Matcha Cream Cheese Cookies

We’ve been playing around with recipes recently using other tea powders — somehow straying away from the commonly used Matcha as we want to explore the unique flavors and qualities of the lesser known wakoucha, houjicha, sencha, and genmaicha powders. However, it should also be known that Matcha comes in multiple grades out there that give really distinct tastes to the food you make it with — Basic Grade, Excellent Grade, and Premium Grade.

I’ve made cookies before using basic grade matcha, which came out pretty good. It had that slight bitter and astringent flavor, yet it complements with the sweetness of the cookies, making it balance altogether. But I’ve never tried using ceremonial grade before for baking! I’ve always felt that it was meant to be enjoyed as a drink instead (boy, oh I was surprised). We were talking at the Obubu house before about trying out one of the ceremonial grade matcha we had for our baking adventures, and since we got the staff’s blessing to come up with something nice anyway, let’s give it a go, shall we?

What to make, what to make… I have been meaning to make a cheesecake for so long now, but a cake would call for over a pound of cream cheese (which btw we kinda have limited access to..) so I figured, maybe some cookies instead? I’m sure we’ll find a way to make some cream cheese cookies… right? Since it’s a first for me to make cream cheese cookies, I wouldn’t want to to make this a trial and error one. I found a recipe from Preppy Kitchen’s Cream Cheese Cookies, which was very simple and delicious. But of course, everything is better with Matcha! For today, I used Okumidori Matcha.

I was supposed to go with 15-20g of powder as I would usually do, but this time I went for less — about 10g. The vibrant green color of the ceremonial grade matcha came through beautifully, and even with lesser amount used, the rich matcha flavor minus the bitterness was absolutely present. I honestly don’t know how I’ll recover from using ceremonial grade for baking (uh oh).

The cookies’ color is so bright!

How to make Matcha Cream Cheese Cookies

Matcha Cream Cheese Cookies

Ingredients

• 113g Unsalted Butter
• 113g Cream Cheese
• 200g Granulated Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 210g All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 10g Okumidori Matcha.

 Instructions

1. In a bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder, and matcha. Whisk the dry ingredients together and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese together using an electric hand mixer (a lot easier if you have a stand mixer with a paddle attachment). Add the sugar and mix well until it’s light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and egg and mix until well combined.
3. Combine the wet and dry mixture, and mix well. I started using a rubber spatula to scrape around the bowl, making sure everything is well combined.
4. Cover the bowl and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
5. Roll the dough in balls (approximately 2 tbsp) and freeze if you’d like to keep your dough balls a bit longer.
6. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Place the cookie balls to a baking sheet (about 2 inches apart) and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
7. Transfer to a wire rack and let it cool before you dig in. You may dust it with whatever topping you’d prefer (powdered sugar, matcha, chocolate, etc.)

Some notes:

• It may be best to give more time for your cookies to chill in the fridge so that it’s easier to handle and mold into balls. It can get really sticky so you would have to dampen your hands from time to time.
• I like freezing my cookie dough balls to keep it fresh longer (although it’s gone fast..) You can always just pop some in the oven for freshly-baked cookies whenever you feel like having one!

We also made some Okumidori Matcha Ganache to top the cookies, but of course this is very much optional! Claire was making some ganache during that time and we just thought it may go well together — and it did! It wasn’t too much matcha at all — it’s like a perfect matcha! (am I punny now…) Hope you enjoy this one as well as the other food recipes we’ve previously shared. Until next time!

-Intern Mikie

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