Wow, its been a very long time since I have posted a recipe. I had to put this blog on hold for a while, because even though I absolutely love to share my recipes, life just simply got too complicated. My mom’s health started to fail and with my family life, my photography business, and my knitting blog…. I sort of lost my passion for a bit. Sadly my sweet, beautiful mother passed away in March. I’ve had some time to deal with the loss and I know this is something she would want me to pursue. She was so proud of me for writing a food blog, and told all of her nurses -and pretty much anyone else who would listen about her daughter’s food blog. So here we go, my first recipe of the year. I hope you enjoy making these yummy treats as much as I do. If you enjoy the recipe please share it on Pinterest or any other social media so that others can make it too!
This recipe combines two of my favourite things: Matcha green tea – for its incredible health benefits, and biscotti – my go to snack with my afternoon coffee. I love biscotti so much because it lasts a long time since its twice baked. If you make a large batch, you can store it in a sealed container for a few weeks and don’t have to rely on store bought baked goods that are full of chemicals (and way too much sugar) when you want something quick.
This combination is seriously amazing. But the key ingredient that truly makes the biscotti irresistible is the use of real vanilla bean. Vanilla extract is great and convenient in a pinch, but if you can track down some vanilla beans and extract the seeds (which is really easy), then you will not regret the tiny bit of extra effort. Some large chain grocery stores and specialty food stores should carry vanilla beans in a vial in the baking isle (I even found some at Safeway the other day). Here is a great article for how to use a vanilla bean: How To Use a Vanilla Bean.
You will also want to find a high quality matcha powder. You can usually tell the quality by the price. High quality matcha is a lot more expensive – but I think its worth it. Low quality matcha is bitter and not tasty or sweet. As well, the colour is more yellow than the vibrant green that it should be. One warning – matcha does have caffeine so you may want to take caution when offering it to your child – my husband did not, and now I have a super hyper 5 year old boy to deal with. Good thing he has hockey practice today!
- 1/4 cup Butter room temperature is best
- 1/3 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 tsp Matcha Green Tea Powder
- 2 tsp Milk
- 1/2 Vanilla Bean Or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 Large Egg
- 1 1/3 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer mix together the butter and sugar on low speed until creamy.
- In a small bowl or cup, combine milk and matcha powder. stir until no more clumps remain.
- Extract the seeds from half a vanilla bean.
- Add the extracted vanilla bean seeds and matcha mixture to the butter and sugar. Mix well. Beat in the egg.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
- Shape the dough into a log that is about 12 inches long and place on baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and lower the temperature to 320°F. Wait 20 minutes for the log to cool.
- After 20 minutes, using a very sharp serrated knife, cute the log diagonally into 1/2 inch pieces. Carefully place the biscotti pieces back on the baking sheet and bake at 320 for a further 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
