Easy Strawberry Matcha Shortbread fingers
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I’ve been dreaming about these simple strawberry matcha shortbread fingers for weeks. These tri-color cookies with NO dye flavored with matcha green tea and freeze dried strawberry powder are the kind of quick and easy no-decorating cookie I love this time of year.
People I lose count every year of how many cookies I make for Christmas. It’s a lot. My family has a tradition to make at least 12 different kinds, and I usually make 15 on my own outside of the ones I make with my students. Because I make so many, I do not fuss around with perfectly iced cookies that take 6 bags of royal icing and 178 minutes each to make. Mama doesn’t have time for that jazz, and I suspect you don’t either.
Instead, I LOVE cookies like these shortbread fingers that put the decoration into the cookie that goes into the oven. They make a big impact visually without any extra work. Win-win!
Plus, if you’re a fan of green tea and strawberry, these cookies will surprise you with their subtle flavors. I dare say they’d be incredible next to a scoop of strawberry matcha ice cream.
Strawberry Matcha Shortbread Fingers
Why these cookies will win your heart
- Time saver: we’re mixing up the decoration in the dough itself, so there’s no additional decorating time.
- Tea time joys: My youngest son and I can easily eat a whole pan of matcha shortbread all on its own, but these cute cookies? They’re so pretty and delicate that they make you stop to notice how nice they are with your tea.
- Good cookies for make-ahead: This cookie is great for freezing. Simply wrap up the whole block of shortbread fingers in a plastic bag, and you can easily freeze them for months. When you’re making a lot of cookies, freezable cookies are a must.
- Choose your flavor: You know how there’s something for everyone in Neapolitan ice cream? The same rule applies here. My daughter loves the vanilla and strawberry flavors in these shortbread fingers and is happy to pass on the matcha (my favorite) to me.
Why matcha and strawberry powders are better than regular food dyes
I’ve been experimenting with natural food powders for a while in my baking, and I’m learning what I like and don’t like.
- No toxic look: While you’ll never have as bright of colors from natural food colorings as from food dyes, natural dyes also won’t give you cookies that have that radioactive kind of look. Do I believe that eating 1 cookie with food dye in it is going to grow you 3 eyes? No, but I also try to avoid chemicals in my cooking and baking in general as well.
- Subtle flavors: Some food dyes have a harsh taste (red, I’m looking at you), but natural food colors taste, well, natural. Matcha has a grassy earthiness you probably already love if you’re a green tea drinker, and strawberry powder is a good compliment with its gentle fruitiness. Vanilla ties all the flavors together for a shortbread that’s not quite traditional but striking and fun to eat.
- Learning to love what’s there: I know a lot of bakers will boost the color of strawberry powder with a touch of pink dye. I sometimes will add beet powder as I do in these heart twist cookies, but here I use the strawberry alone. The color is not as strong, and I think that’s okay.
Ingredients for Shortbread Fingers
- Butter
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Matcha powder: use Matcha Latte mix for a more subtle flavor or pure matcha powder for a stronger flavor
- Freeze dried strawberry powder
Equipment for making shortbread fingers
- 8 x 8 pan: a little square pan is perfect for getting thick shortbread fingers.
- Bench scraper: this is the easiest way to cut your shortbread. I know traditional Scottish shortbread you “cut” with a fork so that you can break the pieces apart later. The bench scraper is faster and cleaner.
- Gram scale, but only if you’re obsessive: I like even things, so I dutifully weighed out all 3 colors of dough into 3 even balls each to make 3 even ropes each to make perfect little rows of the colors. While it makes me happy to see such orderliness, you can of course, eyeball it.
- Double rolling pin: This is optional, but once you’ve made your stripes of dough, a double rolling pin can help you smoosh everything together. Be sure to roll with the stripes so you don’t mess up what you made so pretty.
Tips for making the best matcha strawberry shortbread
- Enlist a kitchen helper: While these are not hard cookies to make, mixing the powders into the dough takes a little time as does rolling the dough into snakes to fit into the pan. This is a fun one to make with kids. They’ll both get to see the dough transform with the color and give you an extra set of hands to get the shortbread baking a little quicker.
