I Love You This Matcha

I had planned on resting today, even took my medicine for this icky flu, but a nagging desire to bake a matcha cheesecake came over me, and who am I to deny desire?  So, Nan and I made a quick run to gather our ingredients and I spent yet another afternoon this weekend barefoot and in the kitchen. Here's my recipe, adapted from this recipe, that worked for us!

Crust recipe:
6 tbs cubed and cold unsalted butter
1 - 2 tbs caster sugar (I just used regular granulated)
7/8 cups flour
1 1/2 tbs cocoa powder

* Use a food processor or hand mixer to combine all these ingredients until you get a gritty texture.  Be sure the butter is cold so that you don't end up with a muddy mixture.  You want it to sort of look sandy and feel dry to the touch.

Press the crust mixture firmly into the bottom of a lightly greased pan (9 inch is good) and bake for about 25 minutes at 365 degrees.
Cool the crusts before adding cheesecake filling.

 Cheesecake batter: Preheat your oven to 360 degrees.
16 - 18 oz. cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz.)
2 large eggs
3 1/2 tbs matcha (green tea powder)
1/2 cup of chocolate chips (white or milk)
1 tbs unsalted butter


Melt butter and chocolate first and set aside.

Use a handmixer to beat the cream cheese until it's soft, then slowly add condensed milk.
Add the eggs one at a time.
Combine a cup of this cream cheese mixture to the chocolate mixture and save it for later.  This will be what you use to create the swirls in your cheesecake.



Add matcha into the remaining cream cheese mix.  We put ours in a tbs at a time so that you don't get dark green spots.  Whisk until all the matcha is incorporated into batter.










Pour your batter into the cooled pan and use a spoon to drop dollops of your chocolate mixture randomly into the pan. Use a butter knife to make pretty swirls.  You might want to drop the cake pan carefully on the counter a few times to get trapped air bubbles out.  Wrap the sides of the pan with foil to avoid the cheesecake spilling over while it's cooking.  Put your cake in a water bath (I just added 1 1/2 cups of water to a large pan) and bake for 40 minutes at 360 degrees.


Super Important: As soon as you take your cheesecake out of the oven, run a butter knife along the edges of the pan so that it won't crack as it shrinks.  It'll start shrinking almost immediately and if you don't do this, it will just stick to the edges and look like an earthquake hit it.  Cool it on counter and then refrigerate. Try and keep yourself from eating it before it's cold.

 

This green tea cheesecake is Peyton approved!