IMBB#17: Green tea and almond cookies

Tea. n A clump of dead leaves steeped in hot water to create an aromatic drink.

Of course not!

As this month's host of IMBB, Clement, points out, tea is embedded with ritual. The Japanese are famous for their highly ritualised green tea ceremony. The English elegantly partake in a Devonshire tea of scones with jam and cream (altho' the way I pile on the cream negates any sense of dignity). And in India, refreshing cups of spicy sweet chai masala are mandatory from the chaiwallahs present on every street corner.

The AugustusGloop tea ritual is nowhere near as culturally imbued. Laziness and urgency usually wins out over authenticity and quality. Yes, that means ~ quelle horreur ~ tea bags are usually the vehicle of choice. Dilmah tea bags though. We do have some standards.

Something sweet almost always accompanies the brewed beverage (a terrible hard-to-kick habit). Between sips of scalding hot tea (nothing is worse than lukewarm tea, except, um, perhaps cold), the lips itch for something sweet to nibble on.

The habit goes both ways, and in posh restaurants, pleas have to be made to the waiter that "yes, I know it is exceedingly common to drink my tea with my dessert rather than after, but please may I be a savage and have it now?"

The kettle is on at breakfast to accompany my Vegemite toast; the urn is sought out at work to tide me through waves of procrastination; and when the door to home is finally opened, the shoes are kicked off, the house keys are tossed to one side, and the salvation of tea melts away any woes of the day.



IMBB #17: TasteTea called for all foodbloggers to create a dish or beverage with tea, and share any tea rituals (tick! -- see above). Apart from spiced tea eggs, I've never used tea much in cooking so I had no instant recipe ideas come to mind.

After some web surfing, Tibetan butter tea sounded fascinating, but when I read how "the tea's buttery calorific excess is perfect after a hard day's hiking at high altitude" I couldn't quite see myself drinking it.

So instead I made up my own biscuit/cookie recipe incorporating matcha powder. I figured almonds would match perfectly with the cleansing taste of green tea. These turned out quite well... not very sweet at all, since the matcha is quite bittter. The cookies are quite crumbly too and the almond taste comes through without overpowering the taste of the green tea.


Green tea and almond cookies

125g butter
1.5 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups plain flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2.5 teaspoons matcha (green tea) powder
1 cup ground almonds
flaked almonds to decorate

Cream butter and sugar until light and fuffy.
Add eggs and beat in well.
Stir in sifted flour with baking powder, matcha and almonds.

Roll mixture into small balls and flatten slightly. Gently press a flaked almond into the top and place on greased baking trays.

Baked at 190C for about 15 minutes.

Makes 40 small cookies.