Matcha Green Tea Shortbread Cookies with White Chocolate Chips ( Low Carb, Gluten Free & Vegan )

Hello everyone! I've decided to do a mini recipe series consisting of baked goods containing Matcha Green Tea as the main flavour ingredient because well i'm asian, and what asian doesn't love Green Tea? ( sorry for the stereotype but in most cases it's true! ).  I'm starting the series off with a SUPER easy 5 ingredient, low carb, keto, gluten free Shortbread recipe which i hope you all will enjoy! 

If you're looking for a soft chewy cookie, this won't be it. The cookie itself holds well together without being too hard or too crumbly whilst delivering a strong buttery Matcha flavour which compliments the crunchy lightly caramelised white chocolate chips. Keep in mind that Matcha is an acquired taste so if you haven't tried it yet i can't guarantee that you'll love these cookies because the flavour is dominant. But even then, you can just omit it from the recipe and end up with a delicious buttery low carb shortbread!  

To be completely honest , as a child i didn't always like Green Tea flavoured goods despite growing up in Asia. I just remembered it tasting super bitter but i guess that my tastebuds have evolved since then. In fact i only started to enjoy the flavour of Green Tea once i left China which is really unfortunate because now i go crazy for the anything green tea related, including ice cream, chocolates ( green tea kitkat? to die for ), cakes, candies, buns and basically anything you can imagine with that sexy shade of electric green. The tragic part: I can rarely get my hands on any of these yummies because its not exactly a popular flavour here in Switzerland... :(

On top of being nomnom worthy , this shortbread recipe is also LCHF which applies for all you people out there following the ketogenic diet, gluten free and i've with a vegan friendly version too! 

Ingredients ( makes 30 cookies ):

• 2 1/2 cups of blanched almond flour
• 125g of chilled unsalted butter ( for vegans, use vegan butter/spread ) 
• 1/2 cup of xylitol ( or sugar for non low carbers )
• 1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons of matcha green tea powder
• 60g - 100g roughly chopped white chocolate ( optional )( for vegans, use vegan white chocolate ) 

Notes: 

• I used 60g of Swiss Cailler white vanilla chocolate but next time i would add closer to 100g.
• If you're super cautious about the carbohydrates in white chocolate , feel free to exclude it ( although i think its worth that extra bit of carbs )or just use 70% + dark chocolate instead. 

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 150°C ( 300 fahrenheit ) and line baking tray with parchment paper.
   
   
2. Mix together all the dry ingredients ( blanched almond flour, xylitol, matcha green tea powder.
   
   
3. Cube the cold butter and massage it into the dry ingredients, the "dough" should be more crumbly than a smooth. ( If it gets too smooth, put the "dough" in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to firm up again and continue to massage it until everything is blended together with a crumbly texture ).
   
   
4. Add in the chopped white chocolate.
   
   
5. Flatten the cookie dough with a rolling pin, it should be around 1 cm thick. Then use whatever shape cookie cutters you want! ( if you don't have a rolling pin or cookie cutters, just use your hands to make some flattened cookies, just make sure they're around 1 cm thick ). 
   
   
6. Place the cookies gently on the baking tray and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Allowing the cookies to cool for at least 15 minutes before handling them. 
   
   

Nutrition Information:

1 Cookie ( including 60g white chocolate ) contains: 98 calories, 8.4 g of fat , 2.4 g of carbs (1 g of fiber = 1.4 g net carbs ) & 2 g of protein.