Matcha Neapolitan Cookies
Have you ever swooned over the aroma of onions and thyme poaching in butter over a stovetop? Or have your mouth water over the core Italian combination of tomato, basil, and mozzarella? Or choke up (quite literally) over the surprising potency of kimchi, bacon, and cheese? There’s just something about the coming-together of three flavours, three threatening trifectas that tickle the tastebuds, that when put together results in something so much more than a sum of the individual parts.
If you’ve read my piece on kimchi carbonara, you’ll know I often wax poetic about flavour threesomes. So in my food readings and trawlings, these threes of flavours often jump out at me.
And oh boy, did I find a stellar one recently—on the joyous, pastel-sweet part of the internet that is Amy Ho’s blog, Constellation Inspiration. It was there that I found out about her Neapolitan Cookies—super cool treats that take the combination of the classic Neapolitan ice cream, which has chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream streaked into the same tub, and transformed it into cookie form. Genius!
In Amy’s case, she deviated away from the traditional Neapolitan trifecta by replacing the chocolate with… matcha! A smart substitution, not just because I have a bias towards Asian flavours, but also, imagine the earthy umami of matcha playing off the fresh berry sweetness of the strawberry bits. Glorious!
So when I saw it, I knew I had to make it. I took on the challenge of taking it one step further, making it even more of an Asian cookie! So, I scoured my cabinet and fridge, and found a flurry of typical Asian ingredients. There were kaya, coconut milk, and different types of sugar accrued over every grocery run, tropical fruits aplenty, beans—red, green, black, soy, and kidney—a potpourri of teas, salted egg (of course) and a selection of sauces—sriracha, lao gan ma, even some Kewpie sesame dressing, and much more. This was only half of it.
I laid all these out on the table, tested a few ideas in my head, ruled a few out immediately (wasn’t quite feeling a lao gan ma and Szechuan peppercorn-flavoured cookie), tossed out the expired pei pa gou, and landed upon what I think is a pretty strong trifecta—matcha, black sesame, and instead of plain ol’ vanilla, kinako (roasted soy bean flour).
The result? A cookie with three distinct flavours—the toasty nuttiness of kinako, the deep earthiness of black sesame, and the floral umami of matcha—with a thread of earthy nuttiness binding all three flavours together. A powerful trio of Japanese flavours, packed into one cookie. A Neapolitan cookie in spirit, but undeniably Asian at first bite.
Bake a dozen of these, have a bite of each colour, drooling over their distinct flavours, then eat them all together and marvel at how the flavours marry.
Matcha, Black Sesame, and Kinako Neapolitan Cookies
Adapted from Constellation Inspiration
Makes one dozen cookies
Ingredients
200g butter
150g caster sugar
50g brown sugar
1 egg
210g all-purpose flour
50g kinako powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
30g (2 tablespoons) kinako powder
20g (2 tablespoons) matcha powder
30g (2 tablespoons) black sesame powder
50g caster sugar
Directions
Making the dough: First we’ll make the dough. Start by sifting together the dry ingredients—flour, kinako powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl, then set aside. Beat the butter, caster sugar, and brown sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until fluffy. On medium speed, this should take around a minute. Add in the egg, and beat for an additional 30 seconds, until smooth. Then, add in the dry ingredients and mix it gently until no more streaks of dry flour remain, being careful not to overmix it.
Making the three flavours: Weigh out your dough, and divide it into three equal portions, placing them into three separate bowls. In the first bowl, add the extra kinako powder, and knead it into the dough until well-mixed. Do the same for the second dough, but with matcha powder, and the third with black sesame powder.
Rolling out the cookies: Measure out 18g of each dough, rolling them out into balls. Then, smoosh the three 18g pieces together, and roll it smooth into a large ball, careful not to knead or fold it, as we want the three colours to be distinct. Then, roll the ball in the 50g of caster sugar until the dough ball is covered with sugar.
Baking the cookies: Heat your oven to 180°C. Then, prepare a lined baking sheet and place the cookie balls on it, leaving at least 3 inches between each dough ball. Bake the cookies in the oven for 12-14 minutes, or until you see the kinako part of the cookie turn from pale yellow to a golden brown. When done, remove the cookies from the oven and let it cool down on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, before transferring onto a wire rack to cool further to room temperature.