Recipe: Matcha Truffles

Remember my last Weekly Wantings post about matcha? Well, the day after I wrote that post I was in town and ended up buying the small £10 beginner's grade tub. For the first couple of days I stuck with a simple matcha tea which is as basic as it gets and is perfect first thing in a morning. You only need 1/4 of a teaspoon of matcha powder and hot water. It tastes like a slightly stronger version of green tea but is twice as good for you. Just knowing this makes it an even better purchase!

As good as a matcha tea is, I wanted to branch out more and try to do some cooking with it. Vitalife do have their own special cooking grade matcha but I decided to stick with the matcha I already own. I remembered seeing pictures of matcha truffles and thinking they looked good & easy to make, so set off on a cooking spree. Here's how I made my matcha truffles*:

At first I was torn between white chocolate and dark chocolate, but then realised the matcha would be bitter and as dark chocolate is also bitter it wouldn't work as well. White chocolate it was! I rarely eat white chocolate as I find it too sweet but was excited to see what it would taste like paired with matcha.

For the matcha truffles you will need:

• 2 teaspoons of matcha powder 
• 1/3 cup of double cream
• 300g of white chocolate
• 2 and a half tablespoons of unsalted butter
• A pinch of salt
• A strainer (to sift the matcha)
• 4 cups of water
• An ice cube tray or mould of some kind
• A saucepan

1. Melt the butter and cream on a low heat, add a pinch of salt.

2. Add the mixture to the a teaspoon of matcha and mix well. You may have to whisk it to get rid of any lumps and set the mixture to one side.

3. Pour 4 cups of water into a saucepan, heat until boiled. Break up your white chocolate and place in a bowl. Turn the heat off and place the bowl on top of the pan to melt it.

4. Once the chocolate has melted, add the matcha cream to it and stir until it's all mixed in. The mixture should be fairly thick but pourable. 

5. Using a teaspoon and knife (my cutlery of choice) transfer the mixture into your mould. I had leftover mixture but no more moulds so placed it on a foil covered tray for a matcha chocolate slab.

6. Refrigerate the mixture for a minimum of 3 hours. I decided to leave mine overnight (but ended up eating the chocolate slab after 3 hours).

7. In 3 hours or the next day, pop the solidified mixture out of the moulds. If you are using an ice cube tray like me, use a silicone one. I used a plastic one and spent 20 minutes trying to saw (slight over-exaggeration) each truffle out of the tray. Next time I will definitely get a silicone tray and use that instead...

8. Sift a teaspoon of matcha onto your work surface, carefully roll your truffle mixture into the powder and coat evenly. Hopefully your truffles will be better shaped than mine!

9. Ta-da! Your matcha truffles are finished. Don't forget to keep them stored in the fridge so they don't melt.

The matcha and white chocolate is a perfect combination. You first taste the bitter matcha powder which is then followed by the sweet, creamy white chocolate. One of the best things about the truffles is that you can't eat them all in one go as more than 2 do become sickly.

*My recipe for matcha truffles is from Oh How Civilised but with slightly different measurements. Thank you to Jee for this recipe, it truly is wonderful!

Have you tried matcha truffles before? If you haven't and decide to make these, let me know how they turn out.

Alice

  x