Matcha Almond Cookies

Hello I'm back after a loooong rest... Things have been so so crazy that I've no time to experiment. But now that the Alpha course has started up again then I have some motivation to bake. Plus I have a whole new batch of "guinea pigs" to test out my desserts on... Heehee! ;-)

I stumbled upon this Matcha Almond cookie recipe from Rasa Malaysia when I was looking for a good chocolate chip recipe. The pictures looked so good that I bookmarked the page and put it on my "to-do" list.

I was a little apprehensive about trying a new recipe but I'm glad that I did! This turned out to be a nice crunchy butter cookie with a hint of green tea... Though next time I might add just a tad more green tea. I'm glad that it's not too sweet though coz even though the recipe said to "pack" the icing sugar, I just used a normal heaping of it. The texture of the dough turned out to be a bit crumbly anyway which is probably why it needs to set in the freezer before baked.

I also like this recipe because you can prepare the dough ahead of time and just keep it in the freezer until you're ready to bake the cookies.  Nice and easy to make!

Ingredients (makes around 60 cookies):
226g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup icing sugar
2 cups plain flour
2 tbsp matcha (green tea) powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup sliced almonds, lightly chopped

Method:

1. Sift together the flour, matcha powder and salt.
2. With an electric mixer at medium speed, cream the butter and icing sugar until fluffy.
3. Lower the mixer speed. Add in sifted ingredients 1 tbsp at a time until a crumbly dough is formed.
4. Add in the sliced almond in 3 batches and stop the mixer immediately once all combined.
5. Split the dough in half and place each half on a 22 inches long plastic wrap. Roll the dough into 1.5 inch logs. Wrap each log with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 30 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 325F/160C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. Remove the dough from the freezer. Use a sharp knife and cut the dough 1/4 inch thick each. Arrange the cookie dough on the baking pan 2 inches apart.
8. Bake for 14-16 minutes on the middle rack. Remove the cookies to wire rack to cool completely before storing in air tight containers.