Matcha Tea Cookies

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PRESENTATION

Recipe by
Rosalinda Mariotti

Who doesn't like a good butter cookie? No one! Even better if they are deliciously glazed with Matcha Tea, and shaped in the silhouette of a tea bag like these Matcha Tea cookies. For an even more fun celebration, you could personalize the tea bag tags with a monogram, or a special custom design. These cookies are super cute, and make a great project for kids and adults alike.

If you want to prepare different kind of cookies for your teatime, have a look to the following recipes:

 

INGREDIENTS

For cookie dough
Flour 3 cups (360 g) - all-purpose unbleached
Butter 1 cup (220 g) - Unsalted, cubed and chilled (2 sticks)
Granulated sugar ¾ cup (175 g)
Eggs 2 - large
Vanilla extract 2 tsp (8 g)
Citrus zest 2 tsp (9 g) - (lime or lemon)
Baking powder ½ tsp (2.4 g)
Salt ½ tsp (2.5 g) - Kosher
for Matcha Tea icing
Powdered sugar 4 cups (440 g)
Matcha Tea powder 4 tbsp (25 g) - or to taste
Whole milk - As needed to the desired consistency approx 1/3 C
Corn Syrup 2 tbsp (28 g) - Optional, but makes the icing glossy and luscious
Sanding sugar to taste - optional

Prepare the dough

Place all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and zest if using) in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to mix about 5 times.

Mix the eggs with the vanilla in a small bowl and set aside.

Scatter the diced and chilled butter over the flour mix, cover with lid, and pulse until the butter has been incorporate into the flour and it forms little chucks the size of peas.

Feed the eggs through the lid into the dough and pulse until the mass comes together around the blades.

Remove the cookie dough, it will be soft.

Lightly dust it and place it in a zip lock, and in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

Now prepare a flat surface on which to roll the dough, and lightly dust it with flour.

Once the dough is chilled enough, cut it in half (this will make about 12 cookies).

You can freeze the rest if too much.

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Using a rolling pin, on a flat surface, roll out the dough to about 3 mm (1/8")

With the pairing knife cut several parallel lines, this will be the width of the cookie you desire.

Cut each strip vertically at intervals of about 3". This will be the length of the cookie.

With the pairing knife cut off the two top corners of each rectangle and with the large (boba straws are perfect) straw, cut out a hole in the middle .

Place the cookies on a lined baking sheet. About one inch apart from each other.

Bake for about 12 minutes rotating the pan half way through.

The cookies should be lightly golden on the bottom, and pale on top. 

Will harden as they cool, but if they are too soft you can bake them for another minute.

Repeat with the remaining dough if desired.

Icing and final touches

Once the cookies have cooled down to room temperature you can glaze them:

Mix all the icing ingredients in a bowl, the icing should not be too runny.

Dunk one cookie at a time, about 1/3 of the way and place it flat on a cooling rack. Repeat with the other cookies.

If you want extra "sparkles" you can alway sprinkle sanding sugar on the icing!

Wait until the cookies are dry before you loop the tea tags (twine) around the hole.

For your convenience here's a template for the teabag tags. You can use this over any colored paper. Works like a charm, just cut it in half, insert the twine of approximately 10 inches lenghts and glue the two parts with non toxic glue.


Easy peasy, fun craft with kids!

How to store

The cookies fair very well at room temperature for a day or two or in the refrigerator for 7 days.

If you decide to freeze them after cooking, do not glaze them until defrosted.

Also, you can always freeze the cookied dough for a later use, for up to 3 months.

Advice

Before you get started, just a few tips:

To avoid dry cookies, is important to measure the flour as follows:

  - scoop the flour onto the measuring cup, piling it over the rim

  - level it off with a knife, run flash with the rim, to eliminate the excess

  - use measuring cups for dry ingredients only.

To get the perfect consistency: the eggs should be large, or the amount of liquids could be too much (extra large egg) or too little (medium egg).

It is better not to use salted butter when baking: salt content is unknown in salted butter, and could be as much as 1 tsp per stick, compromising the overall flavor of the recipe.

Finally, one piece of advice on Matcha: the Matcha Tea powder, when baked, tends to turn brown, that is why we don't put it in the cookie dough. It is much more flavorful only in the icing, also its color shines!