Matcha Gâteau Basque with matcha & red bean filling

Name: Matcha Gâteau Basque
Prep time: 80 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 120 min
Ingredients: 1 serving Matcha Pastry Cream; 200 g red bean paste; 180 g all purpose flour; 15 g matcha powder; 160 g butter (soften); 130 g light brown sugar; 80 g almond flour; 2 g salt; 2 g baking powder; 1 egg

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Matcha Gâteau Basque tastes like a tart, a giant cookie, or a crumbly mooncake with matcha pastry cream and sweet red bean paste filling. This treat is meant to be shared. The creation of this recipe was inspired by the anticipation of the Mid-autumn Festival (中秋節), a time when my family would come together, watching moon over a BBQ feast, followed by the sharing of mooncakes and pomelos.

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What is Matcha?
What is Gâteau Basque?
Ingredients in Matcha Gâteau Basque
How to make Matcha Gâteau Basque?
Equipment
Recipe Tips
Recipe FAQ
Recipe Card

What is Matcha?

Matcha is finely powdered green tea that’s made from shade-grown tea leaves. The quality of matcha can be judged by its color—brighter greens often indicate higher quality and freshness. When using matcha for baking, I prefer trusted brands, particularly those from Kyoto or labeled as ceremonial grade matcha since its quality will directly impact my creation. Matcha is sensitive to factors like humidity, light, and heat. To maintain the strong taste and vivid green I desire, it is important to use high-quality matcha, such as Aorashi from Marukyu Koyamaen (丸久小山園) and Ummon from Ippodo (一保堂). Those two kind of matcha, in my opinion, are very rich and more affordable than others from the same brands.

What is Gâteau Basque?

Gâteau in French means cake or food made in the form of a cake. Gâteau Basque is a traditional dessert hailing from the Basque Country, a region close to the border of France and Spain. This pastry is known for its rich, buttery, and slightly crumbly texture. It is typically filled with black cherry jam or pastry cream.

Ingredients in Matcha Gâteau Basque

Butter - Butter contributes a rich, buttery flavor that is vital for Gâteau Basque. It also helps creating the cake's crumbly texture.
Light Brown Sugar - Using light brown sugar instead of white sugar adds the moisture to the cake and prevent it from drying out. Light brown sugar also provides a mild caramel flavor due to the molasses.
Almond Flour - Almond flour has a finely ground, powdery texture that helps create a soft and tender crumb in Gâteau Basque.
Matcha Powder - Besides the information about matcha’s grade I mentioned above, another thing to keep in mind is mixing. Matcha powder clogs easily just like cocoa powder, so in this recipe we are sifting the matcha with flour beforehand. You can also switch matcha powder to all-purpose flour if you prefer original flavor.
All Purpose Flour - Flour is the body, the structure and foundation of Gâteau Basque. It holds the dough together and maintain its structure during rolling and shaping
Egg - Eggs acts as a binding agent, helping maintain Gâteau Basque’s tenderness. The proteins in eggs can trap and stabilize air, so it makes the cake lighter. Be ware that adding too much egg might make the dough too soft and hard to shape.
Baking Powder - Even with eggs, the recipe still calls for a small amount of baking powder for a tender crumbly structure.

Red Bean Paste (Anko) - Traditionally, Gâteau Basque has pastry cream and cherry compote filling. Today I fill it with red bean paste which is commonly found to pair matcha in Japan. I use Ogura An canned red bean paste to save time. It has semi-chunky-semi-smooth texture, which is perfect for Gâteau Basque.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Matcha Gâteau Basque?

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

The Matcha Pastry Cream should be ready in the fridge. (Recipe and step by step instructions are in the link.)

Sift matcha powder and all purpose flour together.

Cream soften butter, light brown sugar with a paddle attachment until pale and fluffy.

Scrape down bowl. Add all the dry ingredients, including matcha, all purpose flour, almond flour, salt, baking powder, then mix. The dough should form after this step.

Add egg and mix on low speed until just combined.

Divide dough into 2 equal portions, and roll out between a silicone mat and plastic wrap. You should get two evenly flat circle on separate silicone mats. One is about 8”, the other one is around 9”.

Place the dough into freezer for 5 minutes. Prepare the filling and egg wash while you’re waiting.

Gently mold the bigger dough around the pan, and press around the edge to make sure the dough is touching the corner too. You can use a plastic wrap to press the dough too. If the dough cracks, simply press and connect it back. Let it rest in the freezer for 3 minutes.

Cut the excess dough with a paring knife.

Spread the red bean paste in a even layer.

Spread the matcha pastry cream evenly on top of red bean paste. Leave a ¼ inch of space for top.

Place second dough on top of the pan, and cut the excess dough by rolling over with a lightly floured rolling pin.

Brush top surface all over with egg wash.

Using the tines of a fork, gently carve a decorative pattern onto the surface.

Poke some holes on top to release the air out during baking.

Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes.

Let the cake cool completely to room temperature before cutting.

Equipment

The silicon baking mats I use are from Amazon Basic. They are cheap and very reliable.

Recipe Tips

Don’t overfill! I know you want to add enough filling, or use all the pastry cream here, but overfilling might lead to explosion during baking. On the other hand, adding too little filling might lead to a dented top. The amount of filling should be just enough to hold the cover.

Pastry cream for filling should be denser than usual! The Matcha Pastry Cream recipe is already adjusted to be denser for filling like this. The cooking might also impact the texture of pastry cream.

Plastic wrap is your friend here! When rolling out the dough, flouring the surface might seem very messy, and cleaning seem unavoidable. Using plastic wrap can save you some of the job, so keep it on the side.

Recipe FAQ

Can I use other kind of sweet paste or don’t add paste at all?

Yes, you can replace the red bean paste to lotus seed paste (蓮蓉), Chinese sweet bean paste (豆沙), even ube paste…. or simply add more matcha pastry cream.

Can I freeze the cake before baking?

One of the best thing about this recipe is that you can freeze it at any stage. You can freeze the dough before or after it’s rolled out. You can freeze the whole unbaked cake with filling inside. Normally most of the recipes tell people not to freeze the pastry cream because the cornstarch can break down during the freezing process, but the matcha pastry cream here is made of flour only, so it is freezable!

Why do you add egg at the end instead of after creaming step?

Most of the recipe add the egg right after creaming butter and sugar. I like to add the dry ingredients when making this kind of dough because of my baking habit from commercial experience. Adding eggs at the end can prevent overmix when making bigger batch. The final results are no difference.

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