Macha cukkii: green tea cookies
My upstairs neighbor gave us some macha: Japanese powdered green tea. The Japanese are the only people on the planet who still drink this stuff — it’s a very primitive form of tea, and when brewed it’s quite bitter. They eat it with sweets that are too sweet, alternating bites of too-sweet with sips of too-bitter, and it all balances out.
I like drinking macha, though; but I’d rather make delicious tasty desserts with it, like this one which I made this afternoon. The recipe is based on the “Rich roll cookies” from Joy of Cooking.
Rich green tea roll cookies
- 1 cup softened butter
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2¼ cups flour
- 1 tbsp. powdered green tea
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Sift together the dry ingredients, and stir in to the butter mixture. Since there is almost no water in the dough, don’t worry about over-working it. When the dough has an even color and texture, form it into a ball and chill for 3-4 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Roll the dough out on a very, very lightly floured surface. Too much flour is death for these cookies. Cut them into your favorite shapes with a knife or cookie cutters. Bake them on a cookie sheet that either has a piece of parchment paper on it or has been lightly greased, for 8-10 minutes or until the corners get slightly brown.
Eating them reminds me of being in Japan!
Dodecatheon poeticum (Primulaceae); Poet's shooting star
