Our Matcha-misu

I was going to make some of our favourite Mango-misu for our Christmas Eve dinner (that's another recipe altogether), but there were no good mangoes at the grocery. :( Darn! But I had already brought the cream and the mascarpone cheese a day before, so it would be a pity not to push through with tiramisu. So I quickly thought of other tiramisu flavours to try and thought of Green Tea.  I walked to the Japanese section of the grocery, and luckily, found some matcha powder!

Matcha powder.

My daughter volunteered to make this evening's dessert, so I could focus on my Roast Chicken for tonight's Christmas Eve dinner. We are partial to making eggless tiramisu, because the one with eggs involved using raw eggs, which can be unsafe, unless you are absolutely 100% sure you know where your eggs come from and how fresh they are. Better safe than sorry! So here's the recipe for eggless Matcha-misu:

MATCHA-MISU (Without Eggs)

Serves 6

1 tablespoon + 4 teaspoons of matcha powder, separated; 1 teaspoon more for dusting on top

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 pack ladyfinger biscuits (Savoiardi), depending on size of dish (I used 16 for mine)

500 g mascarpone cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup of icing sugar

1 1/2 cup whipped cream

Procedure:

1. Prepare the syrup for the biscuits by boiling the water, and adding 1 tablespoon each of brown sugar and matcha powder. Once it boils, set aside to cool.  

Once cool, dip the biscuits one by one and layer them on the dish.

2. In the meantime, prepare the filling by whipping the cream with an electric mixer. Put the bowl in the refrigerator to make sure the cream remains set and thick.  

3.  In another bowl, whip the mascarpone cheese, vanilla extract and the icing sugar. Add the 4 teaspoons of matcha powder until well mixed.  

Get half of the cream and add it to the mix.

Mix with a wire whisk till well integrated. (You don't want to overbeat the cream or it will turn into butter, so use the wire whisk instead. It doesn't take too long to integrate it well.) Add the other half of the cream and whisk some more.

The filling with all the mascarpone, whipped cream, matcha, icing sugar; well blended. It looks so delicious and smells fragrant.

4.  Assemble the dessert by putting half of the matcha filling on top of the first layer of biscuits.  

Put another layer of biscuits dipped in the syrup. Finish with a final layer of the filling.  Put it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours to set; overnight would be best, as the secret of a great tiramisu is for all those flavours to blend together.

5. When you are ready to serve, sprinkle matcha powder on top. My daughter made a stencil to make a pattern, but this is optional. Enjoy!

A slice of (Japanese) heaven.

A star pattern made by my daughter. So Christmassy!