Sencha Overload: Shake and Cake!

It's freakin' hot here in Davao right now. I was trying to do some reading, but my mind is not cooperating because of the heat. I needed to do something to cool me down else my neurons will be fried. I was drearily bored of revisiting a thesis paper I'm being forced to finish, I can't focus!

Fruit shakes sounds enticing at this point, but I preferred something lighter and not too sticky-sweet. I remembered how I loved Starbucks's Green Tea Frappucino as a perfect chill drink for the dizzying heat in Cebu City. Since I'm currently a bum, I don't have money to spend on those professionally prepared drinks. Good thing I bought a pack of Sencha which costs about one green tea frappe from Starbucks. That pack have seen several cups of green tea, cookies, cupcakes and my current kitchen experiments; and I still have  some left!  Now that's money well spent.

Last time, I made Sencha powder from using the coffee grinder attachment of our blender. I used the same homemade powder to make this green tea. If you noticed there are some specks of leaves visible compared to what you may find from the coffee shops. Those in high-end coffee shops would probably be using genuine finely milled Matcha powder hence it's a bit pricey. Other lower-end shops offering the same would be using the commercial green tea powder mix, but I find those scary since there are a lot of additives I don't even know how to pronounce. So I'll stick with my homemade powder until I get a tin of authentic Matcha; at least I know what I'm drinking.

Refreshing and light, perfect for the summer heat!

SENCHA (GREEN TEA) SHAKE

INGREDIENTS

*makes 2 12 oz glasses.

2 tbsp Sencha powder

2/3 cup soya milk

1 tbsp sugar

a pinch of cinnamon

12 ice cubes

PROCEDURE

1. Pour soya milk, Sencha powder, cinnamon and sugar into a blender. Mix well.

2. Drop ice cubes about 2-3 at a time then pulse. Add more ice and pulse/shake until satisfied with the consistency.

3. Pour into a tall glass and enjoy.

I used less sugar so I had a semi-bitter shake with just a hint of sweetness coming from the soya milk. I chose soya milk because I think it compliments the grassy taste of Sencha, as both are from plant derivatives.  It turned out nice, light, refreshing and cleaner to the palate compared with the coffee shop versions, which mainly used cream and glucose syrup in place of the soya milk and sugar and topped off with whipped cream. So it depends on your mood which one you'll go for, something creamy and comforting or something light and refreshing.

Of course drinks won't stand alone, you need something to munch on too. I mentioned before, that I made cupcakes out of Sencha; this time I made the same batter but poured it into lined rectangular baking pan and spread ground almonds on top. It brought about thin cakes, somewhat like pancakes, which I cut into small bars. I was actually thinking of making some filling and sandwiching it between 2 bars, then cover it with dripping royal icing much like Petit Fours; but of course that was too tedious for a hot day. I just settled for simple and thin cake bars good for snacking.

Thin chewy bars with subtle sweetness.

SENCHA (GREEN TEA) CAKE

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup brewed Sencha Tea, cool to room temp.
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup + 3 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tbsp Sencha powder
optional almond topping:
1/3 cup whole almonds
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp flour


PROCEDURE
*Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line a baking pan or cupcake molds.
1. Mix flour, baking powder, tea powder and in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. In a bigger bowl beat eggs, oil and tea until light yellow. Sift in dry ingredients. Mix well.
3. In a coffee grinder attachment, ground together whole almonds, powdered sugar and flour until mealy.
4. Pour green tea batter into baking pan/molds. Sift/distribute the ground almonds on top.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or toothpick test comes clean.

Hmmm... I wonder if there are other tea varieties that are equally versatile like Japanese green tea?

Chocolate Dipped Sencha Cookies: Zen Decadence

Last night I was trying to arrange my baking ingredients when I found a used pack of Japanese green tea leaves. I bought it last month because I wanted to practice making a green tea cake for my boyfriends birthday (hopefully he gets to come home during that time).  In the Japanese store, I asked the storekeeper if they had Matcha, which was more commonly used for confectioneries; unfortunately they had none, so I got the pack of Sencha tea leaves instead.

Japanese green tea in general has a delicate and detailed art of harnessing tea leaves. It's called by different names depending on how it's grown, processed and prepared. Two of them are the ones I mentioned above. Matcha is select leaves grown in a shade, dried flat and finely milled. Sencha is free dried leaves, rolled  and then roasted. For detailed descriptions of Japanese green tea, click here.  

I used the Sencha tea in cupcakes before that used steeped tea in hot water instead of powder. It was pleasantly refreshing but was a bit dense because of the number of eggs that the batter required. It tasted a bit egg-y, but still, it was a well-appreciated treat by everyone; it had just the right sweetness with a hint of bitterness. Hopefully I'll be able to make a lighter cake batter next time, I doubt the recipe I had would bake well as a full sized cake because of its density.

I wanted to give the green tea I had another form, cupcakes seemed to be bit heavy and needed to be consumed immediately. I thought, what if I made cookies? But I was stumped for a minute, I only had Sencha tea leaves. Matcha suits cookies since it's powdered form, cookies often require less liquid. What now? 

Then my usual curious self  took the coffee grinder attachment of our blender, spooned in a couple of tablespoon of tea leaves and set the speed on liquify. And yey! I got grounded tea leaves, though not that fine as the Matcha, but I think it would work fine as a substitute. 

So I got going with a simple shortbread cookie recipe from the Joy of Baking site and added a twist to it. Here's the result:

Half dipped with chocolate to accent the green tea flavor.

CHOCOLATE DIPPED SENCHA COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

Shortbread Cookie (makes about 1 dozen medium-sized cookies):

1 stick salted butter (room temp)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup flour

1 scant tsp vanilla

1-2 tbsp of grounded Sencha

Chocolate Dip:

100 grams of semi-sweet chocolate

PROCEDURE

*make cookie dough the night before; shortbread cookie dough keeps for a week if frozen.

1. Cream butter. Add in powdered sugar and beat until smooth for about 2 minutes.

2. Beat in vanilla and ground Sencha.

3. Stir in flour until incorporated. Flatten dough into disk shape, double wrap in plastic wrap and paper towels; then store in the freezer overnight.

4. 15 minutes prior to rolling out the dough, take it out of the freezer to thaw in room temp. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and lightly flour baking sheets.

5. Roll out the dough into 1/4 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin. Cut desired shape and place on cookie sheets.

6. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Let cool.

7. Melt chocolate in a small heat-proof bowl over hot water. Dip cookies halfway then place on wax paper lined line baking sheet. Place in the refrigerator for an hour or until the chocolate hardens.

My sister thought it was an interesting flavor and worked well with coffee. She also said that she's going to franchise Starbucks in a soon to open mall here in Davao and feature what I've been baking. She's kidding of course. :)

As I am writing this, the TV is tuned in to CNN's coverage of the recent Japan earthquake and the tsunami threats to countries facing the Pacific Ocean, including the Philippines, specifically my province Davao del Sur. I thought that it was quite a strange coincidence that I was blogging about something Japanese. Hmmm... Freaked out much? On a serious note: Lord, for whatever reason this has happened, may we come to accept it and learn from it. We lift this up to You. Amen.