Enjoy your afternoon tea with these crisp and buttery Matcha Cookies. The unique flavor combination of matcha and white chocolate is surprisingly delightful!
I have always had a sweet tooth starting at a young age. As I got older, my taste bud for sweets has evolved and I’ve come to appreciate baked goods and confectionaries that have different tones of flavor and are preferably not overly sweet. When comes to flavoring in the sweet department, my absolute favorite is matcha (green tea powder). The earthy, slightly bitter taste with a sweet hint of vanilla-like aroma of matcha is utterly dreamy and alluring, which makes it a delightful ingredient to work with. It is subtle but unmistakable.
And good news for matcha lovers! You can now find every imaginable snack and sweet available in matcha flavor. Specialty stores, mini markets, and even food courts at the departmental stores in Japan are offering matcha flavored goodies with an astonishing array of selections. Since I’ve been inspired to cook and bake with matcha, I’m excited to share one of my favorite butter cookies, Matcha Cookies (抹茶クッキー) with you today.
What is Matcha?
Before I begin talking about these cookies, let me share a bit of info on Matcha with you.
Matcha is a type of tea leaf powder that has a beautiful vivid green color. However, it’s different from the “green tea” that you drink with Japanese meals. That’s green tea too, but matcha leaves are grown and harvested differently. The leaves are grown under shade.
For those of you who want to try this recipe, I hope you can find 100% pure matcha powder in your local Asian grocery store. The good quality ones should have very beautiful green, not dull green. Japanese grocery stores around my area sell Maeda-En matcha and you can also get it on Amazon. It’s a bit pricey but matcha is expensive in Japan as well.
Adding White Chocolate Chips
These cookies are really delicious even without white chocolate chips (if you’re not a fan of white chocolate). However, I highly recommend it as matcha brings its characteristic bitter flavor to the cookies, and the sweetness from white chocolate chips actually balances out the cookies quite well.
If you add regular chocolate chips, the milk chocolate can be too strong and it ruins the unique matcha flavor and fragrance so I don’t recommend it.
Instead of white chocolate chips, I’ve also tried rolling the chilled cookie logs over white sparkling sugar (large sugar crystals) before slicing the dough. This is a great way to add more sweetness to the cookies. The large sugar crystals will keep their shape and give a nice sweetness and sparkles to the cookies.
I’ve also seen JOC readers adding macadamia nuts instead of white chocolate chips. Great idea!
Buttery and Crispy Texture
This type of cookie is known as butter cookies or icebox cookies. They also go by shortbread cookies or sable cookies. They are unleavened cookies, which means that leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda are not used in the recipe.
The ingredients are simple: butter, sugar, and flour. They often include vanilla extract, but I omit it because it’s too strong for matcha flavor.
These cookies are crisp rather than chewy or soft. If you have tried and love shortbread cookies, you can expect a similar crispy texture.
Don’t Skip Chilling the Dough!
Chilling the dough intensifies the flavor of the dough and retains its shape in the oven (so the butter in the dough doesn’t melt fast). Hold tight for just 2 hours. You can clean up the kitchen and preheat the oven during this time.
If you like to cut out the cookie dough, roll the dough into a large disk, chill, then roll it out again before cutting it out into shapes.
I hope you enjoy making this Matcha Cookie recipe. They are perfect for a cozy afternoon snack or for your cookie swap during the holiday season!
More Cookie Recipes
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Matcha Cookies
Video
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (plain flour) (weigh your flour or use the “fluff and sprinkle“ method and level it off)
- 2½ Tbsp matcha green tea powder (1 Tbsp matcha is 6 g)
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (softened, at room temperature)
- 1 pinch Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 130 g confectioners’ sugar (1 cup + 2 tsp)
- 2 large egg yolks (at room temperature)
- ¼ cup good-quality white chocolate baking chips
Instructions
Before You Start…
- Please note that this recipe requires a chilling time of 2 hours. Gather all the ingredients. I highly encourage you to weigh your ingredients using a kitchen scale for this recipe. Click on the “Metric“ button at the top of the recipe to convert the ingredient measurements to metric. If you‘re using a cup measurement, please follow the “fluff and sprinkle“ method: Fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle the flour into your measuring cup, and level it off. Otherwise, you may scoop more flour than you need.
To Make and Chill the Dough
- Combine 2 cups all-purpose flour (plain flour) and 2½ Tbsp matcha green tea powder in a large bowl.
- Sift the flour and the matcha powder.
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat ¾ cup unsalted butter until smooth and creamy. Tip: It’s important to soften the butter ahead of time. Leave the butter out on the counter for 1 hour or microwave it in 5-second increments until it‘s softened.
