Saturday 19 June 2010

green tea sable cookies

So I mentioned earlier that biscotti keep for about a month, well these Green Tea sable cookies have a slightly shorter lifespan. They only last about a week but a week of goodness nonetheless. Green tea/Matcha is actually my favourite baking ingredient; it pairs fantastically well with white chocolate and tastes just as good as a key ingredient by itself. I love a green tea latte, Starbucks and Gloria Jeans used to have an Iced Green Tea Frappaccino (slightly sad that they longer have it), I even love cold green tea, Ichibanboshi do a mighty Iced Green Tea Cappuccino, well you get the gist of it, I do love my green tea!

This recipe has been taken out of Keiko Ishida's 'Okashi - Sweet Treats made with Love'; a gorgeous collection of Japanese inspired baked treats that I get hungry over just flipping through the pages! The recipes need a good read through before you make a start as I find a few of the steps in the recipe happen a bit back to front. Below is my rewrite of how I went about making it.

Beat together in a large bowl 150g softened unsalted butter, a pinch of salt and 130g sifted icing sugar until softy and creamy.

Add 2 egg yolks and mix well. Add 240g sifted plain flour and 15g sifted green tea powder to the mixture and fold in with a spatula. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Divide the dough in half and roll out two large logs (about 3.5cm in diameter) and wrap in baking paper. Refrigerate until firm.

Preheat oven to 150 degrees. Take logs out of the fridge and dip edges in granulated sugar. 

Cut logs into 7mm thick rounds.

Place cookies on a lined baking tray. Brush a little egg white over the cookies.

Bake for about 25 minutes and then remove and leave to cool on a wire rack.

I'm probably going to sound a little biased but I love these green tea cookies! They had just the right amount of sweetness to balance the bitterness of green tea and well, I really had to keep an eye on myself (and my brother) and stop ourselves from eating through the whole batch. 

As for any tips and pointers, do keep an eye on these when they're in the oven. If they start to brown, they will brown very quickly so get them out of the oven; don't walk away. At the end of the 25 minutes, don't worry if they are still looking a little soft. Take them out and the residual heat inside the cookies will make them cook further when you have them standing out to cool down. Enjoy!

15 comments:

Forager said...

Love how green that dough is! Looks like a green sugared cucumber - but decidedly tastier

Sarah said...

They look great! I love green tea and I love sable biscuits too, yum yum. I've still got some matcha powder leftover from when I made a match cheesecake... these biscuits might be just what I need!

xox Sarah

missklicious said...

Starbucks don't have the green tea frapp anymore? Damn! I used to get it all the time. I love the one at Ichi-ban Boshi though - so yum!

Hahaha, I was just about to say that your dough looks like a cucumber, but Forager beat me to it.

Amy @ cookbookmaniac said...

I made these cookies not long ago. They were lovely and comforting. However my cookies came out more rectangular than round!

char said...

love all things green tea! but no more green tea frapp at starbucks?! super sad :(

mashi said...

yum! Agreed - green tea anything seems to taste that much better =)

Justin said...

i keep seeing people baking with matcha. i wish it wasn't so expensive around here, because i like the color and aroma.

Two fit and fun gals said...

hey jen these look grea im going to bookmark this, i have heaps of green tea powder to use up :O)

panda said...

forager - haha, now that you've said it looks like a cucumber, i look at the pic and see a cucumber!

sarah - i'm about to make your matcha cheesecake (looks so good), i think you'll like these biscuits!

missklicious - since all the starbucks near me closed down, i haven't had one but maybe they still have it? i just know that gloria jeans stopped serving it. and well, ichiban boshi has to be the place where it first started in sydney and i love it!

amy - i think i'll make green tea cookies more often; they're just the right amount of sweetness and this recipe makes them nice and short. have you tried rolling them into logs; it helps to put them in the fridge and slice them when they are completely firm.

char - i don't have a starbucks anywhere near me now that most of them closed down so yes, for me it's gone...very sad!

mashi - i think i'm slightly obsessed with green tea at the moment, every recipe I want to make has green tea in it!

justin - it's actually quite expensive here in sydney, about $6 for a 50g tub and well, I seem to get through it rather quickly too but well worth it!

betty - have fun making these!

Rita (mademoiselle délicieuse) said...

Quite taken by how green these cookies are! And not by artificial colouring either. Agree that unfortunately matcha powder does cost a bit. (Friend mentioned they've seen it for cheaper at some Korean stores?)

panda said...

mademoiselle delicieuse - i made these cookies with a pack of green tea powder that a friend brought back from japan - i think it might be greener than the ones you get here.

Anonymous said...

hi just wondering, where do you buy matcha powder from?

panda said...

hey there! most asian grocery shops stock matcha powder. look for it in the aisle where they stock all the japanese food ingredients otherwise you might find it in the tea leaves section. good luck!

Anonymous said...

Hi, I have the dodgiest scales so prefer to measure in cups. How many cups is 130g icing sugar? Thanks :)

panda said...

hey!
130g is just a bit over half a cup. One cup is usually about 250g (give or take). Hope that helps and good luck baking these! Let me know how you go!