Breakaway Cook's Matcha article, plus a delish recipe

A new article in the San Francisco Chronicle  by Breakaway Cook's Eric Gower talks all about matcha.  It's an easy read, and those delicious-looking carrot cake & matcha cookies that are pictured? Yes, there is a recipe for those as well.  They look fabulous!

Read the article:

Matcha An Acquired Taste, Works Wonders With Dairy

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!

From the Seattle Weekly blog: Seattle's 5 Best Baked Goods With Green Tea

 We love desserts made with matcha(ground green tea)! I was happy to see these excellent bakers get some love from the (somewhat) mainstream publication, the Seattle Weekly. 

In Eve Tai's blog post "Seattle's 5 Best Baked Goods With Green Tea", she says that green tea pastries "offer a novel twist from the East without giving up much of the West."  Bakers can utilize culinary grade Matcha because it can easily incorporate into dough and batter.  The challenge is to find a recipe where matcha's brilliant color and mild yet slightly grassy flavor can take center stage.

Check out her blog and pictures - the last picture of the matcha roll brings back so many memories of when my husband would make these for our store, they were indeed a hit.  Maybe he'll make me one!

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/voracious/2011/05/seattles_top_5_baked_goods_with_green_tea.php