I love classic soft sugar cookies, but I wanted to play around with my go-to recipe and decided to make a batch of green tea sugar cookies for St Patrick’s day. This isn’t a classic St. Paddy’s day flavor, but the green is very festive! I don’t really like to use food coloring if possible, so matcha green tea powder was a great way to make these cookies green while adding a delicious green tea flavor. They have the same great texture as the original recipe, but the cookies get an earthiness and a hint of the sweet/savory flavor combo from using matcha green tea powder.
These green tea sugar cookies are rich, so I used a 1.5 inch round cookie cutter to make small cookies that are perfect to eat in one or two bites. This is also a great way to indulge while still being mindful of portion control.
Green Tea Sugar Cookies:
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature
- 2 tsp matcha green tea powder
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (if you don’t have vb paste, sub with 2 tsp vanilla extract)
- 1 large egg
Royal Icing:
- 1 egg white
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp matcha green tea powder
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Whisk the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, matcha green tea powder, and vanilla bean paste in a large bowl to blend. Beat in the egg and mix to fully combine. Add all of the flour mixture in 2-3 batches, and beat just until blended.
Split the dough in thirds and place 1/3 of the dough on a floured surface. I usually put a large piece of parchment paper down and put flour on top of that for easy clean up.
Make sure you use enough flour on your work surface and rolling pin to ensure that the dough doesn’t stick to anything. If you don’t use enough flour, your dough will become a sticky mess.
Working with one disk at a time, roll out the dough to about ¼ inch to ½ inch thick and cut out with your favorite cookie cutters. Like I said, I used a 1.5 inch round cookie cutter, but you can use whatever you like. There a lot of cookie cutter sets out there, so have fun with it!
Bake at 350 degrees for 6 minutes. Let cool on pan for an additional 6 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Since the cookies are small, this recipe makes about 7 dozen cookies, so it’s great to serve a crowd!
To make the icing, mix egg white and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until frothy, then beat in the powdered sugar and matcha green tea powder until a glossy and smooth icing forms.
Make sure the cookies are fully cooled before you ice them. If you ice them when they are warm, the icing will just run off. You can have fun decorating the cookies and spend time with details, or if you want something simple and beautiful like I wanted, just use a knife and frost all of the cookies in the with this pale green icing for a festive monochromatic look.
Let the iced cookies set up and dry for about an hour so icing dries, and share these green tea sugar cookies with your friends! Trust me, they will be a hit!