Matcha Chocolate (Nama Chocolate) are rich squares of white chocolate and cream flavored with Japanese green tea powder. With a truffle-like texture, they practically melt in your mouth! Follow my recipe and tips to make this decadent Japanese sweet at home.
Matcha chocolate, or what we call Matcha Nama Chocolate (抹茶生チョコレート) in Japan, is a special treat that practically melts in your mouth. As I was testing my Matcha Chocolate recipe, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop eating them, so Mr. JOC took them to work. He told me later, “The green tea chocolate disappeared in seconds.” I promise you, it’s really good!
Read on as I share with you my recipe, tips, and techniques for making these irresistible white chocolate and matcha squares. They may become your new favorite sweet treat!
What is Matcha?
Matcha (抹茶), is green tea powder made of top-quality tea leaves of Camellia sinensis. The young leaves are shade-grown, then stone-ground into a delicate fine powder. It has a slightly bitter taste to it.
Matcha is typically used for making tea at the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. This tea tends to be thick and have a bitter flavor, but it goes quite well with wagashi (和菓子), traditional Japanese confectioneries that are very sweet by itself. This beverage is quite different from hot tea served at Japanese restaurants made from steeping green tea leaves.
The color of matcha is a bright, vibrant green color. If your matcha powder doesn’t have that nice vivid hue to it, your matcha is well past its prime. Green tea powder is also quite pricey, especially if it is ceremonial grade, but culinary grade matcha is good enough for baking and making these chocolates.
As you may already know, green tea delivers a healthy dose of antioxidants and cancer-fighting power. Catechins in green tea are also known to have many beneficial health properties and matcha has greater potential health benefits than other green tea.
What is Matcha Chocolate?
Rich, yet not so sweet, decadent truffle-like matcha green tea chocolate, matcha chocolate is simply irresistible. If you love green tea sweets and desserts, this will be the ultimate treat for you.
In Japan, there are many varieties of green tea chocolate in stores, and they make a lovely gift for matcha fans. These include green tea Pocky’s, Melty Kiss, Kit Kat, and the popular ROYCE’ Chocolate.
When I shared my copycat recipe of ROYCE’ Nama Chocolate two years ago made with dark chocolate, I received many requests for the green tea version. I love anything with green tea, so I’m really happy to finally share this matcha-lovers treat with you. Cheers!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- white chocolate – I use Lindt White Chocolate Swiss Classic Bars
- heavy (whipping) cream – 38% fat content
- unsalted butter
- matcha (green tea powder) – for the chocolate mixture and for dusting on top; it’s fine to use culinary grade matcha here
How To Make Matcha Chocolate
The cooking process for this recipe is very similar to the regular Nama Chocolate recipe, but it uses white chocolate instead of regular chocolate.
- Line a square baking dish with parchment paper.
- Chop the white chocolate bar and butter into small pieces with a knife.
- Add the heavy cream into a small saucepan and heat it over medium heat on the stove. Remove from the heat when bubbles form around the edge of the pan. Do not boil.
- Mix the white chocolate and butter into the warm cream with a rubber spatula until smooth. Work fast to melt the chocolate while the cream is warm.
- Sift and add the matcha into the smooth white chocolate mixture. Mix until homogeneous in color.
- Pour into the baking dish. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
- Slice into squares, dust with green tea powder, and serve chilled.
It’s best to consume these chocolate squares right away, but you can keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.
Tips for Making Matcha Chocolate
- Use perfectly dry bowls and utensils. Even a small amount of water or steam can cause the chocolate to seize during the melting process.
- Select white chocolate that contains cocoa butter. High-quality white chocolate will be ivory in color. Some inferior brands contain vegetable fat that make the chocolate white-colored and should be avoid.
- Use heavy cream with 38% fat. Cream has differing fat content. The type with 38% fat is known as heavy (whipping) cream and it’s used to make whipped cream.
- Work fast to melt the chocolate while the cream is warm and before the mixture solidifies as it cools.
FAQs
Why did my chocolate release oil?
This is called separation, and it happens when you get the chocolate too hot. When chocolate gets too hot, the cocoa butter separates from the solids, and there is no way to salvage it (although you can bake with it and it tastes fine).
The best way to prevent separation is to use gentle heat (simmer on lowest heat) and stir frequently. Since we’re not using a double boiler in this recipe, make sure you do not bring the heavy whipping cream to a full boil. Remove from heat as soon as you see bubbles around the edges of the saucepan.
Why did my chocolate seize?
Seizing happens when moisture is introduced to melted chocolate. This can be even a tiny amount of liquid or steam. It happens all of a sudden from a smooth bowl of liquid chocolate to a lumpy, grainy mass of chocolate.
To fix seized chocolate, stir in vegetable shortening, 1 tablespoon per 6 ounces of chocolate, until fully incorporated and the chocolate loosens. You could also whisk in 1 teaspoon of boiling water and at a time until the chocolate becomes smooth, but the chocolate will become diluted.
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