This past weekend, as I pondered my afternoon snack, I thought of these shortbread cookies. They’re light, crumbly, and pair perfectly together with a warm cup of tea and a good book. I usually add variations to my cookies, as I’m not a fan of just plain shortbread, so I decided to use up some tea leaves I had sitting around. The tea adds a hint of floral \/ earthy notes and balances the butteriness of the cookie quite well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Tea Variations<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

I used matcha powder, Thai tea, and earl grey for my cookies, but you are welcome to use any tea you’d like. Just keep in mind that some teas may have more robust or subtle flavors than others, so adjust accordingly. Some options are: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

• Black \/ Assam tea<\/li>
• Jasmine tea<\/li>
• Rose tea<\/li>
• Oolong tea<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

  Tea Bags or Loose Tea Leaves?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

  To get a consistent spotting of tea throughout the cookie, you want to use finely-sized tea leaves. Tea bags work great because you can open it up and directly use the tea. You can also use loose tea leaves, but finely chop them to make sure they’re uniform in size. In my picture above, the earl grey cookies were made with tea bags, and Thai tea cookies were made with loose tea leaves, that were fortunately already reasonably fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Do I need to use cold butter?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

  Some shortbread cookie recipes call for cold butter that is cut into the flour to create a crumbly texture. I find that this method leaves chunks of butter scattered throughout the dough. So instead, I like to use room temperature butter and incorporate all the ingredients into a homogenous mixture. In my experience, chilling the dough afterward for about an hour has the same effect as cold butter, and yields a crumbly, buttery cookie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  Tea Time Shortbread Cookies<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

  Prep Time<\/strong>: 15 minutes
  Cook Time<\/strong>: 12 minutes
  Total Time<\/strong>: 27 minutes
  Yield<\/strong>: 2 dozen cookies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Light, buttery, crumbly shortbread cookies infused with tea.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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  Ingredients<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp<\/li>
  • 3\/4 cup confectioner’s sugar<\/li>
  • 1 tsp vanilla<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    • 2 cups all-purpose flour<\/li>
    • 2 tbsp tea *<\/li>
    • 2 tbsp hot water<\/li>
    • 1\/2 tsp salt<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

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      Instructions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. Finely chop the loose tea leaves into small pieces or if using tea bags, cut the bag open and use the leaves directly.<\/li>
      2. Place the tea leaves into a small dish. Add 2 tbsp of hot water and set aside.<\/li>
      3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.<\/li>
      4. Add the vanilla and tea (including water) and mix until the tea is spotted evenly throughout the dough.<\/li>
      5. Mix in the flour and salt until just combined.<\/li>
      6. Place dough on a sheet of plastic wrap, and roll into a circular \/ rectangular log, about 2 inches in diameter. <\/li>
      7. Wrap it up and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour.<\/li>
      8. Preheat oven to 375\u00baF.<\/li>
      9. Slice the log into 1\/3-inch thick pieces. Place on a baking sheet, 1 inch apart (they don’t spread out much).<\/li>
      10. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, until the edges are just brown. Cool for 10 minutes and enjoy!<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

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          Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

          * You can use any tea you’d like. I split up the dough into 3 bowls and used 2\/3 tbsp each of matcha, Thai tea, and earl grey.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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          This past weekend, as I pondered my afternoon snack, I thought of these shortbread cookies. They’re light, crumbly, and pair…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[108],"class_list":["post-6938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-cookies"],"yoast_head":"\n