Matcha Marbled Banana Bread

My banana bread is more like a cake than bread. I often use muffin pans with this recipe to make banana cupcakes that are toped with sweetened whipped cream. The kids love them! I figured this recipe would work well with matcha as an added ingredients and I was right. The flavor of matcha fits very well with this recipe.

With the lovely green color of matcha, I also played around with the look of the cake and decided that the green and white marbled look was my favorite and the most fun. There is no rule to swirling so every time the shape comes out differently. Just don’t swirl too much or you will lose the contrast. Another fun part is slicing the cake and seeing how the marbling turned out.

The sweet banana cake taste with the bitter matcha flavor works really well and the visual contrast is nice. Try this fun matcha marbled banana cake for your breakfast tomorrow! Don't forget to add sweetened whipped cream as it really brings this cake to another level.

Matcha Marbled Banana Bread

·      3 eggs

·      3 tablespoons of salted or unsalted butter, melted

·      ½ cup of brown sugar

·      1 and ⅓cup of all-purpose flour

·      1 tablespoon of baking powder

·      4 tablespoons of heavy cream

·      3 ripe bananas

·      1 tablespoon of matcha powder

1.     Preheat oven to 355 ℉. Line inside of the loaf pan with parchment paper.

2.     Beat sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy.

3.     Sift flour and baking powder into the egg mixture.

4.     Fold in just until the flour disappears.

5.     Add heavy cream and melted butter and mix well.

6.     Take away 1/3 of the batter to use as the green matcha portion, and sift the matcha powder into it then mix well. This creates the green batter.

7.     Add the mashed bananas into the original white batter bowl and mix them into the remaining 2/3 of the batter. This creates the white banana batter.

8.     Pour half of the white banana batter into prepared pan, then pour the half of matcha batter gently on top of the banana batter. Use a bamboo skewer or dinner knife to swirl lightly (I use a bamboo chopstick).

9.     Pour the remaining white banana batter gently over the swirled batter and then pour the remaining green tea matcha batter and swirl again.

10.  Bake in the oven for 40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

11.  Set aside to cool for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove bread from the pan, leaving the parchment paper on, and let it cool completely on a cooling rack.

Matcha Pancakes

Who doesn’t love a relaxing brunch with pancakes? This Japanese style pancake is based on my Yogurt Pancakes recipe. Matcha pancake is usually toped with sweet red bean paste (Azuki) and whipped cream instead of maple syrup. This captures the essence of a Japanese dessert and the mild flavors fits perfectly. It really is delicious! Use this as an addition to your pancake collection.

Matcha Pancakes

(serves 4)

·      240ml of cake flour

·      1 tablespoon of matcha powder

·      1 tablespoon of baking powder

·      1 teaspoon of baking soda

·      1 tablespoon of sugar

·      ⅛ teaspoon of salt

·      120ml of milk

·      120ml of plain yogurt

·      1 egg

·      2 tablespoons of melted butter (for batter)

·      some butter for cooking

·      whipped cream

·      Azuki red bean paste or sweetened whole red beans (in a can or package from the Japanese or Asian market)

1.     Mix cake flour, matcha powder, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a bowl.

2.     In a differ bowl, mix milk, yogurt, and egg.

3.     Add step 2) into step 1) bowl. Mix lightly. It is ok to be a bit lumpy.

4.     Add the melted butter, and mix.

5.     Heat the frying pan (medium-low heat), melt some butter and pour the pancake batter to your desired pancake size.

6.     When the bubbles appear in the pancake, flip it over and cook another two minutes. *Keep the cooked pancakes warm in the oven (lowest temperature), but don’t leave them for too long as they might dry out.

7.     Serve with a scoop of Azuki red bean paste and dollop of whipped cream.

Teriyaki Chicken Pita Pocket Sandwich

Easy sandwich using my base Teriyaki Chicken recipe:Terrific Teriyaki Chicken. This makes a great breakfast, lunch or snack. Prepare a large batch of Teriyaki Chicken ahead of time, and use it for sandwiches during the week. I like making cooked chicken based sandwiches for the kids lunch box. I use pita pocket because it helps avoid the chicken and sauce from dropping out the open end of the sandwich. I recommend adding some Japanese mayo. It's very yummy.

Teriyaki Chicken Pita Pocket Sandwich

·      Teriyaki Chicken (Recipe: Terrific Teriyaki Chicken)

·      1 Pita bread

·      some salad mix or lettuce

·      some sliced red onion

·      1 or 2 slices of tomato

·      Japanese mayo

1.     Make Teriyaki chicken. Follow recipe from Terrific Teriyaki Chicken.

2.     Cut the pita pocket in half and warm it up in the oven or toaster. (1 to 2 minutes under the broiler.)

3.     Soak the red onion slices in water for about 5 minutes then drain well and pat dry.

4.     Add tomato slices, salad mix (lettuce), red onion slices, and teriyaki chicken in the pita pocket.

5.     Top with mayo if you like.