I bought these sprinkles at HomeGoods earlier today on a whim — I must have known I'd need a pick-me-up later on in the day. You see, I have to have a needle stuck into my neck while I am conscious in a few weeks to have a biopsy of my thyroid. After going for a physical a few weeks ago, the doctor said my thyroid seemed swollen. I thought nothing of it, as I had a cold and sore throat at the time and figured it was just the whole area being puffy from a few weeks of coughing. But she sent me to get an ultrasound of my throat the following week, and I got the call today that it was enlarged with some nodules on it, and they wanted to aspirate (the white coat way of saying STICK A NEEDLE IN YOU) the largest one. Needless to say, all I could feel was my neck, and a lump was forming in it then, a lump of fear.
I'm not afraid of the unknown of what might be growing in my neck, but I am afraid of having a needle go at my neck, in a very delicate area, while I am conscious and could move around or freeze in fear and do something to ruin myself. Or what if the doctor flinches? What if someone knocks and startles either of us ... while a needle is in my neck?! So as you can see, I needed something joyful to maybe not take my mind off of, but push aside the thoughts of impending neck needling.
Several people I know that have been through it before have told me it isn't that bad (and recommended getting a little pharmaceutical courage prescribed) but ugh, the very thought. So, let's move on from needles to sprinkles. I combined the prettiness of the rainbow sprinkles (on sale for $4!) with the weird green of matcha baked goods that looks more like it belongs on fatigues than in cute cookies. So with that awkward segue, let's get to the recipe!
Matcha Sprinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 11 tbsp softened unsalted butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp matcha green tea powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- Sprinkles and colored sanding sugar of choice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Cream the butter and sugar together.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract, and mix until combined.
- Measure in the flour, matcha, baking powder, and salt, mix a bit until it’s the consistency of Play-doh, don’t overmix.
- Pour your sprinkles of choice in a bowl, or separate ones if you’re using multiple types of sprinkles.
- Break off chunks of dough and roll them to be about the size of a gum ball or a silver dollar, whichever reference works better for you. Or for mini cookies, roll them to be about the size of a quarter.
- Roll each one in sprinkles, rolling it around to completely coat.
- Place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Don’t mash them down at this point.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven, and while still hot, use the back of a spoon to slightly flatten the cookies
See, things aren't so bad now with rainbow sprinkle cookies!