There has been a lot baking around here for the past two weeks. And a lot of cookies laying around for consumption.

While it's always good to have cookies around your kitchen, the reason for all this baking has to do with an exciting new project — a Cookies from Around the World kit I'm developing with my friends at GrubKit. We're launching the kit soon, and it's going to feature ingredients to bake cookies from four countries around the world, both from traditional recipes and with inventive modern takes. It's like a world tour via dessert.

The recipe I'm developing is a Japanese green tea shortbread cookie. While shortbread is traditionally Scottish, in recent decades green tea-flavored shortbread cookies have become pretty widespread around Japan, sold in bakeries and pastry shops alongside green tea cakes and mousses. And it's quite an addictive little snack.

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