Matcha Green Tea Shortbread Cookies
Before having kids, I said I would start making cookies and cakes for them. My son was born and I made his baby food with my reliable baby food maker every single day up until he was big enough to be served adult food. The cookies and cakes never materialized from my oven. Mother duties took me away from my desire to be a baker mom.
My daughter came next and with two kids running me down, that desire was
shelved and accumulated dust. Things shifted again when I saw the
beautiful green tea cookies
of Nami in Just One Cookbook. I had been wanting to use my open
canister of Matcha green tea. I don't want to discover it in the
cupboard already past its shelf life and still half full. That small
100 g. canister made a dent in my food budget at €25. Even if I didn't
have the time to start baking, I never stopped browsing the multitude
photos of cakes & cookies at the internet. When I came across these lavender shortbread cookies, I knew I found the recipe to jumpstart my approach to baking.
It was simple enough to follow, uses the right amount of sugar (like
her, I don't like anything that's too sweet) and I love shortbread
cookies. I just switched the lavender with green tea.
Thinking of both kids, I cut out some airplanes and different sizes of circles to amuse them. I was both nervous and excited about my first trial to baking cookies. Everything went smoothly with just one mistake from my part. I didn't think the cookies would be needing big spaces from each other that when they cooked, they were touching each other. Other than that, the sweetness, the consistency and the taste were just how I had hoped they would be.
This experience inspired me and at the moment, I am looking at other cookie recipes to try. Something more natural in color perhaps. As much as Riccardo loves drinking green tea, he refuses to open his mouth for these green tea cookies. However much I insisted that it's genuine green tea, all-natural, healthy and even shaped like airplanes, zilch. Nothing. Sigh. His excitement deflated when he saw my green concoctions coming out of the oven. I keep on forgetting that he doesn't like strangely colored food. Blue rice balls, violet potato pancakes, green cookies, what else can his Mom come up with to terrorize him?
I love eating shortbread cookies with hot tea and this is no exception.
Sit down, have a cup of hot tea and eat these green tea cookies.
Matcha Green Tea Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients:Yields about 30
- 225 grams soft butter, at room temperature
- 100 grams sugar + some for sprinkling
- 325 grams flour
- pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons Matcha green tea
- Beat together the butter and sugar until the mixture becomes creamy.
- Add the flour, salt & Matcha green tea. Mix well.
- Shape the mixture into a ball with your hands then flatten into a flat disc. Cover and chill for at least 20 minutes.
- Once chilled, roll out the dough so that it’s 3/4 cm. or 1/4 inch thick.
- Cut out into small circles or whatever shape you feel like and place them on baking trays with ample space in between. Sprinkle with a little extra sugar.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius or until they feel sandy on top and have the slightest hint of colour on the edges.
- Allow to cool on the tray.
