Vegan Green Tea Cookies

As promised, I'm back with a vengeance. April has barely begun and hark, I already have a post for you! As a disclaimer, I apologize for my pictures on this one. The dough/cookies are actually bright green (!!!), but no matter how I photographed them, the color just simply wouldn't come through.



As I'm sure you know, there are many types of cooks out there. Just perusing through the plethora of food blogs out there on the Internet, I see everything from house wives wielding box mixes to food artists who have mastered presentation and photography of their baked goods (of which I will be forever envious), from over-the-top tacky combination of pies, cookies, AND cakes, to wonderfully simple yet decadent loveliness. What I'm trying to get at here is that every baker has their own style, and the cookbook I adapted this recipe from is no exception.

My sister gave me this cookbook as my graduation present a little over a year ago, and although its pictures are beautiful and its recipes are really good, I hate reading it. The woman who wrote it just seems so pretentious and like she takes herself (and these recipes) way too seriously. I mean, they're good, but geez, they're not unforgettable, such as the title of her book suggests. I guess that's just her "baking personality" though.



But sometimes, I just like to get myself all riled up over something silly, so I read her intro to this recipe. As she's explaining what green tea powder (matcha) is, she says, "you will probably have to mail-order it unless you have a well-stocked tea purveyor near you". Has this woman ever heard of an Asian supermarket? Guess not.



I got this at the local one (Chun Ching). It doesn't say Matcha Powder on it, but it's the same thing, and it's definitely cheaper here than at a health food store or a tea store! A tiny canister at the health food store here was about $25. This giant bag of it was only $7 at the Asian supermarket.



Anyway, hers turned out prettier than mine, but mine are vegan, so they're better :) Recipe, adapted from Dede Wilson's "Unforgettable Desserts" cookbook, is below!



Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks vegan butter
2 Tbsp green tea powder
1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

Sift flour and salt together in a bowl.

In another bowl, mix butter, green tea powder, and sugar together until fluffy and a uniform green color. Mix in flour mixture until a crumbly dough forms. The dough should come together when you press it with your hands.

Form the dough into a ball with your hands. Sprinkle your counter top with flour and roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter to make as many cookies as you can with the dough. Place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper, then refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake for about 15 to 17 minutes. Let cool, and then store on a plate or cookie jar. Devour!