Fluffy, light, café style matcha muffins with white chocolate chips are the perfect balance of sweet and well, matcha! They make a great breakfast treat or snack anytime of day!
Muffins in Japan
Muffins are one of my favourite things to bake. Not only are they fluffy and sweet, but they're quick and fun to customise. In fact, whenever I find unusual flavourings and fillings, I usually test it out on muffins first.
Bakeries and cafes are popular in Japan of course, but for some reason, I rarely see muffins here. They're just not popular compared to say, cupcakes or donuts... and I have no idea why because they are so delicious!
This recipe is my attempt to bring some Japanese flavour to delicious café style muffins. They're fluffy, light and the white chocolate adds a sweet balance that really compliments the matcha flavour!
What is Matcha?
Matcha is a type of green tea made by grinding young green tea leaves into a fine, bright green powder.
Because of it getting more popular outside of Japan, matcha powder has become more accessible. You can probably even find it in well stocked supermarkets. If not you can check specialist tea stores or Asian supermarkets, it's easy to order online as well.
There are different grades of matcha, usually the high quality ones are for drinking and the "culinary grade" matcha is for baking and lattes. So you can use culinary grade matcha for this recipe.
Popular Matcha Flavoured Snacks
Japanese people don't really drink matcha for health reasons, they just love the taste and you can find pretty much anything in matcha flavour in Japan!
Just a few popular examples are...
- Matcha kitkat
- Matcha ice cream
- Matcha latte
- Matcha cookies
Other Fillings
If you're not big on white chocolate, you can also replace the white chocolate with something else. Here are some ideas.
- Dark chocolate
- Milk chocolate
- Red beans (pre-cooked adzuki beans)
- Nuts
- Dried strawberries
Note: This recipe has a reduced amount of sugar because white chocolate is very sweet. If you swap it for nuts, you'll need more sugar otherwise they won't be sweet enough. (Speaking from my own experience anyway).
The sweetness of the white chocolate with the bitterness of the matcha works really well together! I hope you enjoy this muffin recipe with a Japanese twist!
Storage
You can keep these muffins in an airtight container for 1-2 days. Any longer than that and I recommend freezing them. You can freeze them for up to 3 months. Defrost thoroughly before eating and heat in the microwave for 10-20 seconds if they seem a little dry.
Matcha Lovers
Check out my other matcha recipes!
- Matcha and dark chocolate brownies
- Matcha and white chocolate cookies
- Iced matcha Latte with soy milk
- Homemade matcha ice cream
Delicious Matcha and White Chocolate Muffins (抹茶ホワイトチョコレートマフィン)
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
How to make fluffy and light, café style matcha muffins with white chocolate. The perfect afternoon snack and a breakfast treat! (This recipe makes approx 8 medium sized muffins or 6 large/12 small.)
Ingredients
- 190g (¾ US cup) weak flour
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp matcha powder
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 large egg
- 100g (½ US cup) white sugar
- 3 tbsp natural yogurt
- 100ml (⅓ US cup + 2½ tbsp) whole milk
- 60ml (¼ US cup) vegetable oil
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 100g (4oz) white chocolate (If you want to drizzle the muffins with white chocolate, set about 10-20g aside for melting)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220°C (or 430°F)
- Sift 190g flour into a bowl and add 2½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, 2 tsp of matcha powder, ¼ tsp cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Mix until the the dry ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the flour.
- In a separate bowl whisk 1 egg with 100g of white sugar for about 1 minute.
- Next, pour 100ml milk, 3 tbsp plain natural yogurt, 60ml vegetable oil and 1 tsp vanilla extract to the whisked egg and sugar, mix with a spatula until well incorporated.
- Gradually add the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and carefully fold them together, the flour only needs to be touched by the wet mixture. Be careful not to over mix! (If there are some lumps of flour, it's okay.)
- Roughly chop the white chocolate and add to the mixture, fold through a couple of times to distribute the chocolate but try to mix as little as you possibly can.
- Spoon the mixture into about 8 medium sized muffin cases about ⅔ of the way to the top.
- Bake at 220°C (or 430°F) for just 5 minutes to give them a rising boost, then lower the heat to 180°C (or 350°F) and bake for a further 15-20 mins.
- Leave to cool and drizzle with a little melted white chocolate. (optional)
- Store in an airtight container for 1-2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Be careful not to overmix.
You can use white chocolate chips or a block of white chocolate, it depends on your preference.
If you don't like white chocolate you can always use dark or milk chocolate, but the sweetness of white chocolate really compliments the bitterness of matcha.
If you have large muffin cases, increase the baking baking time by a few minutes. If your muffin cases are small reduce the baking time to about 12 mins.
- Category: Baking
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Japanese
Keywords: matcha muffins,Matcha,Matcha and white chocolate muffins,Matcha white chocolate,White Chocolate,matcha muffin recipe,best matcha muffins,Japanese muffin recipe
What is weak flour in your recipe ingredients ?
Weak flour is a type of flour with low gluten content used for cakes and pastry, it's also known as cake flour or soft flour. If you can't find it, you can also use all purpose flour but the result won't be as light and fluffy. Hope it helps!