Easy Matcha Pudding

Matcha Pudding is a very easy dessert to make. The slight bitterness of matcha, a lightly sweetened smooth and silky texture, and the beautiful green colour make you addicted to this dessert. Sweet toppings are must-haves.

I call today’s pudding ‘Easy Matcha Pudding’ because you don’t need to steam or bake it to coagulate the pudding, and the process is quite simple. I added gelatine to the pudding mixture and chilled it to set to a soft jelly texture.

Matcha is bitter by nature, but by mixing sugar, milk, and cream to the matcha powder, the pudding will retain only a hint of bitterness while keeping the gentle matcha taste.

I talked about matcha in my post, Matcha Cookies and mentioned two grades of matcha powder – ceremonial grade and culinary grade. Naturally, the ceremonial grade matcha powder has a better taste and colour.

Even in the culinary grade, there are many different brands of matcha powder on the market. Some powders have more flavour, and some have a more powdery texture with coarser particles of the powder.

I made Matcha Pudding using the following 3 brands of matcha powder to compare.

Left: Hello Matcha brand ceremonial grade matcha powder. Middle: Asahina brand culinary grade matcha. Right: Hagoromo brand culinary grade matcha.

Asahina brand matcha has a slightly grainy and powdery texture, while Hagoromo and the ceremonial matcha have a silky texture. Perhaps because of the grainy texture, the pudding made with Asahina matcha was slightly bitter.

You can tell the difference in colour at one glance. The Matcha Pudding made with the ceremonial matcha is the most vibrant green colour.

Left: Hello Matcha brand (ceremonial). Middle: Asahina brand. Right: Hagoromo brand.

It doesn’t matter which matcha powder you use, but I found that the ceremonial matcha had the gentlest flavour to your palate.

What’s in My Easy Matcha Pudding

Matcha Pudding

• Gelatine
• Water to soak geletine
• Sugar
• Matcha powder
• Milk
• Thickened cream/heavy cream (35% fat)

I used the ceremonial matcha powder, but you can use any matcha powder. Depending on the brand of the matcha powder, your pudding might have a slightly different colour and texture to my pudding.

Topping

• Whipped cream (Chantilly cream)
• Boiled azuki bean paste
• Mint leaves as garnish

Boiled azuki bean paste is called ‘yude azuki’ (茹で小豆) in Japanese. It is different from Sweet Red Bean Paste (Anko). Both are cooked sweetened azuki beans, but yude azuki contains more liquid than anko, which makes it easier to drop on the pudding as a topping. I bought a can of yude azuki from an Asian grocery store.

Whipped cream and boiled azuki bean paste go so well with the Matcha Pudding, which has a slight bitterness that is the characteristic of matcha. The toppings make your Matcha Pudding a complete dessert from both the flavour and the visual perspectives. But if you want to reduce the sweetness, use a small amount of toppings, or just use one topping.

How to make Easy Matcha Pudding

Matcha Pudding

1. Melt the gelatine soaked in water in the microwave.
2. Mix sugar and matcha powder well in a jar until there are no lumps of sugar or matcha powder.
3. Add ¼ of the milk to the jar and mix vigorously removing the lumps.
4. Add the melted gelatine, remaining milk, and the cream to the jar and mix well.
5. Pour the pudding mixture through a small sieve into the serving glasses/containers.
6. Chill the pudding for 3 hours.

Serving

1. Place a large drop of whipped cream/Chantilly cream, then a drop of yude azuki on the surface of the pudding.
2. Place small mint leaves on top.

If you prefer the pudding with minimum sweetness, you may want to serve the pudding with a very small amount of toppings.

Smooth and delicate Matcha Pudding is a beautiful dessert. You can keep Matcha Pudding in the fridge for a few days, so you can make it ahead of time and decorate it when serving. It’s a great dessert for any occasions.

Yumiko

Watch How To Make It

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Easy Matcha Pudding

Prep Time

15 mins

Chilling in the fridge

3 hrs

Total Time

3 hrs 15 mins

 

Matcha Pudding is a simple dessert with no baking involved. The slight bitterness of matcha, a lightly sweetened smooth and silky texture, and the beautiful green colour make you addicted to this dessert. Sweet toppings are must-haves.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Dessert

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: matcha recipe, pudding recipe

Serves: 2 - 3 Servings

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

Matcha Pudding

• 7g/0.25oz matcha powder (note 1)
• 40g/1.4oz sugar
• 4g/0.14oz gelatine powder
• 2 tbsp water (to soak gelatine)
• 150ml/5.1fl oz milk (note 2)
• 120g/4.2oz thickened cream/heavy cream (35% fat)

Topping (note 3)

• Whipped cream (Chantilly cream)
• Boiled azuki bean paste (note 4)
• Mint leaves for garnish

Instructions

Matcha Pudding

1. Soak the gelatine powder in the 2 tablespoons of water. When the powder is completely soaked, microwave it for 15-20 seconds to melt it.

2. Put the sugar in a jar (minimum 350ml/11.8fl oz capacity), then put the matcha powder through a sieve into the jar.

3. Mix well using a small whisk until lump free.

4. Add about ¼ of the milk to the jar and mix well vigorously until the mixture becomes smooth and lump free.

5. Add the gelatine liquid to the jar and mix, then add the remaining milk and cream to the jar.

6. Mix well ensuring that the matcha paste is completely mixed into the liquid (note 5).

7. Gently pour the matcha mixture into serving glasses/cups through a sieve (note 6).

8. Chill the glasses/cups in the fridge for 3 hours.

Serving (note 3)

1. Drop 1 heaped tablespoon of whipped cream on the surface of the pudding.

2. Drop 1 heaped teaspoon of boiled azuki bean paste next to the cream.

3. Put mint leaves on top.

Recipe Notes

1. Any brand of matcha powder is OK for this. However, the matcha powder of some brands is coarser than others, and you may find tiny dark green bits mixed in the pudding. See the post about different brands of matcha powder.

2. I used full cream milk, but light milk is OK too.

3. The toppings make your Matcha Pudding a complete dessert from both the flavour and the visual perspectives. But if you want to reduce the sweetness, you can use only a small quantity of toppings and/or use just one topping.

I also added topping variations in the MEAL IDEAS section of this post, below the recipe card.

4. Boiled azuki bean paste is similar to Sweet Red Bean Paste (Anko), but it contains more liquid and the sweetness is not as intense as anko. You can buy boiled azuki bean paste in a can at Japanese/Asian grocery stores. Please see the sample photo in the post.

5. Matcha paste often gets stuck on the side and bottom of the jar. Use a spatula to scrape the matcha paste off the side/bottom of the jar and dissolve it.

6. It makes about 300ml/10.1fl oz of matcha pudding mixture, which can make 2-3 servings. I used two cocktail glasses to serve Matcha Pudding.

7. Matcha Pudding keeps few days in the fridge. The toppings should be added at the time of serving.

8. Nutrition per serving assuming 2 servings, not including toppings.

serving: 178g calories: 327kcal fat: 23g (29%) saturated fat: 15g (75%) trans fat: 0.8g polyunsaturated fat: 1g monounsaturated fat: 5.9g cholesterol: 74mg (25%) sodium: 57mg (2%) carbohydrates: 25g (9%) dietary fibre: 0g (0%) sugar: 26g protein: 6g vitamin D: 2mcg (10%) calcium: mg (10%) iron: 0.1mg (1%) potassium: 166mg (4%)