Secret Recipe Club - Chocolate Matcha Caramels!

Oy vey, it's been too long. I'm sorry. Life kind of got in the way...there is a very short window for leaf crunching you know. I've been baking of course. But things that I didn't feel like photographing, or that didn't turn out. And then there was this post, which I've been meaning to write for over a week now, but I just never got around to it, and then I left my camera with all my pictures on it at school, so I had to re-photograph everything with my phone...I shouldn't be making excuses for myself though. Shame! 

Let's get down to business, shall we? My SRC assignment for this month was The Novice Housewife, who has an incredibly diverse and appealing collection of recipes. And is also a great photographer. This is one of the few assignments that I actually knew about outside the SRC. I've been eyeing up her delicious looking Indian recipes :) 

 

But....matcha. I can't resist. And making caramel (something I hadn't tried before) seemed like fun sugarcrafting practice! There is something magical about candy making....watching sugar transform into something completely different. Nom. To add even more caramel, I actually used some caramel flavored matcha! It's super delicious, drink it, seriously. I cannot recommend this brand enough. Now, the matcha adds a delightful kind of earthiness to the otherwise very sweet caramel. I found that it got stronger over several days. If it's not your thang, chocolate caramel is pretty awesome just by itself :) 

Chocolate Matcha Caramel 

from The Novice Housewife

Ingredients
Unsalted butter for the pan
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate (99% dark preferable), finely chopped
1 tablespoon matcha powder Directions
1. Line a 9x9 pan with a piece of parchment paper (the paper will droop over the sides) and butter well.
2. Stir together the cream, sugar, corn syrup, and salt together in a heavy bottom pan. Bring to a boil and continue to cook until it reaches 250F. Remove from heat and let cool for a five minutes. (Be careful when waiting for it to reach 250 F because it might flow over. And since I had to put it on low it took a looooooong time. I would recommend using a really deep pan)
3. Add chocolate and the matcha. Stir together and pour into the pan and spread with an offset spatula. Let the caramel sit for a few hours.
4. Cut apart into 1-inch squares. Serve or store in an airtight container.

Matcha Shortbread Wings

I've recently discovered the joy that is Steepster. It's like facebook for tea. There are reviews, discussion boards, places to keep track of the teas you've had and the teas you'd like to try. Even some trading and info on free samples! I'm going through one of my tea obsession phases, you see. It's not that I don't always enjoy tea, but there are times when I get more enthusiastic about it than usual. 

I think part of it is the element of service and community in tea drinking. I love carefully measuring, brewing, pouring, and seeing that turn into something unique and lovely. It's warm and comforting. On my spring break trip, since I couldn't bake but was dying for a way to somehow nourish people, I made tea. I yearned to facilitate, and I found a way I could. 

(In the background) On the left: Awkward family photo calendar. On the right: Actual family photo

So I've had these cookie cutters shaped like little wings that can hook on the edge of a teacup. Adorable, right? What better way to use them than to make little cookies with actual tea in them? Time to break out the matcha. The cookies are a pretty sage green with a subtle tea flavor in the back of your mouth. The dough is a deep forest color and much more powerfully flavored, so know that it will become more muted with baking. Add more tea if you'd like a more robust flavor. 

Matcha Shortbread Wings 

10 Tbsp butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar 

2 egg yolks

1 cup cake flour

3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp matcha

2 Tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 375F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium mixing-bowl, cream together the butter and sugars with a spatula. Add the egg yolks and mix it in thoroughly.

In another bowl, combine the flours and matcha, and stir with a whisk to remove any lumps. Add to the butter mixture and beat it until combined, adding milk as necessary.

On a clean, lightly floured (or powdered sugared) surface, roll out the dough to about 1/2" thickness. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter or cut into squares. Place on baking sheets and bake for 5-9 minutes, or until edges are slightly golden. Cool on a wire rack. Enjoy with tea!

