I have never been much of a baker. I like to cook extravagant meals and experiment with savory recipes. Put a baking task in front of me and I am lost. Therefore, I usually only bust out the baking with a batch of Christmas cookies or Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pies. This year I decided to manipulate an already unique recipe for Earl Grey Tea Cookies with some Asian flair. Green Tea (Matcha) Cookies! I used Green Tea leaves that mom and dad had picked up while they were visiting Japan in the Spring.
I would have preferred to use some tea leaves and some Matcha powder but I only had the leaves, so I ground up the tea leaves using a Japanese mortar and pestle (Suribachi).
I again diverted from the recipe. It calls for 1 teaspoon of water but to get as much green tea flavour as possible, I figured it would be helpful to add 1 tablespoon of highly concentrated Green Tea (minus the leaves). On reflection, I probably would have added even more straight Tea for enhanced flavour and adjusted the flour ratio accordingly.
Cream the butter with all of the ingredients.
Roll dough into a long tube and store in the freezer for 30 minutes to half an hour. This will harden the dough enough so that cutting it will be easier. Cut into 1/4 inch slices.
Bake at about 350 - 375 for 10-14 minutes.
I got the original recipe from a blog entitled Kitchen Therapy. It was for Earl Grey Tea Cookies (which are also very delicious). I altered the recipe to look more like this:
Green Tea Cookies
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup icing sugar
2 - 4 tablespoons of Green Tea Leaves or Matcha Powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 - 4 tablespoons highly concentrated Green Tea
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup icing sugar
2 - 4 tablespoons of Green Tea Leaves or Matcha Powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 - 4 tablespoons highly concentrated Green Tea
1 cup unsalted butter
Happy Holidays Everyone!
xx
J
