It’s so fun to try out a new cookie recipe for the holiday season! To continue our Christmas-themed month, we were inspired to make some simple matcha cookies! It’s no surprise that matcha powder has become our latest ingredient to experiment with!
We enjoyed this Martha Stewart recipe because the shortbread dough was very smooth and easy to work with. The cookies were rather rich and buttery in aroma and flavour, so the next time we may adjust the amount of butter we use. Also, in the future, we might opt to use premium matcha powder which may give the cookies a more distinct ‘green’ colour, such as the ones here.
To decorate the cookies, we used chocolate melting wafers which are easy to melt and ideal for piping. If you want to make these cookies extra special, you can use multi-coloured melting wafers for the ‘ornaments’ on the matcha trees.
This is a quick and easy recipe that would be especially fun to make for a Christmas baking party with friends! Ricelessasian and I can attest that baking parties are the best kind of parties 😉
Hope your Christmas is filled with buttery goodness,
-Matchachoco
Green Tea Shortbread ‘Leaves’
Recipe from Martha Stewart
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
2 tablespoons matcha powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, or granulated sugar
Directions
- Sift together flour, matcha powder, and salt into a small bowl; set aside.
- In a separate bowl, cream butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 3 to 5 minutes. Add sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy.
- Add the flour mixture. Combine until the flour is just incorporated and dough is formed.
- Place a piece of parchment paper on a flat surface and dust the parchment paper with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll dough to ¼- inch thickness. Refrigerate or freeze the dough until it is firm, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F during this time.
- Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut chilled dough with cookie cutters and transfer them to the baking sheets. Chill until firm.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the cookies are firm and barely starting to colour. Cool cookies on a wire rack. The cookies can be stored in an airtight contained for up to 3 to 4 weeks.
Decorative Icing
Full instructions can be found here.
Ingredients
White chocolate melting wafers
Yellow melting wafers
For the double-boiler method:
- Fill a large pot with water and place it on the stove. Let the water come to a slow simmer. Place a large glass bowl on top of the pot. The bowl should be large enough that it sits on the rim of the pot and the bottom of it does not touch the simmering water.
- Place the chocolate wafers into the glass bowl. Occasionally stir them with a heat-proof spatula as the wafers begin to melt. Stirring the wafers will encourage them to break down and melt completely.
- Cool the melted chocolate for 2-3 minutes. Place the melted chocolate in piping bags and decorate the cookies. When the chocolate cools, it will harden again and must be reheated.
