Whole Wheat Matcha Granola Flaxseed Scones with Matcha Icing

This is a quick and easy recipe that you can pull together in minutes(assuming you have all of the right ingredients).  It's a very flexible recipe, so if you don't have matcha you can leave it out; you can add apples, raisins, cinnamon, etc.  But adding matcha is a fun twist to a great recipe.  It's so easy I pulled it together while getting my son ready for school!

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp matcha powder(a culinary grade matcha works best here, though you can use your ceremonial matcha as well)
1/4 c granola, crumbled
1 tsp flax seed
1 Tbsp old fashioned oats(optional)
1/4 c butter, chilled
1/2 c milk

Glaze: 
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp matcha
2 drops almond extract
1-2 Tbsp milk
Almond slivers or oats for garnish

Measure flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, matcha and salt into large bowl.

You will notice that when you add the matcha, the color of the mixture will be a very light, pale green.  Once you add the liquid ingredients, the color will change to a deeper, darker green.

Incorporate butter.  It helps to cut into very small pieces; I use my hands to work butter into the dry ingredients until it is crumbly.

Add the granola, flaxseed and oats.

Add milk, and stir mixture with a fork until it forms a soft dough.  The less you work the dough after this point, the more moist your scones will be.  (That's a good thing!).

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.   Pat into two 6-inch circles for small scones, or one 6-inch circle for cafe-sized scones.  Place on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour.

At this point, if you don't want to make or add icing to the scones after baking, you can brush the tops with a little milk and sprinkle some Sugar In The Raw on them. 

Cut each dome into 6 wedges, and separate them so that they will cook evenly.  Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes(small scones) or 20 - 25 minutes(large scones).

Mix all icing ingredients together.  After the scones have cooled, drizzle icing on top with a spoon, and garnish with oats or almond slivers.

Enjoy!

Chilled Matcha

Here's a refreshing twist on the traditional preparation of ceremonial matcha.  The picture captures its gorgeous green color, and the ice cubes poking up from the luscious layer of froth.  

Preparation: 

In a matcha bowl, use two heaping chashaku or 1 1/2 teaspoons of ceremonial matcha.  

Pour water that's just off of the boil into a separate cup, then transfer it to the matcha bowl.  The transferring of water from one vessel to another cools it down by a few degrees. Normally, you'd fill the matcha bowl to 30% of capacity with the hot water.  For this iced drink, we are only going to put enough water to make the matcha dissolve, or about 10-15% capacity.  Stir gently until matcha dissolves.

Then add cold water to the matcha and fill to 30% capacity.  Using a matcha whisk, stir briskly until completely blended and a nice froth forms.  Add a couple of ice cubes, and enjoy!

Breakfast - Granola with bananas and Greek yogurt with Matcha

...with a dab of whipped cream for extra sweetness.  The Greek yogurt is a bit tart, but it goes quite well with the sweet bananas and granola.  There are more banana slices buried under the yogurt.  

You can use any type of yogurt, vanilla or plain, and add matcha to it for extra nutrition and color.  I'm not a fan of non-fat yogurt(maybe I should be!) but I just can't get past the artificial taste.  Next time I'm going to try the vanilla flavored Activia yogurt with this.  Activia is the yogurt that in my opinion comes closest to wonderful, full-fat Japanese yogurt(well, besides Brown Cow organic yogurt but that's not so easy to find).

You can use either Ippuku Matcha Latte Powder for both the matcha and sugar, or the straight Matcha for Cooking and add your own sweetener if the yogurt doesn't contain any.  I think this would be great topped off with a little bit of drizzled honey.:)

Summer's here! Shaken Iced Matcha(Green Tea) Americano Recipe

Here's a simple recipe to ring in summer:

Ingredients:

1 cup water

2 tsp Ippuku Matcha Latte Powder*

Ice

Martini shaker

Add all ingredients to martini shaker; shake well until matcha latte powder dissolves.  Pour into tall serving glass and enjoy.  NOTE: Our Ippuku Matcha Latte Powder contains no dairy or filler ingredients, just 100% Japanese stone ground matcha and sugar.

*If you prefer no sweetener, then you can use Ippuku Matcha For Cooking instead, and leave out the sweetener or add Splenda, stevia, honey, etc to taste.

Cheers!

Just Add Matcha: Rice Pudding

 I recently purchased some Kozy Shack rice pudding because I had been hearing about how delicious it is. So I tried it, and it was indeed pretty tasty. As is the case with manythings that I eat, I wondered what it would taste like with matcha added to it.

So I pulled my little tin of stone ground Japanese green matcha tea from the freezer and added about 1/2 a teaspoon of it to the rice pudding. It tasted amazing! I added fresh raspberries and if the matcha hadn't put it over the top the raspberries sure did. I suggest you try it!