Earl Grey Tea Cookies

I didn't realise I've got 3 boxes of earl grey tea sitting in my cupboard and since I have Martha Stewart's recipe for the longest time, I made these for tea.

It tasted more like shortbread than cookies and has this melt-in-your-mouth texture.   I used Emborg butter and it came in 200g.  Recipe calls for 220g and I was lazy to measure and cut out more butter so I just left it as it is.  Also, I used only 3 tea bags instead of 2 tablespoons (approximately 6 - 8 tea bags) as I was worried the cookies may end up too bitter as I've reduced sugar slightly too.  It has a nice mild earl grey taste but if I were to make them again, I'll probably use 4 - 5 tea bags.

Due to my camera setting, I get 2 different colours of these cookies.  The actual cookies actually look more like the first 2 pictures posted.

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

(adapted from Martha Steward)

Makes about 8 dozen (I cut them into triangles and had 60+ cookies)

Ingredients

2 cups (250g) plain flour

3 tea bags finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt

220g butter, softened

45g icing sugar

1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

Method

1. Whisk together flour, tea, and salt in a small bowl; set aside.
2. Put butter, sugar, and zest in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; slowly mix in flour mixture until just combined.
3. Divide dough in half. Transfer each half to a piece of parchment paper; shape into logs. Roll in parchment to 1 1/4 inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log and force out air. Transfer in parchment to paper-towel tubes; freeze 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 180C. Cut logs into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Space 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.
5. Bake until edges turn golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.