Matcha Hotcakes (抹茶ホットケーキ)

It's November. The time of the year where birthdays are aplenty. Family and friends alike. Have I ever mentioned about a tiny little awesome quirky fact about my family? Psst. Our birthdays are all in November. My Mom's birthday was on the 6th. My Dad's birthday is today. Mine's on the 12th. And my Sis's on the 30th. Have you notice something interesting about the dates? They are all in multiples of three! And aside from my Sis (the oddball *whoops haha), our birthdays are all in sequence! If only her birthday was on the 15th...Then it'll really be uber cool.

Anyway, for Dad's birthday this year, I know I had said that I'll prob give the strawberry shortcake a miss after three consecutive years of making it. I guess it's sorta become a "tradition" now cos the other day, the Sis was just asking, "So when are you making the strawberry cake?" It's been a busy week, so while I havn't actually finished it, I'm in the process of making it! I actually baked the sponge last night, and as we are heading out for a dinner buffet tonight for the Dad's birthday, I thought that I'll assemble it after we head home from dinner and we can cut it tomorrow (since I reckon we'll all be stuffed silly with food anyway). The sponge looks promising. It felt soft and spongy when I was clingwrapping it last night, so I hope it will taste soft and spongy as well.

Anyway, moving on to the hotcakes. I love pancakes. Yet, I rarely make my own at home cos my guinea pig, aka the Sis, is not a fan of pancakes in general. So, in order to satisfy my pancakes urge, I decided to make matcha pancakes to lure her into eating some too cos like me, she's quite the matcha fan.

Matcha Hotcakes (抹茶ホットケーキ)

Matcha latte

What best to pair the matcha hotcakes but a cuppa matcha latte? It's really easy to whip up your own cuppa matcha latte at home. Combine matcha powder, a little sugar and milk, heat in a saucepan till warm. Using a milk frother whisk, start whisking it vigourously till foamy. Pour into a mug and enjoy! (Psst, in case you were wondering, I heated a little more milk and froth it before adding it on top of my matcha foam to create the white foam)

Breakfast is served

Maple syrup and butter? Or sweet potato creme patisserie? Have it both ways I say.

There were some leftover purple sweet potato creme patisserie from my previous post here. I thought that it should pair beautifully with these matcha hotcakes. And *whistles* the flavour combination is actually really quite nice (although pardon the really mismatched green and purple colour combination).

These hotcakes were really fluffy and soft. The perfect pairing would be salted butter and maple syrup. Or creamy custard creme patisserie. Then again, I wouldn't object to eating it plain as a snack too.

Matcha Hotcakes (抹茶ホットケーキ) (adapted from Evan at Evan's Kitchen Ramblings, from here)
(makes 15-16 fist sized hotcakes)

280g cake flour
1 tbsp matcha powder
big pinch of salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
85g sugar
220ml milk
80g plain yogurt ( I used Elle Vire Plain Sweet yogurt)
45g unsalted butter
butter, for greasing

Sift together cake flour, matcha powder, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside.
Heat together butter and milk in a saucepan till warm, then add in yogurt and mix well.
In another bowl, beat egg and sugar with electric mixer till thick and pale.
Make a well in the flour mixture then add in the milk and egg mixture. briefly fold and cut through the mixture. Do not overmix. (It's okay if there are still some flour streaks in the batter, it'll cook out fine)
Heat skillet over low heat. Butter the skillet and drop a ladleful of batter onto the skillet over a height of approx 30cm height. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface about 2-3 minutes.
Flip over and cook for another one or two minutes until cooked and golden brown. Repeat until all batter has been used up.

Serve with butter and maple syrup.