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!