- Add 1 pinch Diamond Crystal kosher salt and blend.
- Add 130 g confectioners’ sugar (1 cup + 2 tsp) and beat well until soft and light. As you blend, stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl occasionally.
- Add 2 large egg yolks and mix well until combined.
- Gradually add the flour and matcha mixture and mix until just combined.
- Add ¼ cup good-quality white chocolate baking chips and mix until just incorporated.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a cylinder about 1½ inches (4 cm) in diameter and 7 inches (18 cm) long.
- Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours. Tip: You can place the logs on a bed of uncooked rice while chilling. It’ll keep the dough in a nice cylindrical shape so your cookie slices won’t be flat on one side. To Freeze for Later: You can also freeze the unbaked logs of dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 months. To bake, let sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before cutting and baking. Do not let the dough fully defrost.
To Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC). For a convection oven, reduce the cooking temperature by 25ºF (15ºC). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking liner. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and unwrap the plastic wrap. Use a sharp knife to slice the dough into rounds about ⅓ inch (7 mm) thick. If the dough is too hard to slice, wait 5 minutes or so before slicing. Place the sliced dough on the baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of space between the rounds.
- Bake the cookies at 350ºF (175ºC) for about 15 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies start to get slightly golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes; then carefully transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack and let them cool completely before serving.
To Store
- You can keep the cooled cookies in an airtight container and store them at room temperature for at least 4 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on November 11, 2011. Since then the post has been updated with a new video, new pictures, and an updated recipe in July 2016.
Hi Nami,
Just wondering if I choose to omit the white chocolate, do I need to reduce the amount of matcha powder to put in so that it is less bitter?
Crystal
Hi Crystal, If you prefer less matcha taste (bitter), sure, you can. Please replace the reduced amount with flour.
Another idea is to add academia nut, etc., instead of white chocolate to balance out the Matcha flavor in the cookie. We hope you enjoy this cookie. Happy Baking!
These cookies are absolutely delicious! I’ve made them 3 times now, using the exact recipe, and they turned out perfectly! I found that I had to use a silicone baking mat or the bottoms burnt very easily. With just parchment paper, the bottoms burnt in around 7-8 mins.
Hi Jodi! We are glad to hear you found the way to adjust your oven for this recipe! Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for sharing your baking tip with us.
I made this without any form of sugar and the cookie resulted in a more dry , crumbly texture. any suggestion how to address this without using any form of sugar sweetener. thanks! the original recipe was delicious.
Hi Connie, Thank you very much for trying this recipe! Hum… without sugar.🤔 The sugar will give moisture to the cookie. How about adding egg white?
Hi Nami!
First of all, your blog is one of the most well-organised and aesthetically pleasing recipe pages that I’ve seen, so it’s always nice coming back!
Over time, I’ve tried several of your recipes and they all have turned out delicious! Living with a Japanese who craves the Taste of Home from time to time, I find myself coming back to your page quite often, so thank you for helping me make my fiancé happy!
Today, I decided to try these cookies, and they did turn out delicious as well. I needed to add a bit more flour while mixing the dough since it seemed to not work out well enough, but in the end with about 70g or so more it finally worked!
This time, the recipe was easier to follow since the ingredients were given in the metric scale and , as a European, it’s much much more easy for me to prepare the correct amounts that you listed. In other recipes where the amounts are listed in the imperial system, it was sometimes incredibly confusing, since the conversion between the two systems doesn’t always work well when all ingredients are combined, which is a bit strange. If it would be possible, could you maybe consider adding measurements in the metric system as well to any new recipe you publish? It would definitely be helpful to anyone who is not familiar with the imperial units, and like this even more people would get to enjoy your recipes!
Once again, thank you for sharing these delicious treats!
Hi Tsveta, We are so happy to hear you had tried many dishes and enjoyed our website and Nami’s recipes.🥰 We are currently working on updating our recipe card plugin, and soon you will be able to choose the Metric system in the ingredients list! We hope this will help many people like you. As for the question about your batter, the only thing we can think of is the egg yolk size might be different from Nami’s eggs and made your batter wetter…, we are glad to hear you were able to work out and made delicious cookies! Thank you for trying this recipe!
hi, is it ok if I want to half the recipe for a smaller batch? do I just half everything exactly? thanks!
Hi Lavender, Sure, you can. You may change the serving amount from 24 to 12 and give you half of this recipe amount in grams in the recipe card. (half the everything) We hope this helps!
