TURTLE COOKIES
(PREHEAT OVEN TO 375°)
2 1/2 cups flour (will vary in dough modifications)
16 tbsp (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp matcha powder
black nonpareils
Semi-sweet chocolate
+
Round cookie cutter
Rolling pin
Plastic wrap
1. Cream the butter and the two sugars together
2. Mix in the egg yolks one at a time. Mix in the vanilla extract
3. Split the mixture that you have so far in thirds and set aside for now
4. Get two separate bowls. To one bowl, add 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour and 2 tbsp matcha powder. Mix thoroughly
5. Add one third of the previously split mixture and mix until you get a dough
6. To the other bowl, add 1 1/2 cups flour
7. Add the remaining two thirds of the previously split mixture and mix. Now you should have one matcha cookie dough and one vanilla cookie dough
8. Split the vanilla dough in half. Place half of the vanilla dough on a piece of plastic wrap
9. Roll it so it forms a log with a 1 1/4” diameter
10. Sandwich the matcha dough between two sheets of plastic wrap
11. Use a rolling pin to roll it out to a rectangle as long as the vanilla log and wide enough to fully wrap around it (it’ll be about 1/4” thick)
12. Wrap the matcha dough around the vanilla dough log. Use your fingers to smooth out the crease formed
13. Cover the entire log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
14. Once the dough is firm, remove from the refrigerator. Slice 1/4” thick slices from the dough log and place the cookies onto the baking sheets.
15. Take the other half of the vanilla dough, sandwich it between plastic wrap, and roll it out to 1” thick. Use a round 1” cookie cutter to cut out circles from the dough.
16. Take the cookie cutter and cut off part of the circle to form crescent shapes for the turtle heads. Use a big straw (like the ones for pearl milk tea) to cut out small circles. Use a knife to cut each circle in half
17. Now take 1 log slice, 1 crescent, and 5 small semicircles (4 for the feet and 1 for the tail) and stick them together to form a turtle
18. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper
19. Pinch the tail semicircles so it looks triangular. Add two black sprinkles on the crescent for the eyes. Repeat for the other log slices
20. Chill cookie turtles for 10 minutes
21. Place in the oven to bake for 12-15 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes, then move the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling
22. Melt the chocolate. Place it in a piping bag. Pipe two vertical lines on the shell. Then, pipe two horizontal lines on the shell perpendicular to the vertical lines.
