I saw someone on Instagram making these cute ring-shaped shortbreads, comprised of smaller shapes that were arranged in essentially a crown/wreath shape. Aesthetically, I found that to be extremely pleasing, and also since it is a shortbread made of other shortbreads, that invited a lot of possibilities in terms of fun or different flavor combinations! So in this case, I figured I would make a matcha-kinako shortbread, combining grassy ceremonial matcha with nutty, warming kinako powder. So to make this recipe somewhat-smaller batch, I halved my shortbread recipe for each flavor(the trick was splitting the egg yolk by the gram), and I still wound up with two trayfuls of shortbreads! My personal favorite parts of this recipe were the assembly, because it was cathartic to arrange and attach the smaller cookies together, and eating them, because I had fun breaking off the different cookies off the bigger one, and being able to switch between the kinako and the matcha shortbreads, depending on what I was in the mood for in that moment. I will say that since this recipe is a shortbread dough, and you need to arrange and stack these cookies without warping their shapes, it does require a LOT of freezing and chilling time to ensure that your cookies stay relatively neat and clean. That being said though, these were such a satisfying recipe to make from start to finish, and I was super happy with how they came out!

Makes 24 cookies:
For the matcha shortbread dough:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp matcha powder
2 tbsp granulated sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
10g egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a food processor, start by mixing the flour, matcha, sugar, butter, and salt until a crumbly dough forms. Mix into that the egg yolk and vanilla to form your dough. Freeze the dough for 20 minutes. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/16-inch thickness and cut out 1/2-inch stars, re-rolling as necessary. Keep the shaped dough frozen solid for easier assembly.

For the kinako shortbread dough:
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp kinako powder
2 tbsp granulated sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
10g egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a food processor, start by mixing the flour, kinako, sugar, butter, and salt until a crumbly dough forms. Mix into that the egg yolk and vanilla to form your dough. Freeze the dough for 20 minutes. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/16-inch thickness and cut out 1-inch daisies, re-rolling as necessary. Keep the shaped dough frozen solid for easier assembly.

For assembly:
1 egg white

On a parchment-lined sheet, place down 3 matcha stars, spaced 1/2 inches apart in a circle. Brush the tops of each matcha cookie with some beaten egg white then place down between each the daisies. Repeat these steps again, spacing each ring of flowers at least 1/2-inch apart, until you have used up all of your stars and daisies. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes. Allow the cookies to fully cool before attempting to remove from the tray.