Matcha Gold Passionfruit Bonbons in Dark Chocolate

Once again, I’ve recently given up “hard” caffeine ( i.e coffee and black tea ) in an attempt to restore some natural energy balance to my body. It was not as hard as I thought it would be and I think matcha tea is to thank for that!

I’ve been playing with different varieties of matcha and found an excellent company in London, Lalani & Co., who supplies all sorts of teas, but some really excellent Matcha powders too. In this recipe I am using Matcha Gold which is a bright green matcha powder with a creamy texture ( when made into a hot tea ). Using matcha in cooking is perhaps a little gimmicky, really. It’s the vibrant green colour that made me want to play with it and the fact that it’s been my savour over the past 4 weeks. Gotta give it props.

These little bonbons are the perfect combo of earthy green tea, sweet and tart passionfruit and creamy coconut wrapped up in rich, dark chocolate. The dark chocolate really does bring it all together in the mouth, mixing beautifully with all the flavours and balancing out the intensity.

These bonbons are a breeze to make and, as you can see, require very few ingredients. You could easily sub out the passionfruit powder for any freeze dried fruit powder you like. If you can’t easily source freeze dried fruit, you can simply do a citrus layer by using lots of lemon, lime or orange zest instead. Feel free to mix up the sweeteners, I used honey to keep the colour in tact, but you could use maple too.

Matcha Lemon Layer

50g ( ¼ cup ) coconut butter, melted
1 tsp honey
½ tsp matcha tea powder
1 tsp lemon zest

Method

• Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and set to the side while you prepare the passionfruit layer.

Passionfruit Layer

50g ( ¼ cup ) coconut butter, melted
1 tsp honey
1 tsp freeze dried passionfruit powder
3 drop vanilla medicine flower extract ( or ¼ tsp vanilla powder )

Method

• Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

Layering

• Using a silicone mould of your choosing, fill each cavity half way with the matcha layer. This is the mould I used, but you can use any shape you like.

• Once all cavities are filled, tap the mould against the tabletop to remove air bubbles.

• Fill the mould the rest of the way with the next layer and, again, tap the mould once all cavities are filled to remove air bubbles.

• Set them in the fridge for about 15 minutes or until firmed.

• While they are setting, melt down your chocolate or cacao paste to enrobe them.

• Here’s for a video on how to melt down chocolate and use it to enrobe.

amy-levin-raw-chocolate-enrobing from Amy Levin on Vimeo.

• Garnish with a dusting of matcha tea powder ( after the chocolate has set ), a pinch of passionfruit powder or click here and buy some lovely flower petals, as I used in the photo.