Matcha shortbread Christmas tree cookies

This year for Christmas, I wanted to make Christmas tree cookies of some sort. I'm not great with royal icing, though, so I wanted the base to be green - which led to the idea of using a matcha shortbread!

The next problem I ran into was the fact that I, perhaps surprisingly, don't own a ton of cookie cutters. I didn't have one in a tree shape of any kind, or even a basic triangular one. Hence, as you can see above, my solution - an imprecise approach with a long knife.

For these cookies, I adapted a chocolate shortbread recipe and made both match and chocolate versions. However, in my quest to achieve a deep green color, I went with a 1:1 substitution which resulted in cookies that were a bit more bitter than I would have liked. As such, in the text recipe below, I've reduced the matcha amount.

Although this post focuses on the matcha version, I highly recommend the original chocolate recipe as well! I made them just as written in the linked recipe, and they were fantastic - not too sweet, but with a deep cocoa flavor. I chose to decorate with white chocolate and a variety of holiday sprinkles. The sky's the limit here, though - go crazy!

Matcha Shortbread Cookies adapted from this chocolate shortbread recipe

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup matcha powder

1 cup powdered sugar

2 sticks butter, room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

White chocolate and sprinkles for decorating

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

2. Cream butter. Add in sugar, salt, and vanilla.

3. On low speed, gradually add in the flour and matcha powder until the dough comes together.

4. Form the mixture into a ball and flatten slightly.

5. On a floured surface, roll the dough until about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into triangles (or use tree-shaped cookie cutters if desired.) Prick the surface of the cookies with a fork.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

7. Let cookies cool completely, then decorate with chocolate and sprinkles.

That wraps up the end of my fall/winter holiday posts - just slightly overdue, which is a major improvement! Hope everyone had a lovely holiday season, and happy new year!