Matcha cookies subtle green, perfectly match the traditional colour of the festive season. I am going to share my secret to make the perfect checkerboard Matcha cookies with basic icebox cookie dough. Because I have received many questions from readers about how I make these neat checkerboard cookie patterns.
Classic subtle festive colour : Green
To give some Japanese infusion, I used Matcha green to this festive season. This checkerboard cookie pattern is made with subtle matcha green and plain cookie dough. So make some Matcha Cookies this weekend.
What is Matcha?
Matcha is a type of green tea in powder form, packed with a load of antioxidant. Matcha is not just for drinking but they are used often for flavouring baking and cooking.
Health Benefits of Matcha green tea
Matcha green tea has a lots of health benefits. For example, Matcha detoxifies your body naturally and burns calories, hence it’s good for losing weight, enhances the immune system, and is high in Antioxidants.
Different grades of Matcha
Matcha comes in a wide variety of quality and grades. Uji, Kyoto and Nishio, Aichi Prefectures are famous for producing Matcha. Usually higher grade Matcha are used for tea ceremony and lower grade matcha are for cooking and baking.
How to choose Matcha for your Cookies
You can not see the colour nor smell the aroma of the Matcha because it is sold in a vacuum pack to prevent oxidation. Therefore, Japanese people choose Matcha from where they are produced. Matcha from Uji,Kyoto and Nishio, Aichi Prefectures are generally speaking vivid dark green in colour and melow bittersweet with a rich flavour.
Tips to make perfect checkerboard pattern
1. make square board shape before resting in fridge
When you wrap each coloured dough, shape the dough 2 x 4 x 20 cm (0.8 x 1.6 x 7.9inch) board by dropping them from 1-2 cm (0.4-0.8 inch) high each side. Each side should be perfectly flat, then refrigerate. After resting, cut the dough into half with a sharp knife. Glue different coloured halves together with egg white.
2. use egg white as glue
After resting, cut the dough into half with a sharp knife. Glue different coloured halves together with egg white. Cut it again in half and glue them together by brushing egg white on cut sides. Stack together in the way the colour alternate to create checkerboard pattern.
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Here are my instructions for Matcha Cookies. So if you like it, please rate it and leave a comment or any questions below. And don’t forget to check out my other Matcha recipes such as Matcha Madeleines, Matcha Ice cream and Matcha Muffins.
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Matcha Cookies - Checkerboard Pattern 抹茶市松模様クッキー
Ingredients
- 100 g unsalted butter softened in room temperature
- 90 g caster sugar
- 1 egg yolk *1
- 195 g plain flour *2
- 5 g matcha powder
Instructions
- Measure and sift 100 g of plain flour and set aside.
- Measure 95g of plain flour and 5g of matcha powder. Sift together and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream the butter and sugar until it becomes a white creamish colour.
- Separate the egg yolk and egg white. Set aside the egg white for later use to glue the cookie doughs together.
- Add the egg yolk to the electric mixer and blend the egg yolk on low speed for a minute.
- Divide the creamed butter mixture into half. *3 Leave half in the electric mixer bowl. Change the attachment to a flat beater attachment and gradually add the 100g of plain flour with the mixer on low speed.
- When all the flour is combined and has become crumbly, take out the dough onto a sheet of cling wrap. Wrap the dough with the cling wrap and shape the dough into 2x4x20cm long board and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Repeat step 7 for the remaining creamed butter and matcha powder combined flour.
- Take out both dough and remove the cling wrap.
- Place the plain dough on a clean work surface.
- Using a sharp knife, slice the dough in half.
- Brush the cut surface of the palin dough with leftover egg white, then place the matcha dough on top of the plain dough.
- Cut it in half again.
- Place the half of the dough on the clean surface, brush the top with egg whites. Place another half on top of it in a way that the plain colour and matcha colour alternate.
- Gently press together and wrap with a cling wrap sheet and rest it in the fridge for at least one hour. (I left it in the fridge overnight)
- Preheat the oven to 160°C (338°F).
- Line a baking tray with a baking sheet. Take out the cookie dough from the fridge.
- Slice it about 5mm(0. inch) thick and place on the baking tray.
- Bake them for 20 minutes
- Remove baking tray from the oven and let the cookie cool on a cooling rack.
Notes
Nutrition
the cookies turned out ok in the end but i wish there was mention or guidance on just how to shape such a dry dough! completely unmanageable and each shaping took me nearly 10 or 15 mins per log just because of how dry it was 🙁 i ended up needing to wet my hands before i could get the dough to be some semblance of together enough to mold into the rectangles. agree with the other commenter that there needs to be a bit more hydration.. either more butter or some milk or extract.
I made these, and they turned out great! My family was very impressed. And as always, I love that they weren’t too sweet!
Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Thank you for your lovely comment and 5 star rating <3
Sooo good and so cute! Too dry as written so I added 1/2 tablespoon of almond extract and about 1 1/2 tablespoons milk. Had to make up about 1/4 bread flour because after all the holiday baking, I didn’t have enough. Also only 85g of butter so I made up the rest with avocado oil. Also my eye yolk had some egg white because I didn’t do a very good job cracking my last and only egg left! Still very good cookies and forgot to do the egg white glue thing
Going to do this again! Improve on some things. Hardly any spread and that’s really good in my book! Thank you for this keeper!
Thank you Michelle for your feedback, I am glad that you liked this cookie 😀
Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I was just wondering, would it be better to use all-purpose flour or cake flour for this?
Hi Mio, I used cake flour equivalent 😀