Sandy, crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth matcha shortbread Christmas trees with a kick of matcha, which is a Japanese green tea powder. In its purest form, matcha brings a fragrant flavour with a slightly bitter and earthy undertone.
What is a Shortbread Cookie?
A shortbread is a buttery and rich cookie with origins in Scotland.
It usually contains just 3 simple ingredients: flour, butter and sugar. The high fat content of this cookie yields the most delicious melt-in-your-mouth texture and a richness that is simple but so satisfying.
Shortbreads don’t use any leaveners or aeration since they don’t need any rise.
About This Matcha Shortbread
I derived this recipe from Dorie Greenspan who is basically my baking hero. No matter how simple the recipe, her baking always tastes better than anything else I’ve ever had. Total Dorie magic. So I used her basic shortbread recipe as spring board to make these matcha shortbread Christmas trees.
I brought these matcha shortbread Christmas trees to work and quickly left them in the staff room. One, because I’m too embarrassed to let anyone see that I made them. And two, I may or may not have a reputation for being known as the chocolate junkie dietitian at the hospital I work at.
Shortly after I left them on the table, my coworker walked into our shared office with a cheeky smile and said “I ate 3 of these just now.”
Note About the Recipe
If you’re not a super matcha fan and prefer a more mild taste, I suggest you down cut down the matcha and water to 1 tbsp each. If you LOVE matcha, go ahead and use the full dose! It’s not overpowering or too bitter. I found the full dose just right for that kick of matcha flavour to come through.
More sable or matcha recipes:
Matcha and Chocolate Ganache Fudge Brownies
Recipe for Matcha Shortbread:
Matcha Shortbread Christmas Trees
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temp
- 2/3 cup icing sugar
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tbsp matcha*
- 2 tbsp water*
- *use just 1 tbsp if you want a milder matcha flavour
Instructions
- Beat butter on low speed until smooth then add in icing sugar and beat on low until well combined
- Mix matcha with water to form a paste then add into butter and beat on low until smooth
- Slowly add in flour, beat on low speed until some traces of flour are left. Slowly pulse once or twice more to blend in the rest of the flour.
- Place dough into a giant Ziplock bag, leave the top open
- Using a rolling pin, roll the dough between the plastic until a thickness of ~1-1.5cm.
- Zip the top of the bag to close, place flat in refrigerator, refrigerate for 1 hour
- Remove dough from fridge, carefully cut open the bag and peel away from the dough
- Using cookie cutters/pastry cutter, cut out shapes and place onto a baking tray
- Bake at 345 degrees F for 15-20 minutes until edges are the slightest shade of brown
Did you make this recipe?
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This post was sponsored by Bulk Barn but all opinions, recipes, and photos are my own.
I partnered with Bulk Barn to develop these Christmas cookie recipes, in the spirit of the holiday! If you want to check out more, I have posted recipes for chocolate sables and peppermint fudge as well. Just 2 more days for their sale and $3 off coupon, it’s a great time to stock up on those baking ingredients. The coupon is linked here, just show at the til 🙂