- Use plastic wrap: the easiest way to incorporate the color into the dough is to fold it over itself and the powder in a piece of plastic wrap. This will keep you from adding extra flour, and it will keep the mess contained. Also, when you roll out the dough, rolling it on plastic wrap will make quick stick-free work of the task.
- Cut twice: Shortbread needs to be cut once before it goes into the oven and then again immediately after it has baked. That is because the dough will puff up in the oven a bit, obscuring the first lines you cut. The beauty of using a bench scraper is that the lines are clearly defined even after baking, so you can make quick work of the cutting before the shortbread cools. Cutting cold shortbread will always end in broken crumbs everywhere.
Easy Strawberry Matcha Shortbread fingers
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 36 pieces 1x
Description
Tri-color shortbread fingers with flavors of strawberry, vanilla, and matcha that you’ll want to have alongside a good cup of tea or a stout glass of milk.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter at room temperature (227 g), preferably unsalted
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar (60 g)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (260 g)
- 1 tablespoon matcha green tea powder (see note)
- 2 Tablespoons freeze dried strawberry powder (12 g)
- cooking spray, for the pan
Instructions
Make the dough
- Preheat the oven to 325 F (160 C).
- Lightly spray an 8″x8″ pan with cooking spray, and then cut a piece of parchment to line the bottom and sides of one side. Spray over the top of this piece of parchment, then cut another one to go across the remaining 2 sides of the pan.
- Beat the butter with the sugar and vanilla paste in a mixer until smooth.
Add in the flour and mix just until the flour disappears. - Line a sheet tray with a piece of plastic wrap. Divide the dough into thirds. Press each third into a compact ball.
Color the doughs
- Place one of the dough pieces on a piece of plastic wrap. Press down the dough into a thin disc and then sprinkle it with the matcha powder.
Use the plastic wrap to fold the dough over onto itself until the color of the matcha is well-distributed. Try to smear the powder into the dough so that it gets absorbed in the least amount of work. Nobody wants tough shortbread! - Repeat the same process with another piece of dough with the strawberry powder. If your powder seems chunky, press it through a small strainer to remove any lumps right over the dough.
- After you have all 3 colors of dough ready to go, divide each color into 3 pieces. Roll each piece of dough on a piece of plastic wrap into an even log 8″ long. Use the pan to help you gauge how long your dough needs to be.
Prepping and baking the shortbread
- Once you have rolled all the dough, lay the pieces into the pan in the order red-white-green, red-white-green, red-white-green.
Place a piece of plastic wrap over the pan and use a small roller or your hands to press the dough into the corners. Try to press only along the stripes so as not to obscure the pattern. 
- Cut the dough in the pan across the stripes into 12 pieces with a bench scraper.
Also cut each line vertically after each series of 3 colors. You should have 36 total shortbread fingers. - Take a fork and poke down to the bottom of the pan roughly in the middle of each shortbread finger.
- Bake the shortbread for 40 minutes until it barely springs back when you touch the middle.
Finish the shortbread
- Immediately after the baking is finished, use your bench scraper to cut along the same lines you cut earlier. Let the shortbread sit in the pan until completely cool.
- Store the shortbread at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 1 week. To freeze the shortbread, take out the whole parchment sling and place it in a plastic bag for the freezer. Wrapped up this way, shortbread fingers will easily keep in the freezer for 3 months.
Notes
Choose your matcha strength: Matcha is a strong flavor. If you want a more subtle flavor, use matcha latte powder which is cut with sugar. The sugar tones down some of matcha’s natural bitterness and also makes for a slightly paler green. If you want a stronger matcha flavor, use 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of ceremonial grade matcha.
Sourcing freeze dried strawberries: I love Nature Restore’s freeze dried strawberry powder, but I realize that not everyone wants to have 10 ounces of freeze dried strawberries hanging out. Check out the Dollar Store for their freeze dried strawberries. I’ve used them before, and it’s a great low-cost way to try out freeze dried strawberries. To use, just whiz them up in a coffee grinder to make a powder.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 shortbread fingers
- Calories: 179
- Sugar: 3.6 g
- Sodium: 1.7 mg
- Fat: 11 g
- Trans Fat:
- Carbohydrates: 14.3 g
- Protein: 2.2 g
- Cholesterol: 31.2 mg
