Work catering #17: Green Tea Time! (my Aspiring Baker's entry)

Since this month's Aspiring Baker's theme is all about TEA!! I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone.. so to speak =p Any recipes that use tea (not coffee) are accepted so I played around with my favourite tea... GREEN TEA =D Also known as Matcha!

Perfect bite size green tea cheesecake bites :D

I use Green Tea powder bought from a local asian grocer and use it just like cocoa powder ^_^" So you just add it straight into your dough or cake mix. It has a subtle flavour, not too sweet with a slight bitterness. New exotic and interesting flavour for some of my work colleagues =p

First up is CHEESECAKE! These little bites are the perfect size and they are so smooth!!! Like eating Green Tea mousse :D
Green Tea Cheesecake Bites
Recipe adapted from The Hungry Excavator

Ingredients
250g Arnotts Nice biscuits
120g unsalted butter, melted
300ml thickened cream
250g cream cheese
1/2 cup caster sugar
150ml milk
3 tbsp green tea powder
3 tsp powdered gelatin
4 tbsp boiling water

1. Grease and line baking tray (20x30cm) with baking paper. 
2. Crush biscuits in food processor until fine crumbs. Stir in melted butter and mix until well combined. Press tightly into base of tray and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Beat thickened cream with electric beater until soft peaks form. Set aside.
4. Place cream cheese in separate bowl and beat until smooth. Add sugar and beat until well combined.
5. Place gelatin in small bowl and mix with water. Set aside.
6. Heat milk in small saucepan until just comes to the bowl. Remove from heat and whisk in green tea and gelatin until dissolved and no lumps are seen.
7. Add milk to cream cheese and beat until smooth. Fold mixture into thickened cream until even. 
8. Pour mixture over crumb layer and spread evenly. Chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.

silky smooth ~~

Ready to serve!

Close up. You can see the green tea specks

And to compliment these cheesecake bites, I made some COOKIES! The great thing with this recipe is that you make the dough the night before, leave it in the fridge to rest and the next day, all you have to do is slice up into cookies and bake! ^___^

Stack of cookies

Green Tea and White chocolate Cookies

Recipe adapted from Nami from Just One Cookbook

Ingredients
240g plain flour
15g green tea/matcha powder
150g unsalted butter, softened at room temp
130g pure icing sugar
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks 
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1. Sift flour and matcha powder together and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add yolks and salt and beat well.
4. Gradually fold in flour and matcha. 
5. Shape the dough into 2 logs and wrap them tightly in cling wrap. Rest in fridge overnight.

~THE NEXT DAY~

6. Preheat oven to 150oC and line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Slice cookies into 7mm thickness and place on baking tray.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until slightly golden. Allow to cool on rack.

Tray of cookies! yum yum!

These cookies are the melt in your mouth texture. The flavours of the green tea and white chocolate go so well together! I also love the GREENESS to it ^^" really delicious cookies!

Gone quite quickly ^_^"

Close up of GREEN-NESS!

So I am submitting this post to Aspiring Baker's #30: It's Tea Time! Hosted by Food Playground. 
HAPPY BAKING =D!!!! Why not try out using Green Tea? =)