flour
• 1 tablespoon matcha green tea
• 100 g homemade strawberry jam
• 150 g creamy mascarpone
• a few fresh mints leaves

PREPARATION (50 MIN):

1. Preheat the oven to approximately 220 ºC. Upholster a mold with sulfurized baking paper. In a large bowl, beat the eggs together with the brown sugar and matcha tea until creamy.
2. Pour the sifted whole wheat flour over the freshly made smoothie. Incorporate it little by little and with enveloping circular movements. A silicone tongue will help you do it correctly.
3. Pour the mixture into the mold and place it in the oven. Let it cook for about 25 minutes or until when you introduce a skewer in the center of the cake it comes out completely clean.
4. Remove the cake from the oven and let it rest for a few minutes before unmolding it.
5. Unmold the cake carefully and cut it horizontally into three equal layers.
6. Cover the first layer with jam. Place a second layer of sponge cake on top and cover it with the mascarpone. Finally, place the third layer of cake on top and cut it into square portions.
7. Serve garnished with mint leaves. You can prepare the cake with other flavors, replacing the strawberry jam with other fruits and the mascarpone with yogurt or a cashew cream.

CHIA PUDDING AND MATCHA TEA WITH ROASTED QUINOA AND BLUEBERRIES

INGREDIENTS FOR 4 PEOPLE

• 100 g chia
• 350 ml soy milk
• 100 g soy yogurt
• 4 cloves
• 4 cardamom seeds
• a cinnamon stick
• 2 teaspoons matcha green tea
• 25 g honey
• 2 tablespoons fresh blueberries
• 1 tablespoon quinoa
• extra virgin olive oil

PREPARATION (12 MIN):

1. Put a saucepan on the fire with the soy milk. Add the cloves, cinnamon and cardamoms.
2. When boiling, remove the saucepan from the heat and let it rest until it cools. Then take out the cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom seeds.
3. Distribute the chia seeds in the four cups.
4. Add soy milk at room temperature, honey and matcha tea evenly distributed in each of the containers. Stir each glass and let it sit for ten minutes. After that time, you stir it again so that there are no lumps, the lids and let them rest in the fridge for ten hours.
5. When it is close to serving, paint a pan with a little olive oil, put it over medium heat and lightly toast the quinoa seeds. It is important that the pan-removal is immediately made to prevent it from burning with residual heat.
6. Take the cups with the pudding out of the fridge and stir them again so that the seeds are evenly distributed.
7. Add a light layer of soy yogurt to the surface. Top with blueberries and sprinkle toasted quinoa seeds on top. You can replace these toppings with others of your liking.

FLUFFY MATCHA, OATMEAL AND ALMOND TEA COOKIES

INGREDIENTS FOR 6 PEOPLE

• 1 cup almond flour
• 2 <>/<> cups oat flakes
• 1/4 cup agave syrup
• 3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons matcha green tea
• 150 g icing sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 pinch of salt

PREPARATION (25 MIN):

1. Preheat the oven to about 180 ºC. With the help of a food processor, crush the oat flakes into a fine flour.
2. In a large bowl, add the almond flour, oat flake flour, agave syrup, coconut oil and matcha tea. Mix all the ingredients well until you form sticky crumbs. With this mixture form cookies with your hands or, if you prefer, help yourself with some molds to give them the shape you want.
3. Place them on a tray and cover them with sulfurized baking paper. Place them in the oven and let them do for about 8 minutes or until you see that they are slightly golden.
4. In a bowl, put the egg white, icing sugar and lemon juice. Start beating the mixture, first gently and then with more intensity, until you manage to assemble the mixture. With the help of a kitchen brush, paint the top of the cookies with this whipped white.
5. Lower the oven temperature, reintroduce the cookies and leave them until you see that the frosting has hardened.
6. Sprinkle some matcha tea over the finished cookies while they are still hot.

MATCHA CREPES WITH RASPBERRIES, PISTACHIOS AND HONEY

One fluffy crepe made with whole wheat flour, coconut sugar and matcha tea, accompanied by fruit, nuts and honey. You can substitute honey for maple syrup if you wish.

INGREDIENTS FOR 4 PEOPLE

• 150 g fine wheat semolina
• 50 g whole wheat flour
• 350 ml water
• 5 g fresh yeast
• 25 g coconut sugar
• 1 tablespoon matcha green tea
• 3 tablespoons raspberries
• 4 tablespoons chopped pistachios
• honey
• vanilla extract
• sea salt

PREPARATION (60 MIN):

1. Place the shredded fresh yeast in a bowl and add 3 tablespoons of warm water (not exceeding 35 ºC). Stir until the yeast has completely dissolved and let it sit for a few minutes to activate.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, sift the fine wheat semolina along with the whole wheat flour. Add coconut sugar, a few drops of vanilla extract and a tablespoon of matcha tea. Mix all the ingredients until they are well integrated.
3. Temper the water and add it, little by little, to the bowl with the flours. Stir with a few rods until it is homogeneous and add the diluted fresh yeast. Stir a little more and then, with the help of an arm mixer, beat it until it is fine. Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover it with a cloth and let it rest for 20 minutes.
4. Stir it again a little more and heat a pan. Pour into it a scoop of the crepe dough and distribute the mixture well. Let it cook over medium heat, until you see that it comes off the bottom. Turn it over and let it do a little more on the other side. Repeat the process with the rest of the dough.
5. Serve the crepes drizzled with honey and topped with chopped pistachios and raspberries.

MATCHA BALLS WITH DATES, HAZELNUTS AND CHOCOLATE

INGREDIENTS FOR 6 PEOPLE

• 400 g dates
• 120 g raw hazelnuts
• 50 g grated coconut
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons flax seeds
• 1 tablespoon matcha green tea
• 75 g dark chocolate to melt

PREPARATION (30 MIN):

1. Pour the raw hazelnuts into a food processor and crush them for a few seconds.
2. Add flax seeds, dates, grated coconut and matcha tea. Crush again until a homogeneous paste is left.
3. Add the honey and stir everything well. Wet your hands a little and, with this dough, form balls of the same size (smaller than a ping-pong ball).
4. Chop the dark chocolate with a knife on a wooden board. Put a small saucepan on the fire with a glass of water and place a heat-resistant bowl inside the saucepan. Pour all the chopped chocolate into the bowl and let it heat and melt in a water bath with the flame over medium heat.
5. When the chocolate is completely melted, remove it from the heat and, with the help of a teaspoon, pour a chocolate thread over the sweet balls of coconut and matcha.
6. Let the chocolate cool in the refrigerator and serve the balls sprinkled with a little grated coconut on top.
7. These balls are an excellent dessert or snack and combine perfectly with a fruit of the season, such as strawberries, plums or peach.