I’ve been using this recipe for the last two years to make my holiday cookies. The original matcha cookies are a huge hit with my family and friends, but I also use the base cookie recipe to experiment with so many other flavorings as well. I also share the link to this website whenever anyone asks me for the recipe. I also found the recipe is very forgiving as well for beginners, so its a very good recipe to try for first time bakers.
Hi Nikkie! Wow. Thank you very much for your kind feedback and for sharing this recipe with your friends! We are so happy to hear this recipe works very well with everyone.😊
Question: how do I keep my finished cookies looking smooth? Some of my batches come out “crackly” (like mud when it dries, for want of a better description!). They don’t taste dry. They just look dry. I wish I could attach a photo.
That said, I’ve gotten many many great comments for these cookies (I made several batches for a cookie exchange). So thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe!
Hi Angela,
Thank you very much for trying this recipe many times and enjoy it with friends and families.
This type of cookie is known as shortbread cookies or sable cookies, and they are crisp rather than chewy or soft. If just the look is dry, you may need to mix it longer to mix in the green powder. Also, it’s possible that your egg yolks were larger than Nami’s eggs. The egg yolks will give a dry texture in this recipe.
We hope this helps!
Add dried sour cherries, about 50g
Hi Revets!
What a great idea!
Thank you very much for sharing it.😊
I just made my first batch of these cookies. I am NOT a baker, so I followed your recipe closely, and I used a scale (this was a little bit difficult as I had an old analog scale!). And everything turned out fantastic! I was worried I wouldn’t get as good a result because I used a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer. At first it felt the dough would never come together, but with a little patience, it eventually did. In fact, it got so dense at one point, the blades stopped rotating! So just remember to stop and scrape the dough off the blades every once in awhile, after it starts to clump around them. I used a big, sharp new knife to cut the cookies out, and only had one or two chocolate chips falls out. But I might try cutting the chips into chunks next time. Also, I’m not sure why people said these cookies were sweet enough. They were plenty sweet. I might even reduce the amount of icing sugar next time. All in all–I would totally make these again. Making more for a Christmas cookie exchange!
CORRECTION: I meant to say I didn’t know why people said the oookies WEREN’T sweet enough. They were plenty sweet. And I would even cut down the sugar just a little bit next time. I measured everything by weight and it came out a LOT different than by cup and spoon! Maybe that’s why theirs were bitter?
Hi Angela!
Thank you very much for your input!
🙂
Hi Angela!
We are so happy to hear you followed a recipe closely and used a scale! Measuring cups are convenient, but for baking, we recommend using the scale for more accuracy. Here is the post that Nami explains in detail. https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-measure-flour/
And thank you for sharing your baking story and tips. This will help many other readers, as well.
We wish you a Happy Holiday!🤗
How long will an unused dough log keep in the fridge before it needs to be put in the freezer?
Hi Angela,
You can freeze the dough’s unbaked logs, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 months.
Thank you for trying this recipe!
Delicious! My favourite matcha cookies
Hi Carmen,
Thank you for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are so happy to hear you enjoyed this Matcha cookie!
I loved this recipe, I brought a batch into my restaurant just to see how customers would react and they were a big hit! I even had to make them a second and a third time, but some customers asked me if I could make a sugar free version, now the question is what can I substitute the powdered sugar with and what amount?
Help please 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Hi Alex! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! Sugar adds moisture to the cookie dough, so I’m not too sure how it would end up with other replacement. I’m not expert in sugar-free cooking… so without testing, I won’t know… sorry. 🙁
These cookies were matcha heavy and bitter. And I love matcha. Next time I’m halving how much I put in
Hi Cyn! Thank you for trying this recipe and for your feedback!
Hi Nami,
I just made these alongside a batch of your black sesame ice cream (to celebrate the newest addition to my kitchen: an ice cream maker). And these are delicious!! I ate three straight out of the oven.
I didn’t use white chocolate chips because it was a spontaneous decision and I hadn’t any in my pantry. So I just dipped them into granulated sugar. They taste a little bit like the sort butter biscuit you get where I’m from but with these nice little twist and a hint of bitterness. Very delicious.
I think they’ll easily become one of my favourites
Hi Zoe! Thank you so much for trying this recipe (with the black sesame ice cream)! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe. The dipping in granulated sugar works. Thank you for your kind feedback!
Loved it! They have this lovely combination of crunchy and soft texture. They are sweet at the beginning and then a little bit bitter from the matcha which I think is great. I added chopped almonds as well and it’s great! Very easy to make and look FANCY so it’s perfect for guests😂
Hi Yael! Thanks so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback! So happy to hear you enjoyed them. 🙂