White Chocolate Matcha Tapioca Pudding is just like the creamy classic, but with a hint of green tea and sweetened with decadent white chocolate. This make ahead dessert is sure to become a family favorite!
How to make the best tapioca pudding
I wish I could say this is based on an old family recipe and how it was one of my favorite desserts growing up, but it’s not, so I can’t. My family never ate tapioca pudding, instead we indulged in fresh fruit picked off the trees in our backyard, but that’s how we used to roll in tropical south Florida.
I updated this classic dessert my way by turning it into a decadent White Chocolate Matcha Tapioca Pudding. Adding the white chocolate totally takes this simple dessert to a higher level of deliciousness. Makes me wish I grew up in a house where we ate tapioca pudding every Sunday night after dinner. Maybe I need to make it a new tradition in my house.
What is Matcha
Matcha is a finely ground green tea powder and it’s one of my favorite ingredients to use in desserts (like last year when I made these matcha snickerdoodle blondies). Lately, I’ve been jumping at the chance to make a tapioca pudding as an Easter dessert recipe and also think it’s an ideal way to highlight the matcha.
Matcha is a green tea powerhouse because the whole leaves are consumed, as opposed to just seeping the dried leaves and drinking the liquid. It’s loaded with all sorts of antioxidants and other health benefits. It helps lowering inflammation and blood pressure, alleviates depression, and even aids in weight loss. So it’s PERFECT in a dessert!)
Matcha does contain caffeine, so it you may not want to eat this dessert too close to bedtime. Tapioca pudding is sometimes eaten as a breakfast (no joke). After all, it does has whole eggs and milk in it and that sounds like a morning meal to me. I also make mine with organic milk, farm fresh eggs and this organic matcha green tea powder 
. If that’s not a legit breakfast, then I don’t know what is.
A different kind of chocolate pudding recipe
But what about the white chocolate? I use a high quality Valrhona chocolate and substituted a small amount of it for the white sugar typically in a traditional tapioca pudding. White chocolate may not have as many health benefits as my favorite dark, but it does have a few, so it’s not a total zero.
Love that this recipe is getting healthier and healthier by the minute…YAY to easy healthy desserts! (DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor…obviously)
How to choose the right tapioca balls
I feel as if this is one of my best easy dessert recipes, but it’s also because I love tapioca balls! I’m pretty addicted to bubble tea and love the large boba balls. These are the same, just smaller. I found out bubble tea was created by a woman, who worked as a brand manager for a tea house in Taiwan, mixed her Fen Yuan dessert (a Taiwanese tapioca pudding) into her iced tea. Guess now it’s kind of full circle with adding green tea to this tapioca pudding recipe.
Bob’s Red Mill Small Pearl Tapioca is the only one I use because it’s all natural.
Make this White Chocolate Matcha Tapioca Pudding as an Easter recipe this weekend or whenever the family wants a comforting, homemade dessert. Not a matcha fan? Leave it out for a white chocolate tapioca pudding!
- 1/2 cup small pearl tapioca
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 1/2 cups whole milk
- 2 teaspoons organic matcha green tea powder
- 3 ounces white chocolate , chips or chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 eggs , separated
Place 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup whole milk, and the tapioca pearls in a medium saucepan and stir well. Let the pearls soak at room temperature for 1 hour to soften.
Add the remaining 2 cups of milk to the pot and stir until thoroughly combined. Heat over medium heat and cook, while stirring frequently for about 10 minutes, or until mixture starts to simmer. Be careful and don't allow the mixture to boil. Reduce heat to low and whisk in the matcha powder, then stir in the white chocolate, vanilla extract, and salt.
Whisk the egg yolks in a medium sized bowl until smooth, about a minute. Temper the yolks by slowing whisking in a little of the hot milk tapioca mixture. Stir the tempered egg yolk into the tapioca mixture and cook uncovered, stirring frequently for about 15-20 minutes, or until the tapioca pearls have softened and the mixture thickens. Remove pan from the heat.
- Whisk the egg whites in a medium bowl until soft peaks form and gently fold them into the pudding while it's still hot. Allow to cool to room temperature (mixture will thicken once cooled), top with whipped cream and chopped pistachios (optional), and serve immediately.
- For chilled pudding: put mixture in a bowl or individual containers, cover, and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Whoa girl…this post is loaded with all kinds of info! Way to kick start the freakin’ day! I actually love tapioca pudding (though, I’ve never made it from scrath ma self). Some people don’t like those little pearls, but I do! I say this is a breakfast. I mean some people eat muffins for b fast and this is so much better, in my opinion. Throw some berries on there and way to go – oh and coffee – lots and lots of coffee. Speaking of which, we have been watching Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on Crackle again lately – you know, the one with Jerry Seinfeld? And ever since then I’ve been obsessed with drinking coffee. though, I’m usually always pretty obsessed with coffee, but now even more so. Anywho……kick ass dessert – love the matcha and white chocolate and I’m going to make this soon. We’ll see how the hubby like this compared to your triple chocolate one. Stay tuned sweets! XO
Wow! This looks delicious! Thank you for giving me a reason to eat pudding for breakfast :). I’ve never made tapioca from scratch but I think I just added it to my must-try list!
I haven’t had tapioca pudding since I was a kid ha! However, I do remember being the only kid to like it at the time haha. I like the white chocolate take on it!
Rice pudding and tapioca puddings were one of my favorites growing up. I’ve never once made them as an adult though! Time to change that, starting with your tapioca pudding! It looks super tasty!
Yes, please! I would love to start my day with some match white chocolate pudding! I can’t say that I grew up with this kind of dessert either, but it’s never too late for yummy new things, right? Especially when you top it with whipped cream and pistachios!
I’ve never tried tapioca/tapioca pudding in my life, Karrie! Is its texture resembles a chia pudding? And this combo of white chocolate and green tea is quite amazing. I’ve made donuts with both these ingredients, but I have a subtle feeling it’s not as healthy as this pudding:)
I shouldn’t read this stuff while drinking a damn V8.
No but seriously, I need to figure out a way to have white chocolate! I MUST EAT IT! IT IS SO TASTY!!!!!!! I just dunno how to get it in my face cause I can’t eat sugar or dairy and I feel like, that’s exactly what it is! hahaha!
LOVE this go-to recipe!!! so simple, this is seriously perfect for the workweek grind. Great one Keep sharing more this kind of recipes. Thank you Karrie for this one.
Tapioca pudding will ALWAYS make me think of my dad. He used to freggin’ LOVE that stuff. I’m talking, he could have made a meal out of just tapioca pudding. Obviously he would have raved over yours! I mean, this is some FANCY tapioca pudding!! Matcha AND white chocolate?! WHOA now! I could totally eat a few vats of this stuff! Thanks for all the 411 too… are you sure you aren’t a doctor??! Cheers, girl! xo
I’m not the biggest fan of white chocolate but I still devour it every chance I get, hoping to train my taste buds to love it My family never ate tapioca pudding either, I wonder why. Matcha is crazy healthy and delicious when used in desserts. This is a great dessert for Easter, thanks for sharing.
I always ate sago/tapioca as a kid – we ate it a lot when my parents travelled through malaysia and just sort of carried on always with lots of mango and lychees. I Loved this post so much good information on matcha that I had no idea about. Also the flavour in these puds has me drooling into my keyboard again. great post, thanks for sharing lovely x