Matcha Cookies

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This is the best matcha cookies recipe! These green tea cookies are soft, fudgy and full of white chocolate chips to give them the most incredible flavour. You will love how easy they are to make and that they only take 10 minutes to bake.

Matcha cookies with white chocolate chips on a piece of parchment paper.

What is matcha?

Matcha is a type of tea that comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. Matcha and green tea come from the same plant, but matcha is made from the entire leaf that gets ground into a fine powder. Matcha is much more concentrated than green tea, and because it is more concentrated it has a higher concentration of antioxidants and other healthy plant compounds compared to green tea.

What does matcha taste like?

Matcha has a slightly sweet, earthy, and grassy flavour. It can be a little bitter, but the flavour will depend on the quality of the matcha. High quality, ceremonial grade matcha has a sweeter taste and is less bitter than lower grade matcha.

Health benefits of matcha:

Matcha has many health benefits. It is high in antioxidants, can improve brain function, has anti-cancer properties, may promote heart health, and can help with weight loss.

Why you will love this recipe:

This is the best matcha white chocolate cookies recipe! These cookies are soft and fudgy with the most incredible flavour that resembles cookies and cream.
These green tea cookies are so easy to make and only take 8 minutes to bake.
Matcha white chocolate cookies are a fun twist on a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Instead of white chocolate you can use dark chocolate chips to turn these into matcha chocolate chip cookies instead.
You can easily make them gluten free and dairy free.
There is no chilling required when making these cookies.
This cookie recipe was inspired by the famous Levain matcha cookies but I made them my own and in my opinion they taste even better!
Don’t like cookies? Make matcha brownies instead!

Key ingredients and substitutions:

Matcha – matcha powder is used to give these cookies a unique flavour and a beautiful green color. I recommend using high grade ceremonial matcha for the best taste.
All purpose flour – a staple in everyone’s pantry, all purpose flour forms the base of these delicious cookies. If you are gluten free simply use an all purpose gluten free flour blend instead.
Honey – honey is one of my favourite natural sweeteners that adds a beautiful sweetness to this cookie recipe and also helps keep them nice and fudgy! You could swap this for maple syrup but not that the cookies will turn out darker in color and not as green if you do.
Cane sugar – cane sugar adds even more sweetness to this cookie recipe.
Butter – butter is the key to making delicious fudgy, melt in your mouth cookies! For a dairy free version you can use a vegan butter.
Egg – the egg is used to help bind these cookies together and add just a bit more moisture. I do not recommend trying to make these egg free cookies or vegan cookies.
Chocolate chips – you can use any type of chocolate chips that you like for this recipe. I went with white chocolate chips but dark chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips would also work. If you are dairy free be sure to use dairy free chocolate chips.

Recipe variations:

To make these cookies gluten free use an all purpose gluten free flour.
To make these cookies dairy free use vegan butter instead of dairy butter and dairy free chocolate chips.
You can use any type of chocolate chips that you like for this recipe including white chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips.

How to make this recipe:

Step one:

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step two:

Next, add the dry ingredients to the bowl of your standing mixer and sift with a spoon or pastry blender until the clumps are gone.

Step three:

Then add the remaining ingredients, except the chocolate chips, to the bowl and using your standing mixer, blend everything well until you have a smooth dough.

Step four:

Next, stir in the chocolate chips by hand.

Step five:

Using a cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto the baking sheet. Then bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown. The middle of the cookies will still look underdone just as they come out of the oven but the cookies will continue to cook a bit as they cool.

Step six:

Let the cookies cool completely, then enjoy!

Step by step directions for making matcha cookies.

Tips:

Be sure to use unsalted butter for these cookies.
These cookies spread out quite a bit when they bake so be sure to leave at least 2 inches between the cookie dough balls when you put them on the baking sheet. Depending on the size of the baking sheet you may need to bake the cookies on 2 baking sheets.
Do not refrigerate this cookie dough before baking. The cookies don’t spread well this way and end up burning easily on the bottom.

How to store:

Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the fridge for up to 7 days.

These cookies also freeze really well. To freeze them, place the cookies in an airtight bag and freeze for up to 3 months.

Green tea cookies with white chocolate chips on a baking sheet.

Frequently asked questions:

How does matcha affect baking?

Matcha adds a subtle earthy flavour to baked goods and also adds a beautiful green color.

Why are my matcha cookies not green?

How green your matcha cookies are will depend on how much matcha you add, as well as the other ingredients. If you don’t add very much matcha they won’t turn out green and if other dark ingredients such as brown sugar or molasses that can mask the green color and make your cookies turn out brown instead of green.

Are these vegan matcha cookies?

This cookie recipe is not vegan because it contains eggs and butter. You can make them dairy free by using vegan butter but I have not tried using any egg replacements to make them vegan and I am not sure how they would turn out if you try.

Are these cookies healthy?

I would not consider these cookies to be healthy. They have both butter and sugar and so would be considered more of a decadent dessert rather than a healthy dessert. If you are looking for a healthier cookie recipe I recommend trying these almond flour peanut butter cookies or these vegan protein cookies.

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