gluten-free matcha steamed cakes

I've been really inspired lately to steam a dessert, especially as I have no oven. I also like to keep things gluten free when possible, and I can buy almond flour from my local grocery store here in Kanazawa.

This recipe for a gluten-free steamed pudding with a rhubarb sauce sounds really good, and I hope to make that soon. However, in the meantime, I wanted something small to start with--something in individual sizes and not too time consuming.

Enter Just One Cookbook's green tea steamed cakes. After making her very more-ish kimchi fried rice recently, I knew her recipes were probably all amazing!


Matcha powder and sweet red beans are easy to come by in Japan, so all I had to do was change out a few ingredients to make it a little friendlier for our eating habits.

I mixed up the batter, put half in the bottom of the cupcake liner, put in a spoonful of sweet (organic) red beans, and then covered it with the rest of the batter.

I loved Just One Cookbook's idea to wrap a towel around the lid of the pan--it kept the condensation from coming back down on to the cakes.


The link to Just One Cookbook's recipe is above, and here is how I changed it a bit.

You'll need:

• 1 egg
• 1 T. melted butter
• 1 T. honey
• 2 T. soy milk
• 1 T. sugar
• 1/2 C. almond flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1 t. matcha (bitter green tea powder)
• sweet red bean paste or sweet red beans 

Do this:

Wrap your frying pan lid with a towel. Put four ramekins into the empty pan, put water in halfway up the ramekins, then remove the ramekins again and put cupcake liners in them. Start boiling your water.

While you're doing that, whisk the egg, butter, honey, milk, and sugar in a bowl, then sift in the baking powder and matcha powder.

Spoon some batter in the bottom of each cupcake liner, dollop in a spoonful of sweet red beans, and cover with the rest of the batter.

Steam for 12-14 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in comes out clean. The bottom of the cupcake will be a bit squidgy because the beans sink to the bottom, but they are completely delightful. (Just One Cookbook serves the red beans as a topping after the cakes are finished cooking.)

Itadakimasu!