Matcha Cheesecake, Apologies and an Announcement

Hello everyone!

First comes the apologies - I know I've been an extremely bad blogger this year/summer. Yes, I promised that I'd post more frequently after IB was over...but who knew that summer was going to fly past so fast?

Which leads me into the "announcement" - in the blink of an eye, I am about to embark on the next phase of my journey in life. In two days' time, I will be leaving Hong Kong for university (college) in...wait for it...*drum roll*....Montreal, Canada! So My Buttery Fingers will be moving it's base kitchen over there too!

My last month was basically filled with shopping for clothes and supplies, seeing friends off, packing things, sorting out things for college, helping out at my church's English class and a camp - hence the lack of blogging.

I really don't know what the state of my "kitchen" in Montreal will be like - will there be an oven? An electric mixer? Are there spatulas around? It's impossible that I move my tools over there so I'll just have to make do with what's waiting for me there. I'll most likely be on a much tighter budget for groceries as an overseas student, so it would be necessary to save up for baking :(

As for the recipe for this post, I bring you this baked Matcha Cheesecake I made quite awhile ago. It's from a Japanese cookbook dedicated to cheesecakes my sister gave me for my last last birthday, which she insisted I bake from. This cheesecake is not too rich but still has a great creamy texture. The matcha taste stands out quite well - with it's always refreshing taste, it makes these luscious squares fit for eating in summer.

The recipe also comes with a white chocolate topping on top, but I found it quite unnecessary as the taste didn't stand out quite well and baked into quite an unattractive colour! I would omit it next time.

Hope you'll all enjoy this for now! Next post will be from Canada (land of maple syrup, yay) !

Matcha (Green Tea) Cheesecake
Adapted from Cheese Cake Book by Junko Fukuda, Yasuyo Shida and Kumiko Yanase (Original Recipe in Chinese)

Base
80g Digestive biscuits, crushed into fine crumbs
30g Unsalted butter, melted

Filling
250g Cream cheese
80g + 2 tsp Sugar (measure separately)
50g Whipping cream
1 Egg
1 tbsp Flour
2 tsp Matcha powder
1tbsp Brandy (I used rum)

White Chocolate Topping
20g Whipping cream
100g White chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C.
2. Mix digestive biscuit crumbs with melted butter, press into 8-in square pan. Chill until the filling is prepared.
3. Using a mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth and creamy. Beat the egg in a separate bowl and mix it into the cream cheese mixture. Sift in the flour and combine.
4. Set aside 25g of the cream cheese batter. Beat in the brandy, matcha powder and the 2tsp of sugar into the remaining batter. Pour in the matcha batter into the pan, smoothen the top and chill until needed.
5. Place the cream and white chocolate into separate microwaveable bowls. Nuke the cream for 10-20 seconds until very hot, and the chocolate for 20 seconds. Mix the hot cream into the chocolate and blend well. Set aside until cool, and then mix in the previously set aside cream cheese batter.
6. Drizzle or pipe the white chocolate batter onto the matcha batter into a pattern. There might be some leftover white chocolate batter. Bake the cheesecake for 35-40 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan until it reaches room temperature, chill for 2-3 hours. Remove from the pan and cut into squares.