Matcha Green Tea Shortbread Leaves
Tender and buttery matcha shortbread cookies are an easy cookie recipe to make. I use a leaf cookie cutter to cut them into leaves for a pretty shortbread cookie that pairs perfectly with a cup of tea or coffee.
One of my favorite green tea recipes is the green tea shortbread cookie recipe I originally found on Project Foodie. What really caught my eye on the recipe featured, was that the cookies were made to look like green tea leaves! I didn’t have the cookie-cutter shape to make tea leaves at the time, so instead I made matcha shortbread trees.
I’ve been on the lookout ever since for a tea leaf-like cookie cutter. I finally found one made by Ateco that looked similar.
It was part of a flower and leaf set which I purchased from Amazon. The other pieces in the set ended up being really hard to use, but the leaf one was perfect! After I cut out the leaf shapes, I used a knife to make the indents in the middle.
The cookies are buttery, melty, and chock full of the taste of green tea. They go great with a cup of tea. =)
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Pinch of salt
- Butter
- High-quality matcha green tea powder
- Granulated sugar
Check out my post all about baking with matcha powder for lots of tips for using green tea in baked goods.
How to Make the Cookies
Whisk flour and salt together in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add matcha powder and beat until mixture is a uniform green color. Add sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy.
Add about half of the flour, then mix on low speed. Gradually add remaining flour, mixing just until blended. The mixture should look crumbly but if you squeeze it between your fingers, it will come together. Gather the dough into a large ball.
Roll out dough to 1/3-inch thickness between two pieces of parchment paper. Peel off the top parchment paper.
Cut out as many cookies as possible using a cookie cutter and place on cookie sheets 1-inch apart. Re-roll the remaining dough and repeat until all of the dough is used up. Refrigerate the cut-outs for one hour.
Preheat oven to 325 F. Bake for about 17 minutes or until the cookies are dry and firm to the touch. The edges might just start turning brown.
I love how these turned out. The cookies have the best shortbread texture – crumbly and buttery – with the flavor of matcha. Cutting them into leaves makes them look elegant on a plate, too.
More Cut-Out Cookies
- Red Velvet Shortbread Stars
- Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
- Pumpkin-Shaped Shortbread Cookies
- Pinecone Cookies
Matcha Green Tea Shortbread Leaves
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- a pinch of salt
- 1 cup butter, cut into small pieces
- 2 1/2 tbsp high quality matcha/green tea powder
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Whisk flour and salt together in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add matcha powder and beat until mixture is a uniform green color. Add sugar continue beating until light and fluffy.
- Add about half of the flour, then mix on low speed. Gradually add remaining flour, mixing just until blended. The mixture should look crumbly; but if you squeeze it between your fingers, it will come together. Gather the dough into a large ball.
- Roll out dough to 1/3-inch thickness between two pieces of parchment paper. Peel off top parchment paper.
- Cut out as many cookies as possible using cookie cutter and place on cookie sheets 1-inch apart. Re-roll remaining dough and repeat until all of the dough is used up. Refrigerate cut outs for one hour.
- Bake the cookies for about 17 minutes or until the cookies are dry and firm to the touch. The edges might just start turning brown.
Hi, I was wondering did you use cold butter or room temperature butter for this recipe?
We don’t soften it first – just cut it into small pieces before creaming it.
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What kind of matcba green tea powder did you use??
I use Maeda-En. It’s a pretty high quality green tea powder and so the baked goods remain a pretty green. You can find it at most japanese markets.
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Just re read and noticed that you purchased the cookie cutter on Aamazon. Will have a look!
Yes, i got them from Amazon. it was a whole set of different Autumn leaves and flowers.
Love your cookies, they look great! Can’t wait to try this recipe. Could you please tell me where you purchased the cookie cutter for the leaf shaped cookies?
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Very pretty cookies. Perfect for spring!
So cuuuute! All your matcha cookies sound wonderful.
I liked that too! Hehe. I knew my leaf shape plate would come in handy one day!
Oh that’s a hard question! I’m not sure…I think it depends on what I’m more in the mood for. The green tea sugar cookies is sweeter, crunchier, and more sugar cookie-like..the shortbread cookies are less sweet, more intense green tea taste, also more crumbly buttery (like other shortbread cookies. They are both pretty easy to make!
I love the leaf-shaped cookies on the leaf-shaped plate! Very cute!
this sounds faboulous! which is better? these shortbread ones or your other recipe for green tea sugar cookies… i can’t decide!!