Matcha Monsters & Purple People Eaters (PPE’s) Shortbread Cookies

- Amanda

I’m pretty excited to share my spooky little sweet treats with you today. Aren’t these Matcha Monsters and Purple People Eater’s, or PPE’s as I like to call them, cute? I am so happy with how my initial idea for these fun little guys came out. And they taste so good. Very similar to my classic shortbread, but with two fun flavor twists. Can you guess what they are?? You might have an idea about one. (I might have given it away in the name.)

Well if you guessed Matcha, you are absolutely right. These don’t get their goblin green from any food dye but instead organic matcha powder. I just love how the powdered green tea lends such beautiful color and it’s signature flavor to dessert recipes. And Jade Leaf has a great one that’s organic and blends beautifully with the shortbread dough.

As far as the PPE’s (couldn’t resist the name,) those get their gorgeous hue from purple sweet potatoes. Not to be confused with ube, which is a purple yam and is having quite a moment in the food, especially dessert, world right now. It seems the two often get confused, but the ube is not common here in the states and can be harder to find. What you may see fresh in the supermarkets is generally purple sweet potato. And the powder I used for these is this one by Suncore Foods. But potato patato, let’s get back to the cookies.

I made two different batches and incorporated 2 tablespoons each of the powders into the doughs when I added the flour. The dough has the classic other ingredients as my shortbread recipe- powdered sugar, an egg yolk, flour, salt and vanilla extract. I don’t advise using more than the two tablespoons of the powders unless you plan to adjust the other ingredients as the dough will start to become too crumbly and hard to work with. The color is nice and rich and you can even use a little less if you were trying to stretch your matcha or sweet potato powders.

Then once you put the dough together, you divide it into discs and wrap it tight with plastic wrap and chill for about an hour. Then you can roll it out and have fun using whichever kinds of shapes you have. I wanted to make funny monsters, but most of my cookie cutters and other specialty equipment is still in Istanbul. So, after looking at what I did have, I came up with the shapes you see. The Matcha Monster was easy using that star- like shape and the tines of a fork. Then for the PPE’s, I took the ghost cutter I had and then a butterfly cookie cutter to make the top of the head. Then some little candy eyes stuck down with a quick icing that I also used for the mouths and they were ready to go.

My kids were so excited when they saw them and especially had fun biting the heads and eyeballs off. I can’t wait to share them with more little halloween goblins.

If you are just excited about the coming holiday as we are, as differently as it may be celebrated this year, I think you might also enjoy some of these other spooktacular treats:

I’d love to hear if you try out these oh-so-scary goodies or any of the other festive treats. Have a boo-tiful weekend everyone!

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Matcha Monsters and Purple People Eaters Shortbread Cookies

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Chilling Time 30 minutes
Author Amanda – A Treat Life

Ingredients

Ingredients (Do 1 recipe each for the Matcha and 1 for the purple sweet potato)

  • 8 oz unsalted butter room temperature
  • 100 grams confectioner’s sugar
  • 3/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 1/2 cups (312g) all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsps matcha powder or purple sweet potato powder

For the icing:

  • 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted
  • 1 tbsp water

To assemble:

  • granulated sugar
  • candy eyes (I use these)

Instructions

For the shortbread:

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the room temperature butter, powdered sugar, and salt. Using the paddle attachment start to cream the ingredients on low for 2 minutes, then gradually increase the speed to medium high and beat just until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the egg yolk and beat for another few seconds until the yolk has almost disappeared.

  3. Add the flour and Matcha or sweet potato powder, and mix on low very carefully until everything is just combined and the color is mixed in. It's ok if it's a tad marble-y, you can incorporate more by hand as you push the dough together to wrap it and I think the purple especially looks cool with a bit of a marble loos. (You don't want to over-mix the dough if you want tender cookies.)

  4. Pour the dough out onto a big piece of plastic wrap and form a round, disc. DIvide the disc in half and wrap each half with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator at least an hour or freeze up to a couple months. (Double wrap the dough if freezing.)

  5. When you’re ready to roll and cut the cookies, remove the dough from the fridge and place on the counter. (If frozen, place in the refrigerator overnight, then let soften a bit on the counter.)

  6. When the dough isn’t rock solid, roll one disc out between two pieces of parchment paper and cut the cookies out using your monster shape of choice. Place the cut out pieces of dough on a parchment lined cookie sheet in the refrigerator to chill for a few minutes before baking. The rest of the dough can be re-rolled as needed. Repeat with the other disc.

  7. When ready to bake, sprinkle the tops of the cookies with a little granulated sugar then bake in a preheated 350F/ 180C degree oven for about 10-12 minutes until the edges are just starting to turn golden. (Larger cookies may need a few minutes more to bake.) Let cool on the cookie sheet, then move to a cooling rack.

To make the icing:

  1. In a small bowl whisk the confectioner's sugar and water. You want to create a glue like consistency to stick the eyes and pipe the mouths. You don't want it too runny. Add a little more powdered sugar if necessary. Transfer the icing to a piping bag or zip-top bag.

To assemble the monsters:

  1. Snip a very tiny end off the piping bag or zip-top bag and pipe two dots for the Matcha monsters or one dot in the middle for the PPE's. Stick the candy eyes on and use the rest of the icing to pipe some mouths. Let them dry if transporting or enjoy right away. (If you want to transport a lot of them or want them to be more stable, you can certainly use a royal icing which will dry harder than this simpler icing.)