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.
This is my second time making this recipe and it was amazing! I don’t like white chocolate so both times I made without. I’ve also tried the matcha marble cake which is also amazing. Next, I want to try the matcha madeleines but I don’t have the madeleine baking pan 🙁 Maybe I’ll have to invest in one!
Hi Kenna! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your baking experience with us!
We are glad to hear you enjoyed it! Yes! Matcha Madeleines sounds very good! 😍
Hi Nami,
The green tea powder I have is already sweet. how much sugar do you think i should use so it’s not too sweet? I would love to try this and excited!
Hi Victor! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
We are not sure how sweet is your green tea powder is. How about cut down the sugar 2 ½ Tbsp from this recipe and see how it goes?
I love these! I’ve made these a couple of times now. I have trouble keeping them round though so I try to make them into a square log. Still tastes amazing!
Hi Millie! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback!
The square shape is great too! We are glad to hear you enjoyed this cookie. Happy Baking!
Nami, I love all your recipes and this one did not disappoint! These were so delicious. Thank you for the recipe. I loved that the cookies were not overly sweet but still amazing with the matcha flavor coming through beautifully.
Hi Susan! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s Green tea cookies recipe!
We are so happy to hear you enjoy the true Matcha flavor in your cookies! Happy Baking!
Do you think I could make this a low carb recipe by substituting the flour with almond flour and the sugar with monkfruit sweetner?
Hi Yoshi! We think it would work, but the cookie’s texture will be different with almond flour.
Please feel free to add an extra egg for more moist batter/cookies if it needs. We hope this helps!
I’ve made these cookies several times and I always love them! My friends and family who I’ve shared them with have loved them as well! Thank you for your clear instructions and for walking through step by step! Definitely a favorite!
Hi Larissa! Aww… so nice to hear everyone loved Nami’s Green tea Cookies!
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback.
Does this recipe works if I want to do cut out shapes instead!? If so how are the steps different!? Thx
Hi Steph, Yes. You can roll out the dough after refrigerated and cut it out with cookie cutters.
Make sure you chill the dough again if it gets too soft after shaping them. So it keeps the shape in the oven. 🙂
This is an excellent recipe!! I have made it a few times now, and it has worked out deliciously every time. They are a novel cookie, with such a pretty colour. They make great gifts too! Highly recommend!
Hi Miyuki! Aww, thank you very much for your kind feedback!
Nami and JOC team are so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe. Happy Baking!
How long can you keep the cookie dough in the freezer or refrigerator until the quality starts to go bad?
Hi David! You can freeze the unbaked dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 months.
To bake, let sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before cutting and then bake. (Please do not let the dough fully defrost.)
We hope this helps!
Wonderful cookies! The white chocolate chips
is a must. Beautifully balanced with the matcha. This recipe is a keeper… Thank you!
Hi Toni! We are so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe!
Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback!
Hi Namiko, if I use macadamia nuts instead of white chocolate chips, should I add more sugar to the batter for more sweetness? If so, how much and what kind of sugar do you think I should add?
Hi Gloria, Thank you very much for trying Namiko’s Cookies recipe.
We have not tested with macadamia nuts and not sure how much sweetness will be a good balance. You can try adding 2 Tbsp of confectioners’ sugar