order amongst chaos // matcha flower cookies

There is something about the pattern of repetition that attracts the human eye. I present my case.

A word on the inspiration behind these cookies and on the sweet treats themselves – as much as I would love to claim credit for this idea of using a single whole flower as cookie decoration material, doing so would be a lie because some ingenious (probably) Japanese folks have beaten me to the chase, knowledge courtesy of Instagram. However, I did put my own spin on this cookie situation by using matcha flavoured dough instead of a plain one to provide a colour contrast that would really showcase the vibrant hues of the flowers. The pretty scalloped edges don’t hurt either.

The cookie sandwich version was completely impromptu – I realised I had some strawberries lying around and I couldn’t pass up creating a little pink and green combo. I took a mixture of cream cheese, unsalted butter and melted white chocolate in the ratio of 3 (45g) : 1 (15g) : 1 (15g) and one finely chopped strawberry and managed to make about 10 cookie sandwiches. I made these purely for aesthetic reasons at first but they turned out to be so delicious especially after you let all the flavours meld together after a day in the fridge.

Matcha Flower Cookies

makes about 25 cookies

This recipe makes softer cookies. For crisper cookies it might be a good idea to swap half the icing sugar for granulated sugar.

Ingredients:

120 grams all purpose flour

8 grams matcha powder

85 grams unsalted butter, softened

65 grams icing sugar, sifted

pinch of salt

1 large egg yolk

edible flowers (I got mine here)

Make the dough: Sift the flour and matcha powder together into a bowl. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the butter, icing sugar and salt together until combined, without incorporating too much air. Beat in the egg yolk until incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture until combined.

Roll out the dough to about a 1/4 inch thickness and use a cookie cutter to stamp out rounds of dough. Press an edible flower unto the center of each cookie. If the dough is too soft to work with right after mixing, refrigerate it until it’s firmer before working with it.

Refrigerate the cut out cookies for at least 2 hours before baking.

Bake the cookies: Preheat oven to 170C. Bake for 8 minutes; the edges of the cookies should be barely browned. Let cookies cool completely.

Note: recipe adapted from here.

食用花からインスピレーションを受けた抹茶クッキです。いちごバタークリームを挟むことでさらに美味しくなりますので、良かったらそれも試してみてください！