Matcha (Green Tea) Red Bean Muffins

So... it has been a while. Too long in fact since I've posted anything here. It's so weird that it's all starting again. Provided all goes well, we may just see more posts here.

We just celebrated another Youth Sunday at church today. The muffins were a huge hit at our last Youth Sunday and so as a team we decided to carry on this 'tradition'. This time round we had a team of five awesome ladies sharing their baking skills and ended up with the following menu:

1. Coffee and Pecan
2. Lemon
3. Blueberry
4. Red Velvet
5. Carrot and Honey
6. Banana and Walnut
7. Green Tea and Red Bean (*)
8. Double Chocolate (*)

Needless to say, I did the Double Chocolate and (as you could have guessed from the title on this blog) the Matcha (Green Tea) Red Bean Muffins. Research didn't find me a recipe that used sour cream. I have this thing with muffin recipes, one that it must use sour cream and two, it must be a one bowl mix (i.e. that it doing require creaming of butter). 

My Chocolate Cupcake recipe satisfied those requirements. So instead of using the cocoa, I substituted it with green tea power and added red bean paste (store bought). Both cocoa and green tea  power are bitter so I took a gamble in using the same amount of green tea powder. And it turned out brilliantly. Although credits to the green tea powder I purchased from my local Bubble Cup store (which is an Asian Sweet Tea shore). I was so blessed that they were willing to give me a packet of the green tea powder they use to make their teas. They also shared their Taro Powder (Yay!!) which means I will be testing it out soon!! 

Going off on a tangent, Cupcake Central (Melbourne, Victoria) have been selling all kinds of Asian influence flavoured cupcakes. Just a few weeks ago, they had Pandan and then Taro. It got me inspired with my muffins. So I'll try out the taro powder and post about it later on- just keep watching this space. 

I would have taken photos of my green tea red bean muffins but laziness took the better of me so I didn't have HD resolution photos to post (DSLR needs to be dusted and brought back into action). Instead, you can jump onto my instagram (@mamabea) for a somewhat 'alright/'postable' shot. 

Recipe as follows:  

Matcha (Green Tea) Red Bean Muffins.Ingredients A
1 cup Caster Sugar
1 cup Self Rising Flour
1/3 cup Matcha Powder (aka Green Tea Powder)
3/4 tsp Baking Soda (Bi carb soda)
1/2 tsp Salt

Ingredients B
1 Egg
1/2 cup Sour cream
1/4 cup Vegetable Oil (or a non scented oil)
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract (I like to be very liberal with the amount of vanilla I add in)
1/2 cup recently boiled water from the kettle

Ingredients C
1 can Premade Red Bean Filling/Paste (aka Adzuki Beans)

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C, and line one muffin tray with cupcake liners. Note that this recipe makes 10 big cupcakes and approx 12 average sized cupcakes.
2. Place all ingredients A in an electric mixer. With a whisk attachment, on a low speed mix the dry ingredients until there is no lumps remain.
3. In a measuring cup, place all ingredients B together and whisk until well incorporated.
4. On a medium low speed, gradually incorporate the wet mixture in the dry ingredients. When all incorporated, mix until the batter is smooth. Be careful not to over mix as it will dry out the cupcakes. Then fold in the Red Bean Paste/Filling until evenly incorporated. 
5. Using a standard ice-cream scoop, evenly fill each cupcake liner with the batter.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked and golden on top.
7. When removed from the oven, let the cupcakes to cool completely  in the pan before taking them out of the cupcake pan.

Let me know what you thought by commenting below! I would love to hear from you all and your experiences baking my recipe. 

Happy Baking!