Matcha Truffle

[dhardy123]

I have been working on a matcha ganache truffle. Rather than using cream, I am using water and coconut oil to make it healthier. I bring the water to about 150 degrees, whisk in the matcha and let it steep overnight. The next day I reheat it and pour it over melted 70% chocolate, along with butter and melted coconut oil. The ganache itself sets up fine but there is no matcha taste. It tastes just like a regular chocolate ganache.

Has anyone tried using matcha in a truffle? I was thinking of rolling the truffle in matcha powder to get the taste but then why even bother making a matcha ganache? Is 70% chocolate too strong of a flavor? I cannot taste any matcha flavor.

Anyone have any suggestions to bump up the flavor of the ganache?

Thanks

Edited December 6, 2018 by Smithy
Adjusted title (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I have been working on a matcha ganache truffle. Rather than using cream, I am using water and coconut oil to make it healthier. I bring the water to about 150 degrees, whisk in the matcha and let it steep overnight. The next day I reheat it and pour it over melted 70% chocolate, along with butter and melted coconut oil. The ganache itself sets up fine but there is no matcha taste. It tastes just like a regular chocolate ganache.

Has anyone tried using matcha in a truffle? I was thinking of rolling the truffle in matcha powder to get the taste but then why even bother making a matcha ganache? Is 70% chocolate too strong of a flavor? I cannot taste any matcha flavor.

Anyone have any suggestions to bump up the flavor of the ganache?

Thanks

Dave - I suspect the problem might be the 70%. Most matcha fillings I've have are made with white chocolate.

[Sethro]

Yeah, although Matcha and bittersweet chocolate are popular pairing, combining the two in one component has a null effect. In white chocolate, a little goes a long way (more than a little can result in metallic, fishy flavors).

Also there's no need to steep anything with matcha overnight. The reason its so expensive is that its a meticulously fine ground. It's actually cold-soluble.

[dhardy123]

Thanks,

I thought about using white chocolate. I may try it at some point.

[merlicky]

I suspect part of your problem might be a lack of fat in the ganache. While water can extract the taste compounds of the tea, it does not really absorb the aroma compounds like the fats do. These volatiles get released, which is why you get strong smells from hot tea or coffee. The longer the tea steeps in the water the more taste is absorbed, but also the more aroma is released. Since smells are about 80% of what we consider flavor you are probably losing out on a lot.

The taste compounds of tea are also going to roughly mirror those of chocolate, where as the aromas are going to differ greatly. So, steeping in water is going to end up mimicking and enhancing a lot of the tastes in the chocolate without really changing the flavor (this is why Ina Garten always uses coffee in her chocolates).

If you want to use dark chocolate with the matcha I’d recommend either trying to steep in cream, or trying to steep in a neutral flavored alcohol and add it to the water ganache. That way a lot more of the aroma volatiles are retained and released in the mouth, so more of the matcha flavor should come through.

[dhardy123]

Thanks for the advice. I am trying to make it lactose free so I don't want to go with cream on this particular truffle.

However, steeping it in an alcohol sounds interesting. I will let you know how this turns out.

[JasonTrue]

I'm not sure why coconut oil is healthier than cream or cocoa butter, but I'll leave that aside for the moment.

The white chocolate ganaches bring out more matcha flavor, since the bitterness of the cocoa mass is replaced with matcha. I've had dark and milk chocolate infused with matcha, and they are usually very, very subtle.

I'm not a huge fan of heavily cooked matcha, because once you add heat the matcha starts to age quickly in an unflattering way (the "fishy" taste one poster mentioned). In my experiments, and with one of my vendors products, we tried to add matcha to our white chocolates as late as practical in the tempering process.

Matcha works pretty well with rum, whiskey, and gin (gin might not work so well for truffles though).

[schneich]

who told you coconut oil is healthier than butter or cream ???????????????????

[dhardy123]

I'm sorry for the misunderstanding about coconut oil.

I wanted to make a lactose free ganache so I am using coconut oil as the replacement for the fat from the cream. I am using coconut oil because it is a fairly neutral flavor, and I have alot of it here due to making meltaways.

