Their recipe has powdered sugar which has cornstarch and that could make a difference in absorbing the extra moisture. In your recipe, 2.5 extra tablespoons and the extracts and no powdered sugar could make a big difference.

I would leave out the vanilla in yours, put it in the icing though, and mix up the recipe and make one cookie. You could add additional flour if necessary.

I appreciate Bumblebeez more scientific approach. I'm more seat of the pants in baking, but the perfection of cut and non-dome requires precision. To me, that sounds like a lot of tea! How gren and hiw tea flavored must the cookie be? For a clean matcha fkavor, I'd forgo both the almond and vanilla, and make a matcha extract with the tea and some vodka or white rum (or it may be possible to buy it if you don't have time), and use the same four teaspoons of that. That way the texture of the cookie would be similar.

hmm, both good ideas. There are not a lot of recipes for matcha cookies, and this one had many reviews and a good rating. Reviews for other recipes noted that they lacked the color and taste of matcha.

I think I will do a hybrid of your suggestions ... make an extract and then make a very small batch. Is there a limit to downsizing, assuming I will convert things to grams so I can do so accurately?

Just found another recipe. No egg at all. (?) More butter, less sugar, normal sugar, same matcha/flour ratio.

They were rolled cookies, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K2OZUEdQqc

The extract is going to give you a tinge of green, rather than olive drab. Your tablespoon of vanilla looks like a lot of flavor to me. Compared, a tablespoon of matcha extract, especially one that you haven't made over a long period, should give you a pleasant flavor of ot, but not a full on tea experience.

You are right, Pllog, I was looking around at recipes and yes, 1T of vanilla is a lot, isn't it? It's correct tho, I've made it so many times I could do it w my eyes closed.

The matcha I bought is a very bright almost lime green. Off experimenting ... thx for your insight

oops, to be clear, the green tea (matcha) is in powder form, Bumble; so it adds to the dry ingred not liquid

BTW, Mtn, I keep meaning to say how lovely I think your cookies are!

aww, thanks plllog! I appreciate that. They sure are fun to make!

I don't think 1 T. of vanilla is a lot with 3 cups of sugar....but it often depends on the quality of your vanilla.

The new recipe you posted with no eggs looks to be pretty much a short bread. It will be lovely and cut beautifully and no rise at all.
When I make decorated cookies I omit all baking powder or soda...so there is no rise at all.
Your cookies are beautiful!!

I would be so tempted to just use your original recipe as it works so well for you. The amount of Matcha depends on how vibrant you want to go. I use matcha a lot. 3 tbsp might be a good amount. Doesn't need a carrier. It blends so easily. The only time you will see off colors is if you overbake or get very brown edges. Or add to cake mixes that have additives like caramel coloring or whatever is used to make mixes a darker yellow. Sometimes anatto that is an orange-yellow.

One of my favorite bakeries uses matcha in a few dozen things in many shades of green. From pale to the darker shortbread 'stones'. I always chuckle at the gorgeous crepes since they remind me of my kitchen cloths.

Thank you, LindaC, but those aren't my kimono cookies; they are from the Etsy page where I ordered them.

Took me a while to figure out what "stones" were, LOL! They sure are vibrant. I looked around last night and probably viewed over a dozen matcha cookie recipes, and almost all stuck to 2-2.5 T for 1 c flour. (I just chose to track that metric since flour usually takes up the most weight in a cookie).

Anyway, I scaled down my recipe to the smallest practical amount, based on a half stick of butter. Making so little meant I had to hand mix it. And by hand mix, I mean I creamed the butter and sugar with my hands! Yuck. I kept in the vanilla and almond, because the matcha makes things less sweet, and those extracts also add sweetness so if I took them out AND added matcha it might ruin it.

I like the flavor (but then I love things like green tea ice cream) and I don't find it too strong and it had no impact on texture or workability. I did up the egg slightly (it should have been 16 grams and I put in 22). That was mainly because it was so hard to weigh but also I figured it was a little offset to the ~5 grams of matcha powder.

While flooding with royal icing can make cookies overly sweet, I think flooding is perfect for the mathca version. I don't have my Kimono/slipper cutters yet so i just made hearts.

I hope they taste as good as they look!

Mtn, Yay you! Glad your experiment was a success. Is the green going to show through the icing? (I know nothing about royal icing). If so, do you need to plan a different color kimono that might be more opaque? Could you do a green kimono, with pink cherry blossoms?

Bbstx, i can do white opaque, but I do think it will make sense to incorporate green. So I am thinking a very pale green flooding icing, dark branches w pink blossoms, not sure about the sash color. Maybe white with a gold cord IDK. Or a darker green or pink. Even yellow; i notice they dont always match. I am eagerly tracking the shipment of the cookie cutters (from Japan!). When I get them, I will trace them on paper and try out colors and designs in pencil.

Can’t wait to see how it turns out!