Girl Cravings & Genmai Cha Snickerdoodles...

I wouldn't call myself a sweet tooth. I mean, I like a good sweet for sure. But when someone calls themselves a sweet tooth, I assume they crave sweets far more often than I do, which is probably once a week or so, and almost never when I'm grocery shopping. Which explains why I never seem to have sweets around when I'm craving them. Which is probably a good thing in a way. Because I have a feeling I could learn to crave them more if I ate them more, if that makes any sense.

A girl's got needs...

When I do want something sweet, the fact that I am a crap baker (by neglect to some extent), means I rarely have the ingredients to bake anything too complicated. While I have been thinking about baking green tea sugar cookies for a while, when it comes to *baking*, unlike *cooking*, *thinking*, rather than *doing*, is usually the operative word. Add in the fact that I'm an hour and a half away from anywhere I can buy matcha, and the green tea sugar cookies are just gonna have to wait another month. or two. or three...

On the other hand, if I'm taking inventory of the foodstuffs that need to be consumed before we move at the end of the month and happen to find a box of genmai cha in the cupboard, and I have everything I need to bake a basic cookie, and I'm mad hormonal jonesing for something that resembles those sugar cookies I've been thinking about for way too long, I really don't have a choice but to bake these Genmai Cha Snickerdoodles.

green tea + toasted brown rice = genmai cha.
*Cha*, btw, means *tea* in 
Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

A lightly sweet cookie with that little bit of fluff and chew that I love in a snickerdoodle, paired with a hint of roasted, nutty genmai and mild green tea flavor. A little East meets West kind of treat that's extremely easy to make, and perhaps a little too easy to eat. It's a good thing the Man's good at disappearing cookies.

As with most cookie recipes, it's a good idea to bring your butter and eggs to room temp (20 minutes or so out of the fridge - less if it's a blistering hot summer day) before starting.

GENMAI CHA SNICKERDOODLES
Makes about 3 dozen 2-inch cookies

This recipe is essentially Martha Stewart's 2005 Holiday Cookie recipe, minus the cinnamon sugar, plus some genmai cha thrown into and atop, and with a few minor adjustments to size and bake time. But the concept would work well with any basic drop sugar cookie or snickerdoodle recipe. 

My notes/additions in italics.

• 2+3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1+1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 Tablespoons (about 8 packets) genmai cha for the batter
• 2 Tablespoons (about 4 packets) genmai cha to sprinkle atop

1) Preheat oven to 350F.

2) Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside (if you have a stand mixer, you can do the sifting while the butter and sugar are beating). Put butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. 

3) Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture and 4 Tablespoons genmai cha.

4) Shape dough into 36 1-inch balls. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper (or a Silpat / silicone baking sheet) and sprinkle the tops with a pinch of genmai cha. (My silpat and baking sheets are in storage. I used the Man's scratched and banged up cookie sheet, and it worked just fine after I very lightly buttered and floured it.)

roasty, toasty sprinkles...

5) Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool for 3 to 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet to avoid breakage.

I saved half the dough to bake off another time, and though it is hot as Hades up in this place, I think I'm going to make me some more cookies tonight. What's a little extra heat from the oven when you're sweating like a pig from making dinner anyway?

*oink*,

shinae