[Sethro]

Don't want to start a firestorm here, but coconut in general is much healthier than dairy. Unless you are sourcing your dairy from an independent farm, any vitamins occurring in it are 100% resultant of fortification. Coconut is richer in potassium and magnesium than any other food product on earth and it is also one of nature's only naturally-sterile liquids. Coconut water was actually used during WWII in South Pacific theatre-hospitals as a means of sterilizing hands and instruments before surgery. Coconut oil, while higher in fat concentration that most dairy cream, is a Omega-3 fatty acid, excellent for cardiovascular and brain function (and less apt for storage as body fat, it actually encourages fat-burning). Coconut milk is another story of course, usually a blend of sugar, desiccated coconut and water or milk, but natural coconut water is just about the healthiest thing on Earth for your consumption.

That being said, desserts aren't supposed to be healthy, they are supposed to be a delicious and enjoyed in moderation. Cream is definitely the best base for a truffle in my opinion. Water is fine too, but using anything other than cream replicate the creamy mouth-feel of cream is kind of a pointless exercise--especially if you are working with Matcha, which is specifically engineered to be cold-soluble in WATER.

Edited March 14, 2010 by Sethro (log)

[brokenscale]

i want to make the green tea truffles from PGs choc and confection. The recipe calls for matcha green tea? what is this stuff and can i sub anything else for it? I have some loose leaf green tea, but have no idea what matcha is. Also would it be smart to strain it? I found some powdered greed tea that would disolve at the grocery store but it has a ton of sugar in it which i dont want to use.

[pastrygirl]

You want matcha powder, unsweetened green tea powder. It can be expensive.

http://www.matchasource.com/about-matcha-s/19.htm

[Richard Kilgore]

The "cafe grade" matcha on that site is rather expensive. You should be able to find matcha for pastries for less. Or get a regular matcha from another source that is less expensive.

[prasantrin]

Ippodo, one of the more famous Japanese tea shops, has many different grades of matcha at reasonable prices and they have online shopping and they will ship internationally. The only problem is that shipping makes the cost of the tea much less reasonable. Don't know where you're located, but if you're in a metropolitan area, you can probably find it at an Asian grocery store or similar. I'm sure a google search will reveal even more sources. I'm pretty sure Uwajimaya carries it, if you happen to be in the PNE of the US.

[haresfur]

I had good luck with bobateadirect.com, not that I'm a matcha expert.

grade A matcha

[Rajala]

Not sure to ask, feels stupid do create a new thread...

 

Matcha ganache? What kind of ratios do you guys use? I have no idea how much matcha I should have in a white chocolate ganache.

[gfron1]

1 hour ago, keychris said:

My recipe is easy. I make a normal ganache, then throw all the matcha in the bin, because matcha tastes like the devil's... Let's just say it doesn't taste nice and leave it there 😛

That's just a terrible, mean, nasty response...and I happen to agree. I've made enough matcha ganaches to know that I don't like them and have no interest in serving them. I will just note FWIW that you need to be sure to get the right type of matcha since there is culinary grade and tea grade. I less-hate the latter.

[MelissaH]

I've NEVER understood the appeal of matcha, apart from maybe the color.

[Kerry Beal]

1 minute ago, MelissaH said:

I've NEVER understood the appeal of matcha, apart from maybe the color.

I have had one tasty matcha in my life - got it from Metropolitan Tea - it's called White Rhino and it's Kenyan apparently. Unfortunately when I was making the matcha truffles for the Dubovic course it was nowhere to be found in the house (I've since rediscovered it). I was too cheap to buy matcha for that course so I ground up some tasty Taiwanese tea to a fine powder. Didn't have the startlingly green color unfortunately.

 

 

[MelissaH]

7 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I have had one tasty matcha in my life - got it from Metropolitan Tea - it's called White Rhino and it's Kenyan apparently. Unfortunately when I was making the matcha truffles for the Dubovic course it was nowhere to be found in the house (I've since rediscovered it). I was too cheap to buy matcha for that course so I ground up some tasty Taiwanese tea to a fine powder. Didn't have the startlingly green color unfortunately.

 

 

So good taste and beautiful green are maybe mutually exclusive?

[Kerry Beal]

36 minutes ago, MelissaH said:

So good taste and beautiful green are maybe mutually exclusive?

The white rhino certainly isn't as brilliant green - it's more muted for sure.