Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day here in London, the perfect weather for a photo-walk with Charlotte, Sam and Hannah. We met for brunch at Ozone Coffee, to fuel up with caffeine and food. I had filter coffee, Honduras El Cedral 2012 COE, and Buttermilk Pancake with Maple Syrup, Ricotta and Walnuts. It was a great way to start the day, followed by a walk around Hoxton and Shoredicth to take photos together.
As the four of us are all food-lovers and enjoy baking, we decided to prepare homemade treats to exchange during our meet up. Sam and Hannah prepared Nanaimo Bars, a traditional Canadian cookie, while Charlotte made Cannolli Cream Cups. I decided to try a new recipe: Green Tea Swirl Biscuits.
I was curious to use matcha powder, which I bought from the Japan Centre, in baking. It’s a great ingredient if you want to add colours to your biscuits, instead of using food colouring.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 3 cups white flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 10g matcha powder
Preparation
Cream together the butter and sugar in large mixing bowl. Add vanilla and eggs. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, and mix well.
Take out about half the dough, ball it up. Wrap in cling film and put aside.
Add the matcha powder to dough remaining in bowl, and mix until color is thoroughly blended. Ball this dough up, and wrap, as well. Refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes.
Divide each ball in half then roll out into long rectangle, trying to obtain a uniform shape. Lay one layer over the other, trim off the edges then gently roll them. Cut the roll in two or three logs and place them in the fridge for at least an hour (two hours would be better to stiffen the dough).
Preheat the oven to 160 °C. Take out the dough, and slice off 1cm biscuits.
Place them on baking parchment sheets and bake for 12-14 minutes. The biscuits should not brown at all on top.
Place them biscuits on a wire rack to cool.
Recipe adapted from Blommi blog.