Chocolate Matcha Swirl Bread

Do you judge food by its color? Would you eat a blue piece of chicken? In a study done in the 1970's, participants were given a steak and some fries and asked to just...eat the meal. Nothing appeared strange, but it was soon revealed that special filtered lights were being used in the room, and when the normal lights were switched on, the steak was blue and the fries were green. Immediately after, everyone become quite ill. Weird, right? 

Maybe we've gotten more adventurous since the 70's, I dunno. Cause matcha is showing up all kinds of places where green isn't expected. Green cupcakes, green mousse, green cookies....you get it. What is matcha, you may ask? It's finely milled green tea, popular in Japan. Traditionally, it's used the the Japanese Tea Ceremony, but it has made its way into other things. For cooking, you definitely don't want to use a high grade matcha (it would be an expensive waste!) 

I decided to make a chocolate matcha swirl milk bread as my first foray into the world of matcha baking. This bread is special because it uses something called the tangzhong method. I'd seen it floating around the interwebs, but was always kind of intimidated because it seemed like it would be something complicated and fancy. Not so. This method just involves making a water roux starter and adding it to the dough. It makes the bread soft and fluffy, it won't get stale fast at all ^_^ 

The verdict on this bread? Awesome. First of all it's beautiful, but more importantly it's sooooo soft and tasty. Even though half the dough is chocolate, it's not really sweet at all. It has some intriguing, pleasingly bitter (like darkdark chocolate bitter, not poison bitter) notes, but can really be paired with anything. 

On a side note, don't eat two pieces of this before bed. Matcha is tea after all, and tea has caffeine. Just thought I'd spare you from a sleepless night. I think it was worth it though :)

(Another note. If you don't have matcha, that's fine. You can just leave it out. Play around with other flavors, or just stick to a classic milk bread)

Chocolate Matcha Swirl Bread 

from Une-deux senses

2 1/2 cups bread flour, split

4 Tbsp. sugar, split

1/2 tsp. salt, split

2 tsp. instant yeast, split

1 large egg

1/2 cup milk

120 g. tangzhong (about 1/2 of the mixture below)

3 Tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces, at room temperature

1 Tbsp. matcha powder

1/6 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

For the tangzhong:

1/3 cup bread flour

1 cup water

To make the tangzhong, mix the flour and water together and whisk until it is completely dissolved and there are no lumps. Pour into a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Begin stirring constantly as the mixture heats up - it will begin to thicken. When the temperature of the mixture reaches 150 F, turn off the stove and remove it from the stove to let it cool. 

Grab two medium bowls and divide the flour, sugar, salt and yeast evenly among them. To one bowl add the matcha powder and to the other add the unsweetened cocoa powder and mix well. In a large liquid measuring cup, combine the milk, egg and tangzhong and mix very well. Add one of the dry ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer and make a well in the center. Look at your wet ingredient mixture and look at the volume as indicated by the measuring cup, then pour exactly half of the mixture into the center of the well. Fit the mixer with the hook attachment and begin mixing on medium speed until the dough comes together, then add the butter in and continue kneading. Knead until the dough is smooth, not too sticky on the surface and elastic, about 18 - 20 minutes (but each mixer varies). When ready, you should be able to take a chunk of the dough and stretch it to a very thin membrane before if breaks. When it does break it should form a circle. Remove the dough from the mixer and knead into a ball. Take a large bowl, grease it with oil, then place the dough into the ball and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof in a warm place until it's doubled in size, about 40 minutes. With a clean mixer, repeat the process.

Once the doughs have doubled in size, transfer the doughs to a clean surface. For each ball of dough, roll out each portion with a rolling pin into an oval shape. Take one end of the dough and fold it to meet the middle of the oval, then take the other end and fold it to meet the middle. Flip the doughs over with the folds facing down and flatten with a rolling pin. Roll out the doughs until they form thin rectangles - make sure they are about the same size. Place one rectangle on top of the other and begin rolling up the dough along the wide/ long side of the rectangle so you end up with a long skinny roll rather than a short and fat one. Place the swirled roll into a 9x5" bread pan lined with parchment paper. Cover in plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about another 40 minutes. Beat an egg and brush the mixture on top before baking. Bake at 325 F for 30 minutes or until golden brown.