Green Tea Shortbread Cookies Dipped in Dark Chocolate
Here I go again, green tea. And when I use green tea, I always make sure you can actually taste the bitter flavour. I think dark chocolate goes really well with these crumbly cookies, adding sweetness. But munching the cookies up plain isn't a problem for me either.
My two little cousins came over to our house as I started to take out the butter and eggs from the fridge, so they helped me make these by cutting out some of the star shapes and dipping a few in chocolate. They said the cookies were delicious, even though kids typically don't like green tea. I felt really good, but during the process of them stamping out the stars all over the sheet of dough I had to gather and roll it out a dozen times over. Plus I think we kinda bombed the kitchen everywhere with utensils, dishes, pans, and flour. >.<
Still, my other older cousin, who's one year younger than me, was helping so I had fun!
The photo below was taken at a time when I made both green tea shortbread cookies along with Shortbread Cookies with Royal Icing.
Also here is a video on how to make these matcha shortbreads:
Green Tea Shortbread Cookies Dipped in Dark Chocolate (Makes about two dozen 4.5cm in diameter stars) Ingredients COOKIES 125g unsalted room-temp. butter 6 tbsp. powdered sugar 150g all-purpose flour 1/2 cup almond meal 4 tsp. matcha powder 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract To prepare, line two baking pans with parchment paper. 1. Sift together flour, almond meal, and matcha. 2. Cream butter with wooden spoon. Add powdered sugar and stir until creamy. 3. Add vanilla extract and stir to completely incorporate. 5. Pour in flour mixture and cut with spatula until dough forms. Don't worry if if's too dry at first, just keep going. 6. Rather dough with hands and roll out on floured surface. 7. Cut out shapes with cookie cutter. Keep gathering and rolling out excess dough until you use as much as you can. Place cookies onto baking pans and refrigerate until firm. Preheat your oven at this point to 325 degrees F. 8. Bake cookies for 13-15 minutes just until tinged golden brown on pointed edges of the stars. GANACHE 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chops 1/2 cup heavy cream 1. Microwave heavy cream until very hot. 2. Pour cream onto chocolates in a bowl and let it sit a few seconds, then stir with a spoon until dark and smooth. 3. Dip the cookies halfway into the chocolate and place them on parchment paper-lined trays. 4. If needed, microwave ganache halfway through dipping. Refrigerate cookies until the chocolate sets and dust them with powdered sugar. 5. Since it is summer, I kept these cookies refrigerated after transferring them to plates. Enjoy! Matcha shortbread cookie recipe adapted from Emiko's recipe on Food 52: https://food52.com/recipes/39366-matcha-butter-cookies#comments