I am hesitant to put this out there on the Internet, but I used to have a gigantic phobia of frogs. I’m not 100% what it was, but until the Pokemon Froakie came out, I found frogs to be kind of gross? Slimy, bulbous eyes, the expanding throats, the randomly differently colored underbellies, and the webbed feet. It really was not for me. But that being said, because frogs began with the letter “F”, and Fred does as well, up until probably the 3rd grade, people would always assume that I loved frogs because we shared the first two letters in our names. That was a very off assumption there(my favorite animal as a child was a tie between bunny rabbits and foxes), but I got heavily associated with frogs because of both that and my now-thankfully-gone phobia of them. That entire frog anecdote was to prepare you for my recipe, which are frog-themed matcha shortbread cookies! So something funny to note, and I picked up on this when I was watching episodes of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, is that depending on how you look at it, chibi versions of frogs and bears kind of look alike. The difference is that where the ears would be for a bear would be where the eyes would be for a frog. And that works nicely in the case of these shortbreads, since I could take the same technique I used for making bear cookies, being used a bear-shaped cookier cutter to create a bear/frog-shaped hole in the cookie, and apply them to frog cookies all the same!

The dough itself is a shortbread dough that is tinted green with matcha powder. I used a ceremonial grade matcha, which gives it a vibrant green color. I didn’t even need to use green spirulina in this recipe, it was 100% dyed from just matcha green tea powder! Making matcha shortbreads specifically takes me back to college, when for Taiwanese club, we would do matcha-themed bake sales to raise money for our club. The matcha egg tarts and the matcha shortbreads were easily the most popular, and everyone loved those. This recipe is 99% the same as that, but with one substitution – I swapped baking powder with cornstarch. The cornstarch adds a firmness to the dough, and that is typically done in cookies like alfajores. It can also be used as a substitute for an egg yolk in shortbreads, but I kept the egg yolk in for flavor. I felt like the baking powder was not as needed, since the cookies themselves are meant to be firmer, not airier. The end result were shortbreads that just melt in your mouth! To pair with that, I did a matcha-white chocolate filling, that was an homage to nama chocolate. Nama chocolate is a modern Japanese version of a chocolate truffle. The ganache mixture has a little alcohol in it, which softens the consistency of the ganache, and gives it this melt-in-the-mouth texture that is both pleasant and addictive! In this case, I went with a matcha version of that, just to tie back in with the flavor the of cookies!

Makes 18 shortbread sandwiches:
For the shortbread dough:
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
1g matcha powder

In a bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and salt until they reach a silky consistency. Then add to that the egg yolk and vanilla, and stir until those are incorporated as well. Finally, fold the flour, cornstarch, and matcha powder into the butter to form your dough. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Then on a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out 1 1/2-inch rounds of the dough, and then with half of the rounds, cut out “frog(3 circles, think Hidden Mickey)” shapes, re-rolling the dough as necessary. Freeze the dough for at least 1 hour before baking at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes.

For the matcha chocolate ganache filling:
1.5oz white chocolate chips
.5oz heavy cream
.5oz unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
1g matcha powder
1/2 tsp cooking sake

Over a double boiler, melt everything down. Allow the mixture to cool down before transferring to a piping bag for assembly.

For garnish:
1/4 tsp activated
1g clear alcohol

Mix together the form your edible paint.

To assemble:
Pipe the matcha chocolate onto a normal round. Then press onto it a round that has the frog shape cut out of it. Then using a chopstick and a skewer, draw on the frog’s features(eyes, nostrils, and mouth) with the edible paint to finish.