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With St. Patricks Day here I wanted to bring you something green and festive. It has been fun watching all the Gunniess, Baileys, Irish Brownie Bombs, corned beef and cabbage and soda bread recipes in the blogosphere. As you know I honor tradtions but I love to give them my own unique twist. With that in mind I combined two of my favorite green ingredients, matcha green tea and toasted pistachios.
I had not visited with my beautiful tin of matcha green tea powder in some time and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to take it out. If you are not familiar with this powdered greed tea I highly suggest you add it to your “must try” list. It is a bit costly, but a little goes a long way. One can should last a good long time.
Matcha is a japanese green tea that is dried and pulverized into a fine powder. It has a smooth rich flavor  and a gorgeous green color. It mixes directly into your beverage or recipe and does not need to be steeped or strained like leafy teas. It does not have a bitter taste like other teas tend to have when they are over brewed and tannins are released.
The combination of toasted pistachios and gluten free oat flour lends to a delicate crumbly texture. Generally I combine corn flour and oats when I bake gluten free. I this recipe I wanted to explore using just oats and I was very happy with the results.
These muffins are perfect anytime of day with tea, coffee or a tall glass of cold milk. Have fun piping some decorations with freshly whipped cream or lightly sweetened cream cheese frosting. I used my fun non stick tea cake/candy mold pan for this recipe.
Have you ever tried matcha green tea? Do you ever use it in your cooking/baking?
I have a fun guest post today over at The Reluctant Entertainer called Little Bites for Little Ones. Please head over there if you have a moment.
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Matcha Green Tea Pistachio Muffins – Gluten Free
Makes 24 mini muffins – 8-12 servings
NOTES:
- You can purchase Gluten Free Oat Flour or make your own by taking 1 1/2 cups of GF Old Fashioned Rolled Oats and grinding it to a powder in a food processor.
- Pistachio meal: Toast unsalted pistachios in the oven in a single layer on a sheet pan for about 10 minutes at 350ËšF. Let nuts cool and then grind them to a meal in a food processor. Be sure to not grind them too much into a nut butter.
- You can use any other nuts in these muffins if you do not have pistachios.
- Corn flour would be good too if oats are not an option.
- Mini muffin pans take a bit longer to bake than the tea cake pans. Adjust baking time accordingly.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 1/2 cups Oat Flour
- 1/2 cup unsalted Pistachio Meal (ground pistachios)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 tablespoon Matcha Green Tea Powder
- 3/4 – 1 teaspoon Stevia Powder – adjust according to taste
- or 5 tablespoons Organic Raw Honey
- 1/4 teaspoon fine Sea Salt
- 1 large Egg, whisked
- 1 teaspoon pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 tablespoons unsalted Butter or unrefined Coconut Oil, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1 cup fat free Milk
- 1/4 cup fat free Ricotta Cheese or fat free Greek Yogurt
- Cooking Spray – or mini cupcake liners
{optional Green Tea Cream}
- 6 ounces Heavy Cream or Light Whipped Cream Cheese
- Vanilla Stevia Drops or Honey to taste
- Matcha Green Tea Powder to sprinkle on top or mix into the cream
METHOD
Muffins: Preheat oven to 350ËšF with the rack in the middle. Prepare a non stick mini muffin or tea cake pan with liners or cooking spray. In a medium bowl mix together dry ingredients. In a separate medium bowl mix together wet ingredients. Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix together until well incorporated. Fill muffin pans leaving a little room at the top for expansion. Bake for about 10-13 minutes until a toothpick comes out crumb free. Let cool in pan and then transfer to rack.
Cream: Combine freshly whipped cream or whipped cream cheese with a few pinches of matcha powder and your favorite natural sweetener to taste. Pipe some designs on cooled muffins or spread cream with a spatula.
Store unfrosted muffins in a sealed container at room temperature for a few days. Transfer to the fridge up to a week or wrap tightly for longer term freezer storage. Add cream when served.
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Matcha Green Tea Recipe Links
- Matcha Chocolate Swirl Bread Kirbie’s Cravings
- Matcha Green Tea Frappe Indonesia Eats
- Matcha Pistachio Cookies Mango Power Girl
- Green Tea Matcha Yogurt Parfaits MarlaMeridith.com
- Seckel Pear Tart Poached in Matcha Green Tea Tart du Jour
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I’ve never tried matcha green tea, but these sound great! And I love the fun shapes, too.
I’ve never cooked with matcha before. I have matcha green
tea every day, but love this idea for muffins. I’ll take a look at
some of the links you posted too. Yum!
Katrina: I love a steamy cup of matcha tea….especially when I am out for sushi. So many health benefits packed inside that powder too! I hope you enjoy my recipe links.
How fun are these??? You rock!! This is the first healthy
green (as in St, Pattys Day green) recipe I have seen and I am so
impressed!! Well done!
