My neighbor gave me recipe for a sweet bread that featured a ton of cinnamon and strawberries using oil, not butter. As soon as I tasted it, I thought to myself "well, if cinnamon tastes good, wouldn't Macha taste fabulous!"

Although Naoto says banana goes well with Macha, I thought I'd try fresh apricots. (dried would do just as well probably)

The result: YUM!!!! All members of this family including picky girl2 liked the muffins. My neighbor (who doesn't have a Japanese influenced palate) also liked them.

I like them because I added wheat germ, switched out the sugar and used honey instead, and the original recipe calls for oil, not butter, so it's perfect for a family with a cholesterol problem (Naoto)

Here's the recipe as I made it:

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/8 cup wheat germ
2 tablespoons macha powder (original recipe called for cinnamon)
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup and 2 tbspn honey (original recipe called for 11/2 cup sugar. You might want to up the honey if your family is used to sweet, my family has become used to low sugar)
1 cup oil (I successfully used olive and canola)
2 cups apricots (I used fresh, the original recipe called for fresh strawberries, which would go well with macha or cinnamon. Don't use gloppy frozen!)
1/4 cup nuts (I used pecans because that's what I had)

I imagine adding white chocolate chips would also be fabulous, but would up the sugar content, of course.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Beat honey, oil, vanilla and eggs together in a bowl. Add flour, wheat germ, macha, and baking soda and stir just until mixed.
Carefully stir in nuts and fruit. Grease or use baking cups in mini muffin tin (I use minis so I can eat two at a time!). Fill with batter to the top. Bake for 15-18 minutes (maybe 20 minutes for a regular size muffin).

Enjoy :)