Cranberry and Matcha Cookies (with white chocolate filling)

Ms Shi and Mr He

This easy recipe teaches us how to make cranberry and matcha cookies with white chocolate filling. No hand mixer is needed. Decorated with strawberry hearts, sakura flowers, and cashew nuts, these beautiful shortbread cookies can be a perfect Christmas, New Year, or Valentine gift.

5 from 4 votes

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Prep Time 30

Cook Time 20

Freezing Time 30

Total Time 1 20

Course Dessert

Cuisine Scotland

Servings 30 cookies

Calories 71 kcal

Equipment

Kitchen scale
Parchment paper
Baking sheet
Mini cookie cutters (Optional)
oven

Ingredients

120 g unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
65 g powdered sugar
50 g egg (about 1 large egg)
230 g all purpose flour (Or use 180g all purpose flour + 40g almond flour + 10g milk powder for a better taste)
30 g dried cranberries (Optional. 30g dried cranberries are for half of the dough. Use 60g dried cranberries if you are not going to make the matcha flavor cookies.)
1 tbsp matcha powder (Optional. 1 tbsp matcha powder is for half of the dough. Use 2 tbsps matcha powder if you are not going to make the cranberry flavor cookies.)
70 g white chocolate (Optional. Or you can use milk chocolate/dark chocolate.)
3 strawberries (Optional)
10 salted sakura flowers (Optional)
10 cashews (Optional)

Instructions

Add room-temperature softened butter and powdered sugar to a large bowl, mix with a spatula until well combined.
Beat an egg in a small bowl until the yolk and white are combined, weigh 50g egg, add the egg to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix with a spatula until well combined.
Add all purpose flour (optionally substitute a portion of all purpose flour with almond flour and milk powder for a better taste) to the large bowl, mix with a spatula, then with your hands until well combined. (The dough should be softer and stickier than a bread dough.)
Optionally, evenly divide the dough into two portions. Add finely chopped dried cranberries to one portion of the dough, add matcha powder to the other portion of the dough. Mix well with your hands until well combined.
Transfer the dough on a sheet of parchment paper, shape it into a 1.5''X1.5''X10'' rectangular block (*see note 1). Keep the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes until it turns slightly hard.
Preheat oven to 320°F/160°C.
Take the dough out from the freezer, remove the parchment paper, and place the dough on a cutting board. Cut the dough block into ⅕ inch (½ cm) thick slices. You should be able to get about 30 slices of cookie dough.
Place the cookie slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Optionally use a mini cookie cutter (or the larger side of a piping tip) to hollow the center of each cookie slice.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven at 320°F/160°C for 20 to 25 minutes.

White chocolate filling (optional)

Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler. (See Note 2)
Wash and cut some strawberries into thin slices. Optionally cut them into heart or flower shape with a mini cookie cutter. Soak and rinse some salted sakura flowers. Pat dry the strawberries and flowers with kitchen paper.
Fill the center of each cookie with melted white chocolate, top with a slice of strawberry, an edible sakura flower, a cashew nut, or other topping of your choice.
Leave the cookies to cool completely on the parchment paper until the chocolate turns hard. You can keep the baking sheet in the fridge to speed up the cooling process.

Video

Notes

Note 1: To shape the shortbread cookie dough into a rectangular block:

Place the dough on the center of a sheet of parchment paper. Roughly use your hands to shape the dough into a log.
Fold the parchment paper up along the long sides of the log, pinch the long edge of the log to create a right angle side.
Repeat until you get a butter-like 1.5''X1.5''X10'' rectangular block.

Or you can use a rectangular cookie mold.

Note 2: To melt white chocolate in a double boiler:

Use your hand to break a white chocolate bar into smaller pieces, or you can use chocolate chips, place them in a small glass/ceramic bowl.
Fill a small pot with 1 inch of water, bring it to a simmer.
Place the small bowl with white chocolate over the simmering pot. Stir the white chocolate pieces with a spoon to ensure they heat evenly.
Once all the chocolate has been melted, remove the small bowl from the pot.

It's usually suggested to have the small bowl nest on the top of the simmering pot, and heat up the chocolate with the hot steam. However, I found it's totally fine to just soak the bowl directly in the hot water, as long as you don't leave the chocolate in the hot water bath for too long after it's fully melted.

Alternatively you can melt the chocolate in the microwave: Microwave the chocolate chips at 50% power for 1 minute. Remove the bowl from the microwave, stir with a spoon. If the chocolate has not melted thoroughly, continue to microwave at 50% power in 15-second intervals, stir between each interval until all the chocolate chips are melted.

Note 3: Storage of cranberry & matcha cookies:

Cranberry & matcha cookies with no filling, with chocolate filling, with dried strawberry topping, or nuts topping can be storage in an airtight container at room temperature for 7 days, or in the fridge for 10 days.

Cranberry & matcha cookies with fresh strawberry or sakura topping can’t be stored for a long time. You will need to store them in an airtight container in the fridge and eat them within 3 days.

Keyword Cranberry Cookies, Matcha Cookies, Shortbread cookeis