I'm so glad today, to have my son Joseph, doing another guest post for me! We were thrilled that his maiden post was so warmly received and when his Father's Day treat turned out so well, we thought we should share it with all of you. I hope all you lovely dads out there had a wonderful time with your families too, on Sunday. Now, without further delay, I give you Joseph!


Hi everyone. My name is Joseph and I’m 12.  This is my second guest post for mum and this time I’ll be doing something sweet. I can't cook or bake as well as mum, because I'm still learning and sometimes, I forget the stuff she teaches me, but I hope you like what I did.

It's a simple green tea and vanilla cookie with almonds on top and I made this for my dad, on Father's Day. He loves green tea gelato so mum thought he would like a green tea cookie too. They were really good, even with the green tea, which I don't like. The vanilla and nuts made them taste great and they disappeared so fast, dad asked me to make them again soon.

Mum's been teaching me how to do French pastry and this week we made Pate Sucree and Pate Sablee. This cookie is based on these two pastries but she changed the recipe a bit and made it easier and quicker.

One time I asked mum why she's always trying to make recipes quicker. She said she's always trying to find more time in the day to write articles, blog posts and cook books, feed us well enough so we'll all be tall as redwoods (some kind of tree, I think), go running so she doesn't get so fat she'll need a new wardrobe, talk to one friend on the phone everyday, keep our house clean, look pretty when dad comes home from work, and still have time to drink a glass of wine, listen to Ella and read a few chapters from a book before sleeping.

She thinks there are other people like her so she writes quick and easy recipes for them. I think she's trying to do too much but she frowns and tells me I'll understand one day.

The pictures of the cookies were taken by mum. All the ones I took were blurry because I couldn't stop the camera from shaking when I pressed the shoot button, this time round. I arranged the cookies on the saucer and made the dough all by myself because the recipe is really easy. Mum let me use her KitchenAid mixer but you can do this by hand too. I needed help with the rolling pin because it's not so easy to get the dough nice and flat everywhere.

I hope you try this recipe and like it and thanks everyone, for reading my post!


Prep 10 mins      Chilling 1 hr      Cook 10 mins      Makes about 50 cookies


300 g (3 level cups) plain or all-purpose flour
150 g (1 ½ level cups) icing sugar
3 level tsps matcha (very finely ground green tea) - add more for a stronger flavour
1 level tsp fine sea salt
150 g (1 level cup) soft butter
1 large egg
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 extra egg, beaten (for egg wash)
½ cup flaked almonds



 

• Thoroughly combine the flour, icing sugar, matcha and salt and sift into the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl.

• Make a well in the middle of flour mixture and add butter, egg and vanilla. Using the dough hook of the mixer or your hand, mix the butter and egg and slowly draw in the flour. Keep mixing until a soft dough forms.

• Turn dough out onto clean counter and knead very briefly (4 or 5 strokes) until smooth and silky. Form into 4 equal round discs and wrap with cling film. Chill for at least 1 hour.

• Preheat oven at 170 C (330 F) and remove all the dough from fridge. Unwrap one disc and put on a lightly floured surface. Dust dough lightly with flour and roll out with a rolling pin until about 3mm (1/8 in) thick. Dip a 6 cm (2 ½ in) round fluted cutter in flour and cut out as many rounds as you can (I got 13 rounds).

• Place rounds on a lightly greased or parchment lined baking tray. Brush the top of each round with the beaten egg and put about 6 almond flakes on each, pressing them on lightly.

• Bake for 8 – 10 minutes until very lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool rounds on a rack. Repeat with the other discs.

• Cool cookies before serving and store leftovers in an air tight container at room temperature. If you don’t want to make so many cookies all at once, you can chill or freeze the dough for another day.

 

Note : Mum likes to divide her pastry into smaller discs and chill them before rolling because smaller circles of pastry are easier to roll out and you won’t have much pastry scraps to gather and reroll. She says rerolling makes the pastry tough.


Thank you Joseph for another lovely post! You always make me so proud. The cookies were wonderful; so tender and buttery and sweetly perfumed with green tea and vanilla! You're a dream student - so open and eager to learn. I hope you continue to grow in knowledge and experience and one day soon, live your dream, whatever that may be!