Nope, that is not a picture of cookies. I know. I normally don’t forget to take pictures of things I baked, but this time I did. So I am leaving you with hungry eyes today. And I’m sorry if now I’ve gotten the song in your head — for those too young to recall (I’m looking at you millenials out there!), Hungry Eyes was a song from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Look it up on YouTube. Anyway, because I forgot to take a picture of my cookies, I posted a picture of a random beagle demonstrating “hungry eyes” instead…
I love beagles. But anyway…on to the cookies!
I made white chocolate chip green tea cookies as part of a gift for my office Secret Santa gift exchange, and wanted to make only a small batch because they were just for him and his wife. The recipe I got from Two Red Bowls was perfect. It made just about 18 cookies. I added white chocolate chips to add a bit of sweetness and to break up all the green, and used 3/4 tablespoon of matcha. Next time I will probably kick this up to 1 tablespoon and leave out the almond extract because I think the almond extract distracts from the matcha flavor.
The recipe was originally for green tea swirl cookies, but she was nice enough to include a recipe just for non-swirled cookies and that’s what I used.
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Matcha Shortbread Cookies (adapted from Two Red Bowls)
- 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 6 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
- 1 egg yolk (optional)
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tablespoon matcha powder (increase for a stronger matcha flavor)
- 1/8 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips (optional)
Cream butter and sugar, then add yolk (if using) and extract and beat again.
In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients and add to wet in batches, mixing until dough forms
Stir in white chocolate chips (if using).
Roll the dough into a log and chill for about an hour.
Slice into rounds and bake at 350 for 10 minutes for mini’s, 12 minutes for regular.
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The flavor was excellent, but I was missing the bitterness that screams matcha. Like I said, I will probably leave out the almond extract next time I make these. I could probably tweak it a little more too until I come up with just the right blend… Work in progress!
