When I had a tea shop, I used to do tea tasting/classes on Saturday afternoons. One was about mint. We examined peppermint, spearmint, and wintergreen, and then tasted a variety of teas and tisanes that we blend with the various mint leaves and extracts.

My wife, Kathy, decided that since it was a couple of days before Christmas, we should have a special treat. We’ve done a fair amount of cooking with tea, especially matcha (you can browse through some of the recipes here), and we have a brand-new peppermint matcha at the shop, so she decided to do a quick and easy matcha fudge.

It’s a white chocolate bakeless recipe; Kathy calls it “cheater” fudge.

Ingredients

• 16 oz white chocolate
• 1 ten-oz (300 ml) can of sweetened condensed milk
• A pinch of salt
• 2 tsp unsweetened matcha (we used the Maghreb Mint from Phoenix Pearl)
• 1/2 cup of chopped unsalted almonds

Process

1. Combine the white chocolate and condensed milk in a double boiler over simmering water (a microwave works too). Stir regularly and make sure everything is completely melted.
2. Stir in the matcha and pinch of salt. Blend it very thoroughly and make sure there are no little patches of dry matcha powder left.
3. Once it’s completely smooth, pour into a greased 8×8 inch baking dish.
4. Sprinkle the nuts over the top, and press them down gently to make sure they’re well attached.
5. Chill overnight in the fridge, (at least three hours) and then cut into small pieces (about 1″ to 1-1/2″ square)

You can use this same process with other flavored matcha, although you probably won’t want to use sweet matchas designed for lattes.