No cook easy peasy Matcha Tiramisu

Matcha is quite possibly the easiest tea to cook with. Because its fine flour like texture, you can drop a little spoonful of it into just about any drink or food to add the green tea touch!

I am not sure if I ever had Matcha Tiramisu, but my liking of Tiramisu makes me think this could be quite nice. Perhaps a more healthy version of Tiramisu ;)

I want to keep it simple, as my helper is only near 3 year old. Fortunately I found the Happy Home Baking blog with a wonderfully simply, no cooking recipe.

See our Matcha Tiramisu recipe

Filling:
250g mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons matcha* powder
200 ml non-dairy whipping cream

Matcha "Bath":
1 tablespoon matcha* powder

1/2 cup (125ml) boiling water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

about 24 sponge fingers (savoiardi)
extra matcha* powder for dusting


Matcha is a green tea powder from Japan. For Matcha afficionado, there are 2 grades - food grade, which is often more like a powdered sencha, and a tea ceremony grade, which is made from the same premium tea leaves as gyokuro, called Tencha.

For my own learning, I have tried a lot of matcha lately. The very common Matcha sold in little green can from Ujinotsuyu is unfortunately sand like when compared to any half decent matcha (more of this on another blog post later).

So go and get some decent matcha, food grade is good enough for food and it is pretty expensive already. A little goes a long way, and you can make, besides this too-easy-too-evil Matcha Tiramisu, you can also try Matcha Latte, Matcha pancake and of course Matcha icecream :)

Cooking with tea

 So...cooking with tea...is it a bit of a foreign concept to you? It is actually an age-old tradition in many parts of the world. For example, in Tibet, tea is enjoyed like soup, served with butter and salt to compliment their diet which is mainly meat. In Japan, tea liquid is mixed with a thin stock and pour over rice to make a simple quick meal.
Are all the tea suitable for cooking?

Well, the short answer is no. Why? Because some tea has such a delicate taste that its taste will totally disappear once other flavours are added. One good example is Silver Needle white tea, it has such a light taste that it really should be enjoyed by itself.

The other end of this tea-in-cooking spectrum is probably tea that suits cooking better than drinking! By that I mean the green powder tea, Matcha. Matcha is a flour-like grounded green tea which has a very strong taste and is traditionally used in the Japanese tea ceremony. So the best way to enjoy this antioxidant powerhouse is to add it to dishes, or drinks. Just a tiny spoonful of Matcha can add a fusion touch to your vanilla milkshake, cookies or waffles.

There are also tricks to make tea a better cooking ingredients. 

For example, in our website teas.com.au, recipe section:

• Smoky Ham & Corn Buns – the tea is coarsely grounded before adding to the dough;

• Hot Cross Icecream – replace the water component in your recipe with a strong tea ? such as black tea and make it double strength;

• Rose Oolong Scones – infuse it in milk before adding the milk component to your recipe.

So what you are waiting for? Arm yourself with your favourite tea and charge to the kitchen!