Christmas
Matcha Snowcap Cookies
- Prep time 15 minutes
- Cook time 12 minutes
- makes 12
Author Notes
I love a snowy white Christmas. But I live in Malaysia where it’s sunny all year round, so sadly that’s never going to happen. So instead, I had to make do with these snowcap cookies.
These start off with the usual suspects for a cookie dough base — eggs, sugar, melted butter, flour, and baking powder. I flavored this with matcha (Japanese green tea) to turn it a vibrant Christmas green, then divided it into balls and rolled it up in icing sugar to give them a snowy skin. Then in the oven it goes for a bake!
But it won’t be a recipe by me without a funky riff, so halfway through the bake, I got the brilliant idea of making a crater in each cookie and filled it with a dollop of cranberry jam for some red-and-green festive cheer!
As it bakes, the cookie will expand, forming cracks in the icing sugar like a glacier melting in the summer. As you eat them, in between the cracks, you’ll taste that earthy matcha green, nicely balanced by the sweet tartness of the jam. And the little snowy sprinkle each time I took a bite is really the icing on the cake-kie. (Both figuratively and literally. 🙃) —Jun
Ingredients
-
2
eggs
-
¾ cups
granulated sugar
-
¼ cups
unsalted butter, melted
-
½ teaspoons
vanilla extract
-
2 cups
(200g) all-purpose flour
-
2 teaspoons
(5g) matcha (Japanese green tea) powder
-
1 teaspoon
(5g) baking powder
-
¾ teaspoons
(3g) salt
-
1 cup
(60g) icing sugar
-
¼ cups
(60g) cranberry jam
Directions
- In a large bowl, combine the eggs and granulated sugar, and whisk for 2 minutes until the eggs turn slightly paler. Add in the melted butter and vanilla extract, and stir to combine. Sift the all-purpose flour, matcha powder, baking powder, and salt into the dough, and gently fold until a smooth dough forms.
- Once the dough is done, transfer it into the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.
- Heat an oven to 350°F (177°C), and line two baking trays with baking paper or silicone mats.
- After the dough is chilled, take it out of the fridge and divide it into 1.4 oz. (40g) balls. (You can use an ice cream scoop or a spoon for this.) Roll the divided dough into balls, and working with one ball at a time, put it into a bowl filled with icing sugar, and roll it around to coat. Once the ball is fully coated in icing sugar, take it out and transfer it onto the baking tray. Repeat for all the dough balls, and arrange them all on the baking trays with at least 2 inches of space in between each ball.
- Bake the cookies for 8 minutes, then take them out of the oven. Using a 1-teaspoon measuring spoon, indent the middle of each cookie to form a small half-sphere crater. Add a teaspoon of cranberry jam into each cookie crater. Return the cookies to the oven to bake for another 4-6 minutes, until you see the palest blush of brown on the edges of the cookies.
- Take the cookies out of the oven, and let it cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes. Then, eat and enjoy!
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