Amanda: I had to go green, but also had to do my healthy twist! I thought these might have baked up brighter-but subtle green will do 🙂
Happy St Patrick’s Day! Those look wonderful. Cheers,
Rosa
I love green teas and pistachios! Perfect dessert for me
🙂
I love using matcha… these look great!
The piping is too cute! These are beautiful 🙂
Very creative! It’s a matcha made in heaven!
Sweet~Girl~ Your treats are so UNIQUE…just like YOU!
Passing~OUT big time over those heart shaped plates! And…the pink
fork! LOVE LOVE LOVE! You make eating HEALTHY so FUN! xo
Teresa: Aren’t those heart plates adorable! They come with little matching tea cups too. My friend gave us those at last years gorgeous Alice in Wonderland themed tea party I attended for a school fundraiser.
What a terrific idea for making green muffins, love that
it’s gluten-free and has nut flour for extra protein. Just curious
about the texture, you say they had a delicate crumbly texture.
Were they moist inside?
Jeanette: Oh how I love your attention to detail. I would not call these moist, definitely more crumb like – but not too dry either. Since I used oats that I ground up in my food processor they were quite coarse. I bet a finely milled corn or oat flour would yield less crumb. You could also experiment with a little more ricotta or maybe some applesauce too. I would add 1/4 cup of one of those & perhaps adjust bake time a smidge. If you try let me know & I will report back if I do 🙂
Those look and sound wonderful. And look very festive.
These look so cute! I love the addition of the pistachios
and matcha tea. Very creative!
I’ve never baked with green tea, but love the idea of it.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Marla these look wonderful! I have never baked sweets/cupcakes with matcha/green tea BUT…I have a green tea tofu recipe on my site. I marinate the tofu in green tea, agave, ginger and then bake it. So good…pretty darn mild tasting b/c green tea is mild but it’s fun to play around with.
Your pics, as usual, are amazing!!!
🙂
xoxo
Averie: I love the idea of that baked tofu with green tea. Pretty genius if you ask me. I gotta try something like that over here. I am gonna e-mail you right now about a get together….
I have an intolerance to stevia; otherwise these sound amazing. Do you know what the substitution would be using agave/honey/sugar? (Any would be fine)
Thanks!
George: I have not yet tested these with honey, sucanat, agave etc. I know the taste would be awesome! If I were to test it – I would probably start with 3 tablespoons of one of those sweeteners up to maybe 1/4 cup. Taste along the way to see if the batter is sweet enough. You might need to adjust baking times a bit. Again, I have not tested these muffins with those sweeteners. If you get to it first let me know. If I have a chance to try it out I will post the option & let you know 🙂
These sound amazing. I love matcha
LOVE the combination of green tea and pistachio! I’ve
recently got closer to a friend who is gluten intolerant and she
has inspired me to cook and try more gluten free recipes and this
one’s even more special for me now because of the fact that it has
no gluten in it. Thanks so much for sharing Marla and a Happy St.
Patrick’s day to you!
Hehe very cute four-leaf clove icing 🙂 Have a wonderful St
Pat’s Day to you!
Green tea, pistachio and gluten free! wow I love this
healthy and nutty treat.
Perfect! I love matcha, these look so delicious!
That reminds me I have some matcha green tea powder that I
received as a gift a while back. I used it to make ice cream once
and then forgot about it. I think the combination of that and the
pistachios sounds wonderful.
These look so good! Now I need dollies and heart-shaped
plates too, very nice!
What an inventive muffin, Marla. You put so much goodness
in one little muffin and made them pretty at the same
time.
I’ve been meaning to buy some matcha powder for a while
now. A few years ago, Trader Joe’s carred a matcha green tea yogurt
that was so good, but it must not have sold well because they
stopped carrying it. Boooo! Your muffins look great!
Fooddreamer: I love TJ’s. It is always a bummer when they carry something you love and then discontinue it. Simple to make your own green tea yogurt though. Made these green tea parfaits that we loved.
Wow girl! These look great! Have a super weekend!
oh my goodness we made the same exact thing for this day
and I am stunned you have the same pan! Well no one can say we
stole each others idea! BTW I love the pan and the little bundt
cakes… great minds do think alike! xo!
Claudia: No way!! Did you really do matcha pistachio muffins?? I have been waiting forever to use that pan. It is so cool! Need to experiment way more with it. Are you posting what you baked? I can’t wait to see.
So much fun! Perfect way to celebrate and go
green!
Matcha is by far one of my favorite flavorful colorants! Pistachios rank high on the “green” list as well… In fact, I even have my own vegan matcha pistachio muffin, too: http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/by-special-request/ Great minds think alike? 😉
Hannah: Thanks so much for sharing that link. Your version came out beautiful. The green color really pops when you add the white whole wheat pastry flour.
I always love your not-exactly-traditional takes on holiday favorites. Matcha is a favorite dessert flavor of mine, as is pistachio, so these muffins sound just perfect to me!
Joanne: “Not-exactly-tradtional” that’s me in a nutshell. Love stirring the pot in every which way! That is what I love about your recipes too. They help me think outside the box. Now we just need to live closer so we can share our experiments in the kitchen.
What a delicious looking muffin. I knew when you mentioned it that this was something worth seeing. I see spinach in this little muffin’s future! Thanks for another great recipe!
Marly: I gotta get on the spinach muffin concept asap. Lots of fun to be had with that green veggie. Such an inspiration what you did 🙂
These look so creative and delicious. Thanks for
sharing!
Hi Marla-I love how you combined matcha and pistachios in one yummy muffin! The piping is so pretty and I can’t believe these are so healthy too! Hope the rest of your weekend is lovely:)
I love the combination of matcha and pistachio in this recipe. I’ve flagged this one to try – thank you!
Way to mix it up and put on the green for St. Patrick’s Day
🙂 I’m not much of a baker and there are only two of us so I avoid
making “sweets”, but you’re really creating some delicious, healthy
baked goods here! I went to the Natural Foods Expo last weekend and
the sheer number of products is mind boggling. Read your post on
Stevia – great info, now maybe I’ll put some of those samples to
use!
Priscilla: Wish I had known you were at the Expo last weekend. I was there too. Hope you have the chance to start experimenting baking with stevia. I went from no baked goods (because of abstinence from sugar) to being able to enjoy them again—on my terms. You will not even know the difference when you use the right stevia products.
Love the naturally green ingredients and shamrock on top.
Extra awesomeness points for being GF too =D.
These look fabulous! I love St Paddy’s Day…bring on the green
These look great!! I love green tea and pistachios separately, I have never thought to put them together! I bet they were awesome!
Christina: They are so awesome. Just finishing that last few today for my snack. Must make another batch pronto! The green tea & pistachio is a great combo that I will now start using again and again.
matcha contributes such an awesome color to baked goods–great idea to make use of it for st patty’s day!
i’ve never come across pistachio meal before. this is very interesting! I love matcha green tea. I have yet to use it in desserts but I’m looking forward to it. These look so tasty!
Tiny Tea Room: I did not purchase the pistachio meal and I have not seen it in stores either. Almond meal is all over the place. Simply grind your own toasted pistachios in a food processor. Just be sure to watch that they don’t turn into a nut butter. They should package that stuff.
First of all, how cute is that pan? Love, love love it!
This is such a brilliant recipe. I love that you toasted the pistachio’s. Yum!
Kristin: I have had that pan forever and it has been waiting to be used. Finally. It will probably show up in many blog posts from here on out.
Those look so beautiful! I made some match tea ice cream with raspberries at the weekend but will have to try these little cuties soon. I have just started my own humble cancer nutrition and healthy recipe blog, and blogs like yours are such an inspiration. Thanks for the gorgeous, healthy post!
Kellie: These muffins would pair so well with your green tea ice cream. Raspberries are delicious with green tea. Congrats on starting a new blog. I am sure you will be helpful & inspirational as well with your recipe posts.
These sound so fabulous! Love them!
Ooh Marla~ Nice photos!
I cook with oat flour all the time and LOVE it too.
I’m soooo excited to cook with green tea and will post about soon…
ps. Have you heard of liquid green tea extract?
Have a fun weekend!
~Lisa 😉
Lisa: I have heard of liquid green tea extract but have never used it. Do you recommend it and if so in what ways?
Oh Marla, you have me thinkin’ now….I’m going to have to pick some up at my local health food store and try it out.
My friend Mia has worked there for ever, and she know EVERYTHING about nutrition and supplements. We can ask her.
If the flavor is mild, we can add a teaspoon or so to almost anything!
Lisa: I wonder does the green tea extract have the bright green color? If so that could be very, very fun.
You have been having a great deal of success with your gluten free recipes, Marla! That is a pleasure to see as there are so many that feel better eating less, or no gluten.
🙂
Valerie
This recipe is genius. What a great idea to add green
naturally to foods with the matcha powder. And the pistachio flavor
to boot, yum!
Ohhhh man! I just had a pistachio muffin last week! And this PALES in comparison to this amazing thing that you’ve created! The pistachio muffin wasn’t even real pistachio, but YOURS here has pistachio AND matcha! I love how you make it healthy too, because the one I ate was just a sorry excuse for indulgence.
These look healthy, just sweet enough, and oaty! Definitely down my lane. Thanks for sharing!
Dilicious!!
Can I get the nutritional info for these? The look delicious!
Hi Terri, I do not supply that info ~ but there are places on the web where you can find it. Good luck!