I’ve been in love with seeing green desserts recently. I have no idea why but every time I see a video of a pistachio, mint or matcha dessert I instantly need it in my life. So I wanted to make some matcha doughnuts!
In my 21 years of living I’ve tried a lot of different matcha flavoured dessert, I’ve still never tried a matcha latte though. I have no explanation why, but I definitely need to go try one right now.
What is Tangzhong?
Every time I make doughnuts, or every time I make any dough to be honest, I use a Japanese milk bread dough, which has the addition of a ‘tangzhong’. This is just a mixture of flour and a liquid, that you been cook together until you get a thick paste.
This helps makes a dough much more softer and gives them a fluffier texture so I always add it.
Yes you can make a dough that has a soft and fluffy texture without using a tangzhong, however for this recipe your doughnuts will be dry and crusty if you don’t add it in so don’t skip it. It is an extra step but it’s worth it!
Video Tutorial
Frying these:
When frying doughnuts, the temperature of your oil is important. If it is too low, they won’t puff up and they’ll taste oily. But if it is too hot, the inside of the doughnuts will end up raw.
The perfect temperature is 180C. If you have a thermometer that’s perfect but I’m guessing most people don’t and also I don’t use one most of the time.
Just check if the oil is ready by adding a small piece of dough, if it starts bubbling straight away the oil is ready. Also I recommend only frying one doughnut at first, once it is golden brown cut into it and see if it’s fully cooked. Then you can adjust your heat depending on how this one turned out!
Matcha Doughnuts
Ingredients
Makes: 8
- For the tangzhong:
20g plain flour
100ml water
- For the dough:
330g plain flour
30g granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
8g instant yeast
1 egg
The tangzhong
120ml warm milk
30g room temperature unsalted butter
- For the matcha filling:
100g cream cheese
300ml double cream
150g icing sugar
2 tablespoons matcha powder
Directions
- Making the tangzhong:
- In a pot, mix together the flour and water. Place this pot over medium-low heat and keep heating this, whiles constantly stirring, until the mixture turns into a thick paste. This only takes a few seconds so don't walk away from it.
- Leave this too cool in the fridge for 5 minutes.
- Making the dough:
- Add all the ingredients into a bowl, except the butter. Also don't forget to add the tangzhong too.
- Mix these ingredients together until a dough forms, then add in the butter and knead for 8 minutes.
- Add this dough into a greased bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. This should take 1-2 hours.
- Once the dough has risen, roll it out onto a very floured surface, until its about 1.5cm thick.
- Cut out your shapes, I used a 8.5 cm cookie cutter to do this, then place them onto a baking paper lined tray.
- Gently cover these and leave to rest for 30-40 minutes. You're not looking for them to double in size this time, they should just look a little fluffier and feel softer.
- Once they have rested, fry them in any flavourless oil that is around 180c. I use vegetable oil.
- Fry them until golden brown on both sides, about 1-1.5 minutes on each side.
- Whiles they're still warm, dip them into some sugar. I like to use caster sugar for this but granulated works fine too.
- Making the filling:
- In a small bowl, add the cream cheese and mix this just to loosen it up and make it smooth.
- In a separate large bowl, add the double cream, sugar and matcha powder. Whisk these together until the mixture starts to thicken slightly.
- Add in the cream cheese and whisk until thick.
- Filling the doughnut:
- To fill these, I like to add the filling into a piping bag that has been fitted with a medium sized round tip.
- Using a knife, create a hole in the top of a doughnut, then pipe the filling into this. Side note, make sure the doughnuts have fully cooled down before doing this or the filling will melt out.
- Do this to all the doughnuts and then you're done, enjoy!
Notes
- Once you have filled these, they can stay out at room temp for about 2 hours, then they need to go in the fridge because of the filling. I recommend only filling these before you're about to eat them, the actual doughnuts taste much better at room temp.
- I made the filling to taste. If you want you could add more matcha powder or even more sugar!
