Here, fishy fishy...

I can't remember if I mentioned, but I'm taking a handbuilding ceramics class at Togei Kyoshitsu, which I am totally loving! It's really fun and kind of soothing to sit there and mess around with clay; strangely, my favorite part is actually trimming the piece (probably because my initial efforts are all uh, kind of ugly). And check out the fish plate above--my first finished piece! I l-o-v-e my fish plate!


It just so happened that earlier in the week I had dinner with the girls and got this awesome mooncake mold (one of the girls had just gotten back from a trip to HK and China--jealous!), in the shape of a goldfish. COINCIDENCE???? Okay, yes. Yes it was. But who am I to look opportunity in the eye and ignore it? And how much more perfect can you get than a fish cookie on a fish plate?


So I whipped up a tiny batch of lime shortbread. I wanted to try to give it a more goldfish appropriate color and kneaded in a little bit of orange and yellow gel paste, but obviously didn't use enough. (Although my counter is still stained, grr.) To use the mold, you just pack the dough in until it's full, and make sure you press down to get all the details in. Then flip the mold over and give it a good, hard knock against your counter or table. It should release pretty easily (I didn't even flour the mold). I had some dough left over so broke out my other mooncake mold...waste not, want not!


I must say, I much prefer shortbread fish to mooncake fish--although when it's mooncake season again, I may do some experimenting and see if I can make my own. In the meantime, I'm going back to gazing at my fish plate and congratulating myself! (Did you notice the tiny fish stamped along the bottom?) Can't wait to see how my other pieces turn out!

Green tea shortbread

Considering that the word "cookie" is actually in the title of my blog, I have not posted much at all about cookies--so, I guess it's fitting that I'm (finally) writing about what I consider to be my "signature" cookie. I mean, if I have to choose a favorite, of course :D Plus, this cookie recipe got me onto the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC to chat with Leonard and Ruth Reichl during his Christmas cookie show. You can still listen to the clip here, although I sound like a complete dork because I was about to collapse from nervousness. (As an aside, you should all listen to Leonard Lopate. He's great.)

Like all shortbreads, this is a good "keeper" cookie and will remain fresh and delicious for at least 3 weeks, if you keep them in an airtight container. It is very quick to put together and consists of only 5 ingredients; as is true for all shortbreads, using the freshest butter you can find is very important. If you use stale butter, you won't taste anything but the inside of your refrigerator. (Please for the love of all that is delicious, don't use shortening or margarine.)


Besides the butter, your other most important ingredient is going to be your matcha (also spelled maccha). This is essentially green tea ground into a fine powder and it's sold in Japanese and most Asian groceries; I buy mine at Mitsuwa Market in Edgewater. The current brand I'm using (above) is Yamashiro Ujji Maccha. If you can't find any in your area, then pick a good quality loose leaf green tea and grind it yourself!

I made this batch for my friend Jack's birthday, but as you can see, I snuck a few. One must perform quality control, right?

Matcha Shortbread
2 C all purpose flour
2 Tb good quality green tea powder (matcha)
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 C powdered sugar and 1/4 C granulated sugar

Sift flour and green tea into a bowl; set aside. Beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Sift in the two sugars (and actually you could use all powdered sugar) and salt and continue to beat until well combined and paler in color; this should take another 2 minutes. Add the flour and green tea mixture and mix just until everything is combined and the dough sticks together; don't overmix or you'll have tough cookies. Form the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for an hour.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4" and cut into shapes. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and chill until the cookies are firm (15 minutes or so). Bake for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are set; don't let them brown or you'll lose the nice pale green color. Repeat with the remaining dough.