green tea sweets

copy from Amai’s Green Tea

Amai’s Green Tea Sweet recipe is a finalist in the Best Bakery Recipe category for Pastryscoop.com’s Golden Scoop Awards. The three finalists in the category will compete in a blind taste test on June 14, and the winner will be announced on June 18, 2007 in an awards ceremony at the French Culinary Institute. I am so honored to be included as a finalist, and can’t wait to see the other recipes included in the category. I submitted the recipe for fun, but didn’t seriously consider being a finalist/winner. It feels good to be recognized as a chef. In my mind I’m still a computer nerd.

In honor of this award, I’d like to share the recipe with all Lovescool readers. Now you can make your very own Green Tea Sweets. Don’t worry, you can still buy them online if you don’t feel like baking. If you do make this recipe, please let me know how it turns out in your kitchen. I submitted the professional size batch to Pastryscoop, and I scaled it down for home kitchens for this post. I’d love some help with testing.

Green Tea Sweets

Ingredients
Yield (2” leaf shape): Approx 25

3/4 cup (2.25 oz) Confectioners sugar
5 oz Unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 3/4 cup (8.5 oz) All-purpose flour
3 Large egg yolks
1.5 TBS Matcha (powdered green tea)
1 cup Granulated sugar (for coating)

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
• Whisk the confectioner’s sugar and green tea together in a bowl.
• Add the butter and green tea/sugar mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until smooth and light in color.
• Add the flour and mix until well combined.
• Add the egg yolks and mix just until the eggs are fully incorporated and a mass forms.
• Form the dough into a disk and chill in the refrigerator until firm (about 30 minutes).
• Roll the dough out to ½” thickness.
• Cut the dough with a leaf cookie cutter.
• Toss each cut cookie in a bowl of granulated sugar to coat.
• Place the sugar-coated cookie on a parchment lined pan. Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges.

Baker’s Note: You can purchase Matcha (powdered green tea) from Asian grocery stores or specialty tea shops. In NYC try McNulty’s Tea House, Ito-En or you can order baking grade matcha online. The higher quality matcha you use, the brighter green the cookies will be. Store the cookies in a tin or other container that blocks out sunlight to preserve the color. The green color will fade when exposed to sunlight.