Matcha Cookies... What Else?

After making myself a nice hot bowl of aromatic matcha tea this winter afternoon, I immediately proceeded to try out the award winning recipe for Amai's Green Tea Sweets:
http://www.lovescool.com/archives/2007/05/15/best-bakery-recipe-finalist/





I am pleasantly surprised by these cookies. The amalgamation of buttery and nutty green tea flavours produces a complex hard-to-describe aroma/taste that I like a lot. I am addicted. I had to stop myself from gobbling them all up at one go! What an incredibly simple recipe with sophisticated results... brilliant.




I will just type the recipe out for my readers' easy reference:

Amai's Green Tea Sweets

Ingredients

Yields approximately 25 cookies

3/4 cup (2.25 oz) Confectioners sugar
5 oz Unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 3/4 cup (8.5 oz) All-purpose flour
3 Large egg yolks
1.5 tablespoons Matcha powder*
1 cup Granulated sugar (for coating)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Whisk the confectioner’s sugar and green tea together in a bowl. Add the butter and green tea/sugar mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until smooth and light in color. Add the flour and mix until well combined. Add the egg yolks and mix just until the eggs are fully incorporated and a mass forms. Form the dough into a disk and chill in the refrigerator until firm (about 30 minutes). Roll the dough out to ½” thickness. Cut the dough with a leaf cookie cutter. Toss each cut cookie in a bowl of granulated sugar to coat. Place the sugar-coated cookie on a parchment lined pan. Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges.


* People who are not big fans of green tea may find this overpowering, in which case, do reduce the amount of matcha by half.