Sparkling Matcha Diamants

A slightly frothy, emerald-green bowl of matcha is always delicious, and incredibly mood-enhancing, but not more so than these matcha diamant cookies.

An incredible jewelry designer I know spotted on one of most gorgeous food blogs I've seen in ages, Cannelle et Vanille, and we decided to combine blog forces and make a batch yesterday (she has not only a dishwasher, but also, thankfully, a more liberal hand with the air conditioning).

The cookies were a deep, rich green, and as buttery and delicate as shortbread. We paired them with a big pot of fragrant Chinese jasmine tea, which has a lingering floral taste but is still light enough to not overpower the subtle sweetness of the diamants.

Matcha is an ideal tea to cook with, as it mixes readily in its finely powdered state. I've used it in chocolate desserts, especially brownies, with much success, but I'd never tried it as the main flavoring. It's a Japanese tea, produced from steamed green tea leaves, and its pleasantly intense, vegetal taste is well suited to standing up to the holy trinity of deliciousness (butter, sugar and eggs).

Matcha is on the expensive side, but a little goes a long way- these cookies had only 2 teaspoons- and you can buy ingredient-grade to save yourself a bit of money. It's not of poorer quality than the traditional drinking-grade matcha; rather, it's made out of less delicate tea leaves. The subtlety of the high-quality matcha would be lost when there are so many other flavors going on, as in a dessert, so just save that type for your next Japanese tea ceremony.

And to stave off the inevitable clever comments, yes, I do know how to save money on occasion.