Vegan Green Tea Doughnuts (抹茶ドーナツ)

I love green tea sweets! They're, truly, one of my favourite things! Green tea is so versatile! It can go with just about anything.

There are really no limits to what kind of sweets you can make with green tea. Green tea ice cream and chocolate are really popular (just to name a few).

Today, I'm going to be doing another popular green tea sweet. I'm going to show you how I make Matcha Green Tea Doughnuts that  are vegan and require no pan.

Pretty sweet, huh? ;P

This recipe is for doughnuts which are soft, and moist (the best kind really). And can be made without a pan (although, if you wanted to use a pan you could. Just make the mixture a bit wetter by adding 1/2 cup more milk, and pour the mixture into the moulds!)

Green Tea Doughnuts (抹茶ドーナツ)

Makes: 12

Prep Time: 1 hr, 40 mins

Cook Time: 11 mins 

Ingredients:

Doughnut

• 1 1/2 cups of vanilla soymilk (or plain is fine too)
• 1 tsp. of vanilla paste (liquid vanilla is okay :) )
• 1/4 cup of oil (I use rice bran oil)
• 1/4 cup of agave (or liquid sweetener of choice)
• 1 sachet of yeast (about 5g)
• 2 cups of plain, all purpose flour (I like to use wholemeal so it's slightly better for you, but you can use white flour if you like)
• 1 tsp. of salt
• 2 Tbs. of Matcha Green Tea Powder
• 2 Tbs. of Coconut Sugar (or other sugar of choice.)
• 1/4 cup of apple sauce

Icing

• 2 cups Icing Sugar
• 1 Tbs. Green Tea Powder
• 3 Tbs. Coconut cream (optional)
• 1 Tbs. Water or milk

Directions:

• In a medium-small sauce pan, put the milk, vanilla, oil and agave and bring it to a boil. One it is boiling turn off the heat,  and set aside until the liquid is lukewarm (about 30 minutes).

• After the mixture is lukewarm, add the yeast and wait for 10-15 minutes (until the mixture becomes kinda foamy and lumpy). 

• Put the flour in a large mixing bowl, and use a whisk for 10-15 seconds. This a lazy way to sieve flour ;P

• Once you have "sifted" the flour *wink, wink*, add the other dry ingredients and mix until the mixture is a soft, pale green.

• Add the secret ingredient - apple sauce! This will ensure that your doughnuts remain delicious and moist.

•             Finally, add the soy milk mixture you set aside, gradually. The mixture should turn into something resembling half a dough and half a batter. 

•       Set aside in a dark, preferably slightly warm place for 1hr until the mixture almost doubles. (I usually put mine in an off oven, which had been on the lowest setting about 15-20 mins before I put it in. So, this way it still has some of the warmth, but it's not going to cook the mixture. This is what my mum used to do! ;) )

• Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Roll out dough, so that it's still thick (about 1.5 inch, or 3 centimeters). Get you cutting instrument of choice (can be anything from a cookie cutter, scone cutter, or in this case a glass), cut out the doughnuts and place them on a tray lined with baking paper. Put them into the oven for 10-12 minutes.

Icing

• Now for the icing. To make a creamy icing, you want to use the top, thick part of canned coconut milk. I usually put the can into a freezer for 20 minutes so that the top layer becomes easy to separate from the rest. Take the top layer (about 3 Tbs.) and add it to the other icing ingredients.

• Ice the doughnuts (once cooled) by dunking them upside down into the icing. To double glaze them, simply wait until the first layer of icing hardens, then dunk them into the icing again.

After being dipped for the second time ;)

• These are best eaten in a few days. You can store them in the fridge in an air-tight container, or freeze them for up to 6 months.

Ta-da!

Hope you likey.

Itadakimasu! (いただきます) Let's eat!

<3
Usagi.