What To Try With Your Tea: Hojicha Shortbread Cookies

Opening a new Bokksu is one of our favorite things to do every month. Of course, we always get excited to explore new Japanese snacks, but that’s not all. We also love trying a wide variety of Japanese teas to pair with our snacks. They go well not only with traditional Japanese flavors such as kinako and red beans but they also taste good with buttery, chocolatey or fruity snacks. So this time, we actually turned our tea into cookies. Spoiler alert: they tasted amazing!

Hojicha is a unique tea in many ways. Instead of being steamed, hojicha is roasted in porcelain over charcoal. This method removes bitterness in sencha leaves and instead adds smoky and caramel flavor to it. Roasting method also reduces the caffeine content of the tea, so you can enjoy Bokksu Organic Hojicha any time of the day without worrying too much about the caffeine. You can pair hojicha with almost anything from savory food to sweets like vanilla, chocolate and maple syrup flavors. That’s why we tried making hojicha shortbread cookies!

You can have a lot of freedom with this cookie. We specially chose almond flour to add nuttiness to the cookies, but you can replace it with cake flour. You can also use different Bokksu teas and add extra ingredients such as nuts, chocolate chips that you think will go well with your choice of tea.

Hojicha Shortbread Cookies

Makes about 26 cookies

• 7 Tbsp (100g) room temperature butter
• ½ Cup (50g) powdered sugar
• 1 room temperature egg
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Bokksu Organic Hojicha (2.5g)
• ¾ C + 2 Tbsp (120g) cake flour
• ¼ C + 1 Tbsp (30g) almond flour
• Extra granulated sugar (optional)

1. Cream butter and powdered sugar together with a whisk in a medium bowl. Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Whisk until light and fluffy for about 2 minutes.
2. Add in Bokksu Organic Hojicha, cake flour and almond flour. Mix well with a spatula until all comes together.
3. Put a layer of plastic wrap on a kitchen counter and pour the dough onto the wrap. Flatten the dough into either a long rectangle or a circle. Wrap the dough and put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 355°F.
5. Pour and spread sugar onto the kitchen counter. Coat the dough with sugar by rolling in on sugar. Slice the dough into ⅓” thick. Place the slices on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until golden.

Share your version on our Facebook group page, Bokksu Unboxed!