One of the only colleagues who took a cotton to my previous matcha/green tea cookie baking efforts mentioned that he would like to have some more matcha cookies. I decided to add that to the list of cookies for last week just for his sake. After all, I had just two tablespoons remaining of the matcha brought to me last year as a gift by a guy who has been assigned the dubious moniker “Green Tea Asshole”. The sooner I could dispense with all evidence of that guy’s existence, the better.

Having told the story of how I came to have the matcha in my possession, however, seems to have made the Green Tea Asshole’s ears burn because, after almost a year of blissful silence, he emailed with some psychotic ramblings that are not repeatable here. He seems to have replaced an obsessive stalker-like character from my 20s, who reappeared again and again, particularly if I happened to think of or mention him aloud. (His name is banned from being repeated as well, lest he decide to turn up again after years and years of silence.)

The green tea shortbread I made this time seemed to enjoy a bit more popularity than my first-attempt green tea baking. But it’s still not a favorite.

Green tea shortbread

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons matcha powder
1 cup butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar (more if the matcha is very strong or if you like it a bit sweeter)

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add flour and matcha powder to the butter mixture slowly until the dough just comes together.

Pull together into a log about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and freeze about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325F. Slice the frozen log into 1/4 inch thick rounds. (Mine were more strange and rectangular.) Place slices on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 16-18 minutes. Do not let the cookies get very brown (remove as soon as you notice them getting slightly brown on the edges).