Finalist in the 2019 Writers Contest – Cooking With Tea Category

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Just yesterday I was in a conversation with a matcha lover in the US who was confused about grades of matcha and how to use them. She thought that using the highest grade of matcha would be best in both recipes and as a shot – because it was the highest grade! In fact, she was about to put our Chiki Tea SILK matcha — an award-winning matcha from Yame — in a cornbread recipe to give it a health boost and pretty green color!

The reason there is a culinary grade of matcha is so it can be used lavishly in recipes in order to be tasted over the other ingredients. Using a top-grade ceremonial matcha (read: Expensive!!) in recipes would result in a wimpy matcha taste because it is so refined and designed to deliver subtle yet complex flavor notes as you sip and savor a matcha with a different mouthfeel. Ceremonial matcha is a journey…culinary matcha is a blast of taste and color. You need a fairly large serving of matcha to be tasted in recipes, so it’s good that culinary matcha is much cheaper.

Enjoy this recipe for matcha pancakes using culinary-grade matcha (I use Chiki Tea Mystic)…and serve it with a shot of ceremonial-grade matcha to drink!

Ingredients

  • 240g (8.47 oz) plain flour
  • 160ml (5.41 oz) milk
  • 60ml (2.03 oz) melted butter
  • 50g (1.76 oz) granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs at room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons culinary grade MYSTIC matcha (16 grams)
  • 12g baking powder (2.5 teaspoons)
  • Large pinch sea salt

Directions

  1. Sift matcha, baking powder, and flour together TWICE and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl whisk eggs, milk, melted butter, vanilla, and sugar. Add flour mixture and salt to the wet ingredients and stir with a spoon until well mixed, but don’t beat the batter. Batter will be a little lumpy.
  3. Wipe skillet (frying pan!) with an oiled paper towel to coat the pan and heat to medium. Drop batter into pan and cook until bubbles appear on top. Flip over and finish the cooking process.
  4. Stack them up and serve with maple syrup and a dollop of whipped cream dusted with Matcha.
  5. Oh yeah! Start the diet on Monday…

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