[ENG] Matcha (Green Tea) Chocolate Chips

I'm quite a hardcore matcha fans, when it's come to matcha sweets, either if it's chocolate, ice cream, cookies, etc, i always expect intense matcha flavour in them. I got 2 cans of really good matcha powder straight from Japan so i'm really excited to explore & make various sweets with them! 

I searched for recipes on Youtube and found this Country Ma'am Soft Matcha Cookies by Ochikeron. Country Ma'am is a quite popular soft cookies brand in Japan, but i never get to try their matcha one though ^^ It's basically a soft matcha cookies with bits of chocolate inside. But i personally don't like to mix my matcha sweets with any other flavour like chocolate or even anko (sweet red bean paste), so instead of white & milk chocolate i'm gonna make matcha chocolate so these cookies will be super "matcha-ey" yeayy....!

I actually got the matcha powder from my bf, he's studying in Japan so i asked him to get me a really good matcha powder when he was going back to Indonesia for holiday. It costs about 10 dollars for 30 grams, kinda expensive but worth it :)

And it's really important to use a good quality matcha powder if you really like the intense matcha flavour in your chocolate.  Each of these chips is like a tiny burst of matcha flavour & it's super good!

You can also make matcha chocolate (not chips) in the similar way i guess, just pour the melted matcha chocolate into a chocolate mold & let it harden. Well actually if you wanna do it "the right way" you have to temper the chocolate, which is kinda complicated, but if you just make it for your personal consumption, it doesn't really matter ;)

Adapted from Thirsty For Tea - Matcha Chocolate Chips
 
Ingredients:

100 g white chocolate (or white chocolate chips/buttons)
2 tsp (about 4 grams) of matcha (green tea) powder 

1. Line a baking sheet /large flat plate with baking paper, place the piping bag (or ziploc bag) in a glass & prepare a sieve to sift the matcha powder.

2. Break the white chocolate into tiny pieces. Put the chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds (on medium), stir then put them back to microwave for 20 seconds & stir again. Repeat heating at shorter intervals (10 seconds), stirring in between, until the chocolate is completely melted. 

 3. Sift the matcha powder to the melted chocolate, stir well with a spoon/spatula until well combined with no lumps. (i added the powder in 3-4 additions to prevent lumps)

4. Pour the melted matcha chocolate into a piping bag or ziploc bag, and twist the end to secure the chocolate, then cut the tip off. 

5. Pipe dollops of the melted chocolate on the baking sheet lined with baking paper. If the chocolate is too runny, wait for it to cool down a bit & more "pipeable". 

6. Wait for the chips to completely  harden and release them from the parchment paper.The color of these chips will get darken when they're cooled,  store them in an air-tight container. (I cool them in the freezer since it's summer all year round here)