Matcha Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe came about because I am going to finally see my hairdresser. She is a foodie and I often used to bring her some of my baking experiments. I felt like I could not go empty-handed.

I remembered she enjoyed the matcha shortbread cookies I baked a bit ago, and thought I would add a bit of a twist with chocolate. I have baked a version with white chocolate which I like because it doesn’t smear when stacking, and aesthetically, it sort of looks like sliced almonds so it’s a fun surprise when you bite into it. I had a bar of dark baking chocolate so went with that. The slight bitterness of the matcha with the deep richness of the chocolate makes for an elegant cookie.

Yields about 48 cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoon matcha powder
• 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 16 tablespoons or two sticks, cold unsalted butter cut into 1-inch dice
• 4 oz. dark chocolate, roughly chopped

PREPARATION

Add flour, sugar, salt and matcha powder to food processor and pulse several times.

Add butter to the dry mixture and pulse until the crumbs begin to stick and become the texture of wet sand. The trick is not to overprocess.

Take the dough and halve, rolling each into a log of desired thickness and shape. I like the look of a square cookie, so squared my logs.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 48 hours.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove plastic wrap and using a sharp knife, cut into 1/2 inch slices. You can make them thinner for a more delicate cookie as well.

Arrange slices leaving about 2 inches apart and bake for about 20 minutes or until the edges become a golden brown.

Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.