Ingredients:
for the cookies
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup butter softened to room temperature and cut into small pieces
- 2 1/2 tablespoons high quality matcha powder (see note)
- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
For the decorations
- sprinkles or dragees
- powdered sugar
- store-bought chocolate frosting or homemade
Optional
- 1/2 recipe for double chocolate shortbread cookies (see note)
Directions:
Beat butter, matcha powder and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy.
Add half of the flour to the butter mixer and 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.
Place dough between two pieces of parchment paper. Roll dough with rolling pin until 1/4 inch thick. Make sure you use parchment paper, otherwise, the dough is too soft and sticky to roll out.
Use four cookie cutters of the same shape but with graduated sizes (stars and flowers work best) to cut cookie shapes. I ended up doing three of the biggest, one medium, two small, and one tiny one for each tree. Re-roll dough scraps and cut more cookies until no more dough remains. Decorate cookies with sprinkles that resemble ornaments. I used dragees and nonpareils.
Preheat oven to 325°F. Bake pieces of same size together. Bake until cookies puff up slightly and edges start to turn a light brown. I baked 11 minutes on the largest ones and 6 minutes on the smallest.
After cookies are finished and have cooled, add a small dollop of frosting to the bottom, then stack the cookies, deliberately not aligning them, to resemble trees.
- Optional: If desired, you can also make chocolate shortbread cookie for the tree bottoms. Cut to small squares before baking, then attach to bottom of trees with frosting. Sprinkle with some powdered sugar before serving.
Notes:
- For the matcha, I prefer Maeda-En gold-colored canister quality.
- You can make a 1/2 batch of my double chocolate shortbread cookies (omit the chocolate chips) and cut them to make bottoms for the trees as I describe in the recipe instructions.
- Shortbread cookie adapted from Project Foodie.
Meravigliosi questi alberelli. Non ho mai provato il tè macha, devo rimediare al più presto!
Auguri di Buon Natale, Jennifer!
Merry Christmas!
Awwww, what a cute idea! Love the matcha flavor! 🙂
thank you =)
thank you =)
I love that photo where it looks like it’s “snowing” on top of the cookies. So adorable!
hehe, that’s my favorite shot too =)
I love the look of these! TC was so enamored by the stacked look that she was inspired to make us stacked red and green pancakes for our Christmas breakfast. 🙂
I really love that idea!