Matcha Cookies

This recipe for matcha cookies are inspired by my experience with Sado or Japanese tea ceremony.  In Japan, we had the opportunity to make our own tea and eat some wagashi (Japanese sweets). To make the tea, they used matcha powder, a scoop of water, and this really cool whisk looking thing. You know the one's people use to massage their heads? Well imagine a smaller version of that being used to whisk tea. And man, was it hard to whisk tea. You wouldn't think it would be, but it actually was. The tea masters and students whisked it so fast the top layer was foamy. Mine was, well..., um it wasn't foamy, and it was really bitter....

 my wagashi (Japanese sweet). It's shaped like a sunflower or himawari

see the whisky thing? doesn't it look like those head massagers?!?

ah, a nice finished cup of bitter foamy matcha...

But about the cookies. I thought matcha would taste really good in cookie form, plus I thought it would look kinda cool. Turning green and all. So they actually turned out pretty well. Just make sure not to over bake them cause I'm pretty sure they'll turn a nasty brownish pukish green color. But how did these taste? Pretty good actually. They were soft, light green, the matcha flavor wasn't super strong so maybe if you want a very strong matcha flavor double the amount. I had some leftover azuki so I stuck some inside of the cookies. I found some hitokuchi chocolates (one bite chocolates) and stuck them inside of some cookies too. That's my story about the variations of this cookie. Haha, not very interesting. But enjoy the cookie and its greenish color!

Matcha Cookies - Printer Friendly Version
Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon matcha or green tea powder
1 1/4 cup flour

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F
2. In a bowl beat butter and sugar. Add in egg
3. Mix in matcha and flour
4. Place flattened tablespoons on a greased cookie sheet*
5. Bake for 13 minutes or until done
6. Enjoy!

*Variation: A piece of chocolate or teaspoon of anko (red bean paste) can be placed inside of the cookie

 azuki in the middle....

 chocolate in the middle...