We all love to binge on our favorites this time of year; the same movies, songs, and recipes, over and over again until we can’t stand it anymore. I decided to try an update on a very old favorite this year: holiday sugar cookies.  You know the kind — you cut them out and decorate them like Santa or snowmen or dreidels or gelt. I found the simple recipe (below) in my mother’s battered copy of the Joy of Cooking. The vibrant color of our Yame Matcha green tea powder seemed full of festive possibilities, so I decided to throw some in and this happy-looking dough was the result:

Just in case my experiment was a total flop, I made a batch the old-fashioned way. I couldn’t leave that alone either though, and I whipped up a batch of Matcha icing. My “recipe” was basically a cup of confectioner’s sugar, a few tablespoons of milk and Matcha powder until a screaming green color was achieved. I glazed both versions. The green icing on green cookies version was my favorite. The Matcha lends the cookies a delicate, slightly sweet green tea flavor. Next time I would nix or reduce the vanilla extract in the original recipe — the Matcha alone is flavor enough. I’m itching to make some witch fingers out of this stuff, or maybe some shamrocks in a few months. Here’s the recipe:

Cream Together: 1/2 C sugar and 1/2 C butter.

Beat in: 2 1/2 C sifted flour, 2 t baking powder, and 1/2 t salt.

Chill the dough 3-4 hours. Preheat the oven to 375 degree. Roll out and cut the dough, place on a greased cookie sheet and bake 7-12 minutes.

Once the cookies have cooled, add icing, sprinkles, etc.