KUAM News Cookie Exchange: Green Tea Macadamia Nut Sandies

by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Everyday this week a member of the KUAM News Team will be partnering up with some of the island's best chefs, bakers and all around culinary artists to bring you a special holiday treat and what better way to start than with 9th Street Rotary in Hagatna with owner Mark Duenas who's going to be showing us how to make a Green Tea Macadamia Nut Sandie.

While 9th Street Rotary in Hagatna only opened in July, Duenas has been a professional baker and all around culinary artist for more than a decade. He says the recipe came from his friend ramona nelson who's made it a staple during the holidays and he wanted to put his unique take on it. He said, "A.), it's green which is part of the Christmas season and B.), a sandie is so old, we're just bringing it to 2015, so it's a new version and a new take on a simple cookie 0313 (Ken) how would you describe the taste of it? The taste has macadamia which is a very good, expensive nut, and the green tea is very subtle and once you try it its phenomenal."

Here's what you need to make it:

- 1/3 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of butter
- 2 ¼ cups of flour
- 1 ½ tablespoon of green tea powder
- 2 tablespoons of water and vanilla
- 1 cup of macadamia nuts

And with all your ingredients layed out, it's time for the mixing, a process I found fairly quick even as short as five minutes. First we mix the green tea and the sugar together, then we cream our butter. From there you mix the two and then you add the rest of your wet ingredients like the water and vanilla.

Next we mix the dry ingredients like the flour and the nuts. "All that's left is portioning it," explained Duenas.

And with our handy tool, we now scoop the mixed ingredients in order to perfectly portion and level the sandies. From there we use our hands to roll the dough into a nice round ball. So what's next? "I'm going into a 350 degree oven for about 7 minutes," he said.

After 7 minutes, we check the status of the sandies and rotate the pan in order to ensure it's golden brown. "So once this is done, we're going nice and hot and straight into the green tea powder and powdered sugar mix," he said. "So you want to get this while its hot because it makes that coat 0108 and it will start to go green because it's waking up that green tea powder."

And after a few minutes of letting it cool, the next and most important step is of course, tasting our holiday treat.

It's not only a ball of deliciousness but your perfect holiday treat and don't forget to join us this Friday December 19 where the Green Tea Macadamia Nut Sandies and the rest of the KUAM News Team's cookies will be on display for all of us to taste.

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