Japanese flavour infused Matcha Muffins are so soft and moist and pair perfectly with Kuromame black soybeans. This is the bests matcha muffin recipe perfect for afternoon tea!
What is Matcha Muffin?
Matcha muffins are muffins made with matcha green tea powder. Matcha green tea powder adds a vivid green colour and distinctive bittersweet flavour to ordinary muffins. It is a popular sweet in Japan and often small pieces of sweet beans, white choc chip, macadamia nuts, chestnuts (Kuri) and sweet potatoes are added. This is because those ingredients match well with matcha flavour.
Flavour Profile : Matcha
What is Matcha? Matcha is a type of green tea in powder form made from Camellia Sinensis. It is different from normal green tea powder. Matcha is packed with a load of antioxidant and it is not only for drinking but also used in flavouring baking and cooking too. Usually, the better quality matcha is more expensive. Mass-produced matcha ground Cis cheaper because the strong fragrance and flavour will be lost in the process of machine grinding. Good matcha powder usually has a vivid beautiful green colour and a beautiful aroma. However, it is difficult to see the colour and to check whether it has a beautiful aroma or not because usually, they are vacuum packed. Fortunately, for making muffins, you don’t need superior high drinking grade matcha.
Matcha Muffin Ingredients
Cake flour
Matcha powder
Baking powder
Unsalted butter
Sugar
Salt
Egg
Milk
Black soybeans and chestnuts bits (optional topping)
Ingredient Substitute
I used simmered sweet black soybeans which is leftover from new years feast Osechi Ryori and chestnuts because I wanted to make this muffin completely Japanese infused. However, I know those are difficult ingredients to get. So you can substitute with choc chip and nuts. Also if you can not get matcha, you can replace it with the same amount of cocoa powder.
How to Make the Perfect Matcha Muffin?
Brief process of making matcha muffins are as follows.
- Leave the butter and egg to room temperature 30 minutes prior to start making muffin batter.
- Start to preheat your oven to 356°F(180°C) and line your muffin form with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour, matcha powder and baking powder and set aside.
- Whisk butter and sugar. Then add beaten egg 3-4 times into the butter and sugar mixture.
- Fold in flour, and half of the toppings into the batter.
- Combine milk.
- Bake for 30 minutes in 338°F(170°C).
Tips & Tricks
Leave the butter and egg in room temperature.
When adding the beaten egg to the butter, add a little bit at a time so that the egg and butter do not separate.
When folding in flour, be careful not to overmix. Even when you still see some flour, add milk and combine all together.
How to Make a Matcha Muffin Cup
You can make cafe style muffin cups with parchment paper. Cut parchment paper 5 inches (12cm) square and make 1.2inch (3cm) notch from the edge and put it into muffin holes.
More Matcha Recipes
FAQ
A: As I mentioned in the above post, matcha is different from green tea powder. The tea leaves used for Matcha are blocked from sunlight for a period of time before picking. They are then steamed, dried, and finally milled very finely into powder form. So just grinding green tea leaves in a Vitamix does not make the same.
A: My muffin form size is 2.5 inch (6.5cm) in diameter and 1.4inch(3.5cm) in height.
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Recipe Measurement
Matcha Muffins 抹茶マフィン
Ingredients
- 1/2 stick Unsalted butter 56g
- 1 Egg 50g *1
- 1 cup Cake flour Or All purpose flour 120g
- 1 tbsp + 1 tsp Matcha powder 10g
- 1 tsp Baking powder 5g
- 1/4 cup Sugar 70g
- 1/4 cup Milk 60g
Topping (optional) see more suggestions in the post above
- 2 tbsp of Kuromame *4 50g
- 2 tbsp of Chestnuts bits *4 50g
Instructions
- Leave the egg and butter out to become room temperature 30 minutes prior to making
- Sift the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
- Start to preheat the oven to 356°F(180°C)
- Add the butter and sugar into a bowl and whisk until the mixture becomes white.
- Add the beaten egg in 3-4 different times. And beat well every time egg added.
- Fold the sifted flour into the batter and add half of the kuromame and chestnuts bits. *2
- Pour the batter evenly into 6 muffin cups with an ice cream scoop, and topp with the remaining Kuromame and chestnuts bits.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes at 170℃ (340℉). *3
I was really excited to try out this recipe because I love matcha-related baked goods! However, I was a bit skeptical about the 30-minute baking time, especially after reading other reviews, so I started out by baking for 17 minutes. That wasn’t enough, so I baked them for 8 more minutes, but that was too much, and they turned out a bit dry. I think next time, I’ll try around 22 minutes and see how that turns out.
Despite that, they were quite tasty, and I can imagine how they’d be even tastier if I used the correct baking time.
I didn’t have chestnuts and kuromame, so I ended up using mixed nuts, which was pretty good (I bet the chestnuts would’ve been delicious with the matcha, though!)
I think I’ll definitely try making these again, just with a different baking time.
Hi Mio, Thank you for your feedback <3, as you explained every oven is different so need to find your oven's best baking time 😀 Hope around 22 minute will work best for you!
For muffin baking, 30 mins at 170C is a bit too long! I usually give it 12-15 mins.
Hi ! Can I replace the sugar with the same amount of honey?
Hi Yun, honey is kind a thick liquid, and sugar is solid ingredients so I am not sure simple replace would work or not.
I like it even though it’s not enough sweet for my taste (maybe I didn’t add kuromame, just the chestnuts) that’s ok, it’s better not sweet than too sweet 🙂
I really like your dessert recipes. Thank you for sharing
Thank you for your lovely comment and rating the recipe:D
Flashing Content!! Great, keep up.
Thank you
I made them today and they turn out really well. I think it’s a great recipe. Thanks for sharing! I cut the matcha powder to 10g. I used a middle grade matcha powder from Ippodo Tea. Does the grade/quality of the matcha powder make a significant difference?
Hi Claris, Thank you for your lovely comment. Regarding to matcha powder, imho, the grade of the matcha does not make much difference for baking. May be affect on the colour but not taste.
The muffins came out moist with a strong matcha flavor and were a little chalky. So, I think next time I will cut back on the matcha powder and make mini muffins. The sweetness level was good.
Thank you for making the recipe Yuki san 😀
My girl (12yo) tried the above recipe with Choc chips. The muffins turn out well. After baking we could leave in the baking tin to cool down right? Coz muffin seems to shrink alittle after cool down. Btw, do u hv simple matcha cookies recipe? Coz we don’t bake frequently so have limited ingredients.
Hi Janet, I cool them down out of tin, on a wire lack. I love matcha and have a few recipes on my blog. Did you check out recipe index?
I wanna try this one soon !
Nice! I hope you enjoy it
These look amazing! I’ll have to give them a shot, although I’m not much of a baker!
Thank you Chava, I am not a baker too but ingredients are all in grams so if you measure precisely you will not fail. Give it a go and please let me know how it turned out for you:D
These look so incredibly delicious!! Love matcha <3
Thank you so much Iron Chef Shellie <3 Your comment does mean so much to me!! Thank you <3 <3