Matcha Mushipan (Green Tea Japanese Steamed Cup Bread)

I think my reason for wanting to make mushipan (Japanese steamed cup bread) stemmed from my itching desire to make steamed goods for once, not baked goods. So, abandoning the oven for a day, I set up the huge steamer sitting low down in the pantry cupboard and attemped the fairly easy project that was matcha mushipan. The only problem I had was that I didn’t have any small ramekins in my possession for putting cupcake liners in. Good thing I bought these handy silicone cupcake moulds that I can just put batter straight into and pop them in the steamer without worrying about the mushipan going out of shape.

Evan’s Kitchen Ramblings does a wonderful matcha sakura version of these cute steamed cake-bread gems. Mine is just a basic matcha mushipan recipe, which you can use and tweak as you like. Add white chocolate chips to it, add more/less sugar to it, make it up as you go!

So, yes. Matcha. High quality matcha would work best in this recipe. As a brew, the health benefits of matcha exceed those of ordinary green tea. By drinking matcha, you ingest the ground leaves, not just the water that the leaves are brewed in.

“One glass of matcha is the equivalent of 10 glasses of green tea in terms of its nutritional value and antioxidant content.” – Matcha Source

This makes it an even more powerful cancer fighting, fat burning concoction!

So, if you’re ready to take on the matcha mushipan challenge, here’s a really easy recipe that you can try out. If all goes well, you can impress friends who’ve never used a steamer to make sweet breads before!

Depending on the size of your cupcake moulds, this recipe makes about 5 or 6 steamed mushipan.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons matcha (green tea powder)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 1/2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons sugar (or equivalent sweetener of choice)
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or canola oil)

Preparation:

1. Prepare a large steamer with an inch or two of water. Leave the heat off until you are just about ready to steam your mushipan.
2. Line small ramekins with cupcake cases. If, like me, you have no ramekins the size of your cupcake cases, use silicone cupcake moulds instead. You don’t have to line these.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour, matcha and baking powder. Mix through with a whisk or fork until the flour turns a uniform pale green colour.
4. In a smaller bowl, combine egg, milk, sugar and oil. Mix well.
5. Gradually pour this mixture into the flour mixture, mixing slowly until smooth.
6. Carefully spoon batter into cupcake liners/silicone moulds, filling each cup about 3/4 full.
7. Turn up the heat to prepare your steamer. Once water comes to a rolling boil, place cups in steamer and steam on high for 8 minutes.
8. Remove cooked mushipan (will be extremely hot!) and let cool for 10 minutes.
9. Serve warm! :)

Related Post: Strawberry Mushipan (Japanese Steamed Cup Bread)

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