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!
I have been dying to make these cookies for almost a week now. This past week has been one of the coldest I've ever been through in Florida. The house I live in is old and crappy and doesn't have central heating (or any heating, for that matter!) similar to many houses in Gainesville. And since I only have two space heaters that combined could only heat one room, I had to prioritize. This meant the bedroom was the only habitable room in my house for about a week. Not only was the kitchen just too darn cold to cook in (even with the oven and stove top on), it was way too messy to cook in as well. On top of there being no heat, there's also no hot water in the kitchen. During the summer, this was awesome since it cut down on my energy bill a lot! But when the high is 47 for the day, doing dishes in cold water in a house that is the same temperature inside as outside just was not an option.
Today was the first warm day since the cold streak, a high of 70!!! I gleefully rode my bike home scantily clad in a mere two sweatshirts and gloves instead of underneath about six layers of coats, and when I got home and saw the mound of dishes waiting for me in my semi-warm house, I almost teared up with relief. Finally, I could cook!
This is a recipe I've been wanting to try for a while. They are not exactly savory cookies, but they're also not very sweet. They have a wonderful combination of flavors and are very simple to make.
I got some inspiration for these cookies from 101 Cookbooks. If you've never seen it, check it out online. It's amazing. The pictures put mine to shame (although in my defense, I'm a novice!) and it has unusual yet tasty ideas. I adapted this recipe in order to make it vegan and I switched up the presentation to suit my tastes.
These cookies provide a nice respite from the overly sweet Christmas cookies floating around this time of year. Recipe is below. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup (2 sticks) vegan butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 lemon's zest
1 1/4 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 tsp olive oil
Directions:
Combine vegan butter and sugar in a medium bowl until well incorporated. Add zest and rosemary and stir to combine. Add flour and mix until a crumbly dough forms. The dough should look dry, but should hold together when pressed.
Tear a long sheet of wax paper and put on the counter. Gather the dough in your hands and press all of it into one ball. Put the ball of dough on the wax paper. Tear another sheet of wax paper the same length as the first and put over the dough ball. Press down to form a disk of dough. Put in refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
After dough has hardened a little bit, take out of the fridge and, with the wax paper still on both sides of it, use a rolling pin to flatten the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place the shapes on a greased baking sheet.
In a small bowl, combine pine nuts and olive oil so the pine nuts are coated in the oil. Scatter about 2 teaspoons of pine nuts onto each cookie. Arrange to your taste. Then press down slightly so they stick into the dough. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges are slightly browned.
Continue with rest of dough until entirely used up. If the dough becomes sticky and hard to work with, just pop it in the freezer for five minutes and then continue.
Let cool on a cooling rack. Enjoy! (I enjoyed about four in one night...)
