Matcha Shortbread Cookies

A few weeks ago, while doing my weekly shopping I stumbled upon a packet of matcha tea. Up to that point I’ve only read about this ingredient and hardly had one cold matcha drink at a popular Chinese restaurant. But I’ve never dared to try using this ingredient in any of my dishes or baking for that matter. Then I had the opportunity to use it in one of my recipes that I'm yet to have an opportunity to post. I very much enjoyed working with it and thought of making this ingredient the star of my next recipe.

I so happened to be on a sugar-free and alcohol-free November. With my husband, we thought about given this diet a try. Not that we are big drinkers or anything. We may on occasion have a beer every other weekend. As for sugar, with all the baking and cooking I’ve been doing lately we’ve had our fair share of sugar intake. So, this particular “free month” was a welcome opportunity to perform a proper detox and challenge ourselves. And this change in behaviour have also helped me to consider different food alternative to potentially have a lower sugar intake or none at all.

 

Whilst browsing the net to look for interesting recipes I came across this matcha short bread recipe. It does contain sugar but for the occasion it was alright as this was to be a share plate that we were offering a friend. The recipe was fairly simple and straight forward. But I was nevertheless scared to overpower the short bread cookie with the matcha flavour. And the fact that I’ve never previously worked with matcha as the main ingredient got me really nervous. However, I took on the challenge as I always do which is to give it a try and if it didn’t work then to try again and again until I got it right.

 

As with most of my recipe I tried to get some historical background to visualise in what context the ingredient was first used. We all know by now that matcha was invented/created in China. It is a finely ground powder made from green tea leaves and has been used for centuries, dating back to the Tang dynasty. It has a uniquely earthy and bitter taste and is now as popular as the like of kale, chia seeds or even goji berries. And from what I’ve read the tea leaves are steamed, then dried and finally grounded into powder to make that vividly green powder that a lot of us have now consumed in some ways, shape or form.

 

Satisfied with the background and the health benefit of the product I got on with attempting to recreate I recipe I’ve discovered on the yammies noshery blog. It was fairly straight forward and easy. And I was photographing each step I could tell just by looking at the vibrant colours that it could only taste as good as it looked. And I was not surprised to get some really nice comments from my friend about the flavour combination of the matcha and dark chocolate. But the best compliment was when my daughter and her little friend kept asking for more cookies. Now I’m unsure whether they were more interested with the chocolate dipping or the matcha cookies. However, considering that each time they asked for more their bowl were completely empty, I can only conclude that this recipe was the total package for them.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Bon appétit!

 

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 2 teaspoons matcha powder
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup white chocolate chips

 

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 190ºC  Mix together the butter and matcha until smooth. Add the sugar and mix until smooth. Add the vanilla and egg and mix just until combined. 
     
2. Mix together the dry ingredients and mix together just until combined. 
   
3. Scoop rounded spoonfuls onto an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 7 minutes or until the edges just begin to look a little brown. Allow to cool before dipping in chocolate.
           
4. Melt the chocolate chips in two separate bowls (turn the microwave power down by 50% and stir every 30 seconds). 
 
5. Dip half the cookies in the white chocolate and the other half in the semi-sweet and place them on parchment paper. Then drizzle the remaining chocolate on top. Sprinkle with a little more matcha powder if you want.