Hojicha, Gyokuro, and Matcha Shortbread Cookies

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Senbird Tea, a premium Japanese tea brand that features small batch teas from independent farms in Japan. All images and opinions expressed are solely my own. Thanks for supporting me and the brands that help make Jen’s Food Lab possible! If you’re looking to purchase, use my code jenstealab for 15% off!

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons Senbird hojicha yuu tea (roasted green tea)
• 3 tablespoons Senbird gyokuro isshin (shade-grown green tea)
• 2 tablespoons Senbird matcha otome (ceremonial grade green tea powder)
• 1 cup (230g) room temperature butter
• 2/3 cup (133g) sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cup (256g) all purpose flour

This recipe makes approximately 20 cookies.

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. With a spice grinder or a grinder attachment and blender, grind the hojicha tea into powder. It’s okay if there are larger pieces of tea in there, but try to get it a consistency similar to granulated sugar (doesn’t have to be as fine as powdered sugar as an example). Repeat for the gyokuro isshin tea.
3. In a bowl of a stand mixer, add butter. On high speed, beat the butter until it’s creamy.
4. Add sugar and vanilla extract to the butter. Mix on medium speed until combined.
5. Add flour and mix on medium speed until combined.
6. Now, the cookie dough should be coming together. Take the dough out of the mixer and divide the dough into three equal sized dough balls. I actually weighed this out, but you can just eyeball it.
7. Add one of the dough balls back into the mixer and add your ground hojicha tea. Mix until just combined, but don’t overmix. You can also just incorporate the tea by using your hands to mix it in too. Repeat for the rest of the dough balls, one for the gyokuro isshin tea and one for the matcha.
8. Once you have three dough balls, one flavored with hojicha tea, one flavored with gyokuro isshin tea, and one flavored with matcha, divide each dough ball into 20 even-sized little dough balls. This means you should end up with 20 little hojicha tea dough balls, 20 little gyokuro isshin tea dough balls, and 20 matcha dough balls.
9. To assemble one cookie, in the palm of your hand, take one little hojicha tea dough ball, one little gyokuro isshin tea dough ball, and one matcha dough ball and lightly roll the three balls into one ball without mixing the colors. It should look like a multi-colored dough ball with each of the three colors showing equally. Place onto the lined cookie sheet and press down to flatten.
10. Repeat for the rest of the dough balls.
11. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until the cookie is slightly browned. You’re done!

Hojicha, Gyokuro, and Matcha Shortbread Cookies are the perfect complement to a nice cup of tea ironically enough. The standout, yet subtle star of these cookies are the tri-colored and tri-flavors of the three teas incorporated in this shortbread cookie. The hojicha roasted green tea is incredibly fragrant with a soothing, earthy aroma and a light bodied, toasty flavor. The gyokuro shade-grown tea has a mellow umami flavor and unique sweetness. Finally, the matcha brings a fresh aroma and smooth, rich taste with savory notes of sweet grass. Each bring their own flavor to this shortbread, but don’t forget the buttery melt-in-your-mouth textures of the shortbread itself! Let me know in the comments below if you made these Hojicha, Gyokuro, and Matcha Shortbread Cookies and how it went!

Again, if you’re looking to purchase any of those teas, use my code jenstealab for 15% off at Senbird Tea.

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