IMBB 17: GreenTea Biscotti
It’s that time of month again: Is My Blog Burning, in which bloggers around the world cook around a common theme. This time, Clement of A la Cuisine! has chosen tea as the themed ingredient.
I developed this recipe for Mariko of Super Eggplant, who loves green tea. You see, I sent her a care package for Blogging by Mail. Two events collide in one day!
I took a trusty chocolate chip biscotti recipe from Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts, added green tea leaves, and swapped the semisweet chocolate with white chocolate, since green tea has a delicate flavor. Going with the white theme, I also substituted mild almonds for the walnuts.
Be sure to use white chocolate that lists cocoa butter as the main ingredient. In cheap brands, partially hydrogenated oil poses as white chocolate. And you wonder why most people don’t like white chocolate! Would you substitute brown-colored vegetable shortening for dark chocolate? I don’t think so. Use the real stuff!
These low-fat biscotti become wonderfully fragrant a day after baking. They are delightfully crunchy but not jaw-breakingly hard, if you don’t overbake them.
Green Tea Biscotti
Adapted from Alice Medrich’s Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts
Makes about 4 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp pulverized green tea leaves, from about 3 tea bags
2 eggs
3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp brewed green tea
1/2 cup chopped toasted almonds (optional)
2/3 cup white chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line the baking sheet with greased foil.
- Place the flour, baking soda, salt, and tea leaves in a small bowl. Stir with a whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, vanilla, and brewed tea until well combined. Beat in the flour just until combined. Stir in the nuts and white chocolate chips. The mixture will be thick and sticky.
- Use a large spoon to scoop the batter onto the baking sheet, dividing it evenly into 3 long, skinny, rope-shape loaves, each one foot long, or 2 loaves 16 to 17 inches long, depending on your baking sheet. The loaves must be 2 1/2 inches apart. You’ll get slightly messy. Use the back of the spoon or a spatula to even up the “loaves” and neaten the edges. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes on the pan. Leave the oven turned on.
- Carefully peel the loaves from the foil and transfer them to a cutting board. Use a sharp serrated knife to slice the loaves diagonally into 1/2-inch slices. Arrange the slices directly on the oven racks. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cookies are crisp and dry. Or arrange the cookies on 2 baking sheets. Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through the baking time. Turn cookies over and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating sheets as before.
- Cool biscotti completely before storing. They become more tender about 2 or 3 days stored in an airtight container. They keep for several weeks.
Notes:
This is a developing recipe, and the tea flavor, although present, is not as strong as I would like. Any ideas for improvement? I can’t add more brewed tea, or else the dough will be too sticky. There’s only so much you can do to concentrate the tea: you can’t brew three bags in 2 tablespoons of water.
Using matcha (green tea powder) rather than leaves may concentrate the flavor. From what I’ve researched, 1/2 Tbsp matcha = 1 Tbsp tea leaves.
boo_licious said,
Jessica, I find cooking my savoury stuff with green tea was subtle too as the tea is not that strong a flavor. Not sure about matcha as I have not used it but I suspect it will be stronger.
August 2, 2005 at 5:53 am
Saffron said,
Would be great to served crumbled on top of matcha ice cream!
August 4, 2005 at 8:31 pm
Lori said,
Wow, green tea is popping up everywhere — in drinks, in cakes, and now in biscotti. But of course, it does seem only natural. These look really nice.
August 11, 2005 at 5:07 am
Randi said,
hi, i posted the recipe in one of my first few entries titled swiss chard goat cheese tart. You can see a picture and the recipe there.
August 13, 2005 at 4:29 pm
Kamrin said,
Can’t really tell you about good eats but yeah! I certainly love green tea.
January 9, 2006 at 5:05 am
Juls said,
I suggest maybe a more intense tea? Perhaps a semi-fermented Oolong might do it? These biscotti sound wonderful!
June 6, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Jill said,
Using matcha as opposed to green tea from tea bags will definitely give it a stronger flavour. I’m not sure how much you’d use in this recipe in particular, but for making an 8 oz. cup of matcha, you usually use about 1 tsp of the powder- so I wouldn’t go above 1-2 teaspoons to start with, as matcha, if you’ve never had it before, is a bit different from regular green tea. I’ve used both green tea leaves from tea bags as and matcha itself in baking before, and the matcha definitely lends a better flavour, as well as a prettier colour 🙂 I suggest trying cheesecake with it- delicious!
August 18, 2006 at 7:55 am
aron said,
try replacing the white chocolate in the recipe with a green tea infused chocolate bar.
also use a drop of tea oil to balance the vanilla as it seems to over power the tea flavor in it.
let me know how it turns out.
did you forget to write oil/butter in the recipe or does it really not need any?
October 21, 2009 at 11:54 am
Jessica "Su Good Sweets" said,
Aron, thanks for the suggestions. The biscotti really doesn’t need oil. I can’t go back to the ones that call for a stick of butter anymore when I already have a solid recipe.
October 21, 2009 at 9:15 pm