Tea Cookies

I’ll just come right out and say it: slice and bake cookies are awesome. You make the dough and it’s ready for when you need it. It might be now, it might be later, but it’s ready. What’s even better, is that at that later point, there’s next to no clean-up involved and you still get fresh baked cookies.

Like I said, slice and bake cookies are *awesome*.

This particular recipe is essentially a shortbread with some tea added for flavour. The original used Earl Grey tea (yummy) but really, you can use whatever you want. Make sure you like whatever tea you use though, because the taste of the tea is the focal point of the cookie.

The Recipe

A variation of the original from Martha Stewart Cookies,
found via Recipe Zaar

1 cup / 250mL butter
1/2 cup / 125mL icing sugar
1 tbsp / 15mL grated dried apricots or citrus zest
2 cups / 500mL flour
2 tbsp / 30mL finely ground tea (I used Apricot-Peach Black Tea, but your favourite will do)
1/2 tsp / 2mL coarse salt

How-To

Beat butter until fluffy, then add sugar and dried fruit or zest and mix thoroughly.

Combine flour, ground tea leaves and salt, then mix into the butter-sugar mixture until integrated. Divide dough in half, and roll into a log shape that is 1 1/4 inch / 3cm in diameter.  (Great trick: use a paper towel tube to shape the log. Roll the dough into nearly the right diametre, then press through the length of a paper towel tube — the results will come out the other end nice and round!)

Freeze for 1 hour or up to 3 months.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F) / 180 degrees (C). Slice into 1/4 inch / 0.5cm thick disks and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. They will not spread a lot, but there needs to be some room for the air to circulate — aproximately 1inch / 2.5cms.

Place in oven and bake for 11-13 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges. Remove from sheets and cool on racks.

Enjoy!