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Tea is one of the best baking flavours there is, vivid, aromatic and built in colour in the case of matcha, and it is forgiving in a way tea cocktails are not. This sits in the cooking cluster beside cooking with tea.
The two ways tea gets into a bake
As a powder mixed into the dry ingredients, matcha is the obvious one, or finely ground black or Earl Grey leaf, which colours and flavours throughout. Or as an infusion, tea steeped into the milk, cream or butter a recipe already uses, the gentler route for delicate flavours. Most tea bakes are one of these two.
Matcha baking
Matcha is the superstar tea bake ingredient: vivid green, distinctive, and stable in heat. Use culinary or baking grade, not your good ceremonial tin, because the subtlety is lost in a bake and a robust grade tastes more of matcha, the grade logic from ceremonial vs culinary matcha and the matcha guide. Sieve it to avoid lumps, exactly as for a matcha latte.
Earl Grey and the infusion bakes
Earl Grey shortbread, Earl Grey cake and chai spiced bakes are modern classics, made by infusing the tea into the butter or milk, or grinding the leaf very fine and adding it directly. Bergamot survives baking beautifully, see the Earl Grey guide and Earl Grey cocktails for the same flavour in a glass.
Chai and spiced bakes
Chai spice, the cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, clove backbone, is a natural in cakes, biscuits and bakes, see the chai guide and chai recipes. A strong chai infusion or the ground spice blend turns an ordinary sponge into something distinctive.
The technique notes
Grind leaf as fine as possible if adding directly, or it is gritty. Infuse strong, because baking mutes flavour just as ice and alcohol do, the recurring cluster rule. And taste the infusion before committing it, since over steeped tea bakes in its bitterness permanently.
In a sentence
Tea baking is the most forgiving and rewarding way to cook with tea: matcha for colour and flavour, Earl Grey for bergamot elegance, chai for spice. Use the right grade, grind or infuse properly, and raid the matcha recipes and Earl Grey recipes for exact builds.
What you need to know: baking with tea
| Tea | Best route / note |
|---|---|
| Matcha | Powder into dry mix; culinary grade, sieve it |
| Earl Grey | Infuse into butter/milk or grind very fine; bergamot survives |
| Chai spice | Strong infusion or ground blend; cakes and biscuits |
| Direct leaf | Grind as fine as possible or it is gritty |
| Infusions | Brew strong, baking mutes flavour |
| Always | Taste the infusion, bitterness bakes in permanently |
Worth picking up: the matcha range and green tea range.
Reference noted
More baking reading
Continue with the matcha guide, matcha recipes, Earl Grey, chai and cooking with tea.
More from the tea wiki
- Green tea
- Black tea
- Oolong tea
- White tea
- Herbal tea
- Caffeine in tea
- How to make tea properly
- Loose leaf vs teabag
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