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Matcha Swirl Shortbread Cookies

From: tworedbowls.com
makes about 36 mini-cookies (1" diameter)

light green swirl:
1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
3 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
1/2 egg yolk (optional)
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp matcha powder
1 pinch of baking powder
1 small pinch of salt
dark green swirl:
1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
3 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
1/2 egg yolk (optional)
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp matcha powder
1 pinch of baking powder
1 small pinch of salt

Prepare the light green dough first. In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter and powdered sugar vigorously until smooth. Add half the egg yolk and the almond extract, and whisk again until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, 1/2 tsp matcha powder, baking powder and salt. (A note on judging the color — the mixture will be a little lighter green than the dough will actually turn out.) Gradually add flour mixture to butter in batches, beating after each addition, until ingredients are fully incorporated and it has formed a thick, rough dough. Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in refrigerator to chill.

Next, prepare the dark green dough. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the dark green dough, but with 1 full teaspoon of matcha powder. You may want to play around with the amount of matcha you add — you can up the dark green dough to 1.5 tsp, for instance, or decrease the light green dough to 1/4 tsp, for greater contrast and a stronger green tea flavor. Form dark green dough into a ball, wrap, and store in fridge.

After dough has chilled for at least an hour, roll out each one at a time (leaving the second in the fridge until you are ready to handle it). You may want to place the dough between two layers of saran wrap in order to minimize the dough sticking to the rolling pin, which is what I ended up doing (after wrestling with the dough briefly). If you want to make mini-sized cookies, like I did, roll the dough out to about 1/8" thickness, into squares that are about 5x5". There should be about four in total, two of each color. Place one lighter-colored square on top of one dark-colored square, lining them up as best you can, and gently roll lengthways into a log. It should form a roll about an inch in diameter, and you should get two logs out of the dough. For regular-sized cookies, roll the dough out thicker (I’d guess about 1/6" or thereabouts), instead, so that each ball yields one 7x7" square, instead of two smaller ones. Roll those up together and that should result in a log that is thicker, with larger cookies. Either way, once rolled, replace in fridge and let chill for another hour to harden again. At this point, you can also freeze it if you’d like to bake it later.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove logs from the fridge (or let defrost, if frozen, for about 10-15 minutes) and slice into 1/4" thick rounds. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You only need to leave about half an inch to an inch of space between them, since they will not spread. Bake until you can see the barest hints of brown forming on the bottom edges — about 10 minutes for mini cookies, and about 12 minutes for regular.