茶通（ちゃつう）
Chatsu / Baked Bun with Green Tea Flavor

This is a simple sweet coupled with a thin bun flavored with green tea and a ball of sweet bean paste. (Cooking Time: about 1 hour)

Ingredients (for 10 eaches)

Wheat Flour	80 g + extra
Baking Powder	1/2 ts.
抹茶 Matcha /Powdered Green Tea	1 ts.
Egg White	1 each
Sugar	50 g
濃し餡 Koshi-An /Strained Sweet Bean Paste	300 g
煎茶 Sencha /Green Leaf Tea (for garnish)	suitable amount

Directions

1. Sieve wheat flour with baking powder and Matcha twice.
2. Whip egg white and add suger, until it become very soft meringue.
3. Add #1 into #2 and mix them lightly but not squeeze. When the dry powders disappear, cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let sit for 30 minutes. If the dough is firm, add and mix some water into it.
4. Grease griddle and warm to about 150 F-degrees.
5. Divide Koshi-An paste into 10 balls.
6. Make a layer of extra wheat flour in a tray and pour #3 into the tray. Add extra flour on your hand and knead the green dough lightly until it becomes softer than the softness of your earlobe. Divide the dough into 10 balls and cover the #5 Koshi-An balls with the dough in the same way of Mushi Manju.
7. Put some leaves of green tea on the griddle. Put the #6 balls on the tea leaves and push them down lightly with a spatula until the thickness reaches around 1/2 inches. Turn up heat to 320 F-degrees until it is fully cooked. When the sides are browned and the edges are soft but not overly sticky, pick them up from the griddle, and serve.

Notes & Arrangements

• In the case that someone do not like green tea, it is okay that you do not add Matcha and Sencha into this recipe.
• Some recipes about this sweet opened in internet mention about the Koshi-An mixed with some amount of black sesami seeds. The taste will become more aromatic if you roast them before mixing.
• I use a frying pan instead of the griddle. In this case, there is no problem if you find suitable heating range of the stove to bake the sweets well.
• The greasing is not needed if the griddle has been treated not to stick on the surface.
• Please keep the wetness of the dough balls before baking, because the dried dough is raw at the edges of the sweet even after baking on the griddle.
• You can preserve this sweet in a sealed box for several days. The bun is crispy at first, and becomes moist after a day because of the water in the stuffed Koshi-An ball.

References

1. The recipe of Chatsu in the Japanese sweets cooking of the Urasenke Tea Ceremony class at Japan House (Autumn, 2003).