Monthly Recipe: Matcha Mushi Pan (抹茶蒸しパン)

This month I wanted to use some of the ingredients I already had in the cupboard, and I wanted to make something sweet. One of the sweet snacks I used to enjoy from the convenience store in Japan was mushi pan, literally ‘steamed bread’ or ‘steamed cake’, and when I remembered that I decided to see if I could make mushi pan! After a bit of Googling I found this recipe on Just One Cookbook which seemed simple enough.

Matcha Mushi Pan (抹茶蒸しパン)

Ingredients (makes 8)

• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 6 tbsp plain yoghurt
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 130g/1 cup plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp matcha (green tea) powder

Method

First, wrap a frying pan lid with a tea towel. This will prevent condensation from falling on to the cakes while steaming. (Incidentally, I reckon you could make these in the microwave too, but I haven’t tried yet. It would be a lot less hassle, I think!)

Place four empty ramekins in the pan and pour water into the frying pan to halfway up the exterior of the ramekins. Take out the ramekins, cover the pan with the lid, and bring the water to the boil. (I did this with the tea towel still on the lid, but actually I think you could boil the water and then wrap the lid afterwards.)

Place a cupcake liner or muffin liner inside each ramekin. You’ll notice the recipe is for 8, but you only have 4 ramekins – this is because you are going to make two rounds.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and oil.

Add the honey and yoghurt and mix well.

Add the sugar and mix thoroughly.

Sift the flour and baking powder together and add into the egg mixture.

Sift the matcha powder and fold until the powder is well incorporated into the batter.

Pour the batter evenly into the four cupcake liners (remember to save half for the next round!).

When the water starts to boil place the ramekins inside the pan. Cover with the lid and steam over a medium-low heat for 12-14 minutes.

To test if the steam cake is ready, insert a skewer in the centre of the cake and see if it comes out clean. Don’t cook for too long or the cakes will become hard!

Remove the cakes from the pan (this is where muffin liners work better than ordinary cupcake liners – you have something to get hold of). Repeat with the rest of the mixture.

Leave cakes to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

They came out pretty well I think! They looked better as they were cooking than they did in the end (smoother and paler), and I wonder if a bit of the moisture got into them as they could be lighter and fluffier. I think I will experiment with this recipe, but this was definitely not bad for a first try! Having looked around online there seems to be all sorts of creative things you can do with mushi pan. I’d like to try these Kiroitori Mushi Pan next time!

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I’ll be back in June with a new recipe! If you have any suggestions, or perhaps you would like me to try one of your recipes from a book or website, please leave a comment below or get in touch! All the recipes I try on this blog have some connection to Japan and, because I don’t eat meat, they need to be vegetarian or pescetarian. I’m particularly interested in helping to promote Japanese recipe books, so do let me know if you have one I might like!