Matcha Butter Cookies

5 min readSep 23, 2015

High tea cookies for the summer

Matcha Butter Cookies

I hadn’t planned on baking for a while, but my friend Cory wanted to practice food styling and asked me to make some food for him to photograph. Because the end of summer has been hot and humid in Berkeley, I decided to bake some light, green tea cookies to cool us down.

The recipe is a twist on the classic butter cookie and has a light but firm texture perfect for dipping in milk or tea or enjoying straight from the plate.

Ingredients

2½ cups Unbleached Flour
2 tbsp Matcha (green tea) Powder
1 tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Salt

1½ sticks or 12 tbsp Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1 cup Sugar
2 medium Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

¼ cup Sugar

0

Preheat your oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with sufficient parchment paper.

1

In one bowl, sift together 2½ cups unbleached flour, 2 tbsp matcha (green tea) powder, 1 tsp baking powder, and ¼ tsp salt.

2

In another bowl, beat 12 tbsp unsalted butter (sitting at room temperature) and 1 cup sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add in 2 medium eggs (beaten) and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

3

Fold the ingredients of the two bowls together so that the dry and wet ingredients are fully incorporated. The dough should stick together nicely in a ball but should not be overly wet nor dry.

4

Roll the dough into two round logs about 1½" in diameter using saran wrap and leave them in the freezer for about 30–40 minutes or until the logs are firm. The goal is for the logs to be hard enough to cut without sacrificing the shape.

While most people may choose to make their logs perfectly round, I prefer to flatten one side a little so that the cookie is closer to a rectangular shape with rounded edges when cut. I find the shape to be easier to eat when dipping in tea or milk.

5

Remove the logs from the saran wrap and lightly roll the logs to remove any imperfections. Remember the edges too! This would also be the time to manipulate the logs to attain your desired shape after it is cut. If you take too long on this step, the dough will soften.

6

Roll the logs in ¼ cup sugar so that the sugar is evenly incorporated along the outside of the logs. The sugar will create a slightly crunchy texture on the edges of the cookies. Although I used regular white sugar, you may choose to use sugar with larger crystals for more of a crunch or for aesthetic reasons.

7

Using a sharp knife, cut the logs into ¼” pieces and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Give each cookie about ½" of space all around to prevent them from sticking together during the baking process. The cookies will slightly expand as they bake.

8

Bake for 20min or until the edges start to brown.

Once out of the oven, let the cookies sit on the sheet for about 3 minutes before cooling on a wire rack.

9

Pour yourself some milk or tea and enjoy! Even though they’re butter cookies, the mild green tea flavour helps to make this treat light and refreshing. You just might find yourself finishing off the entire batch in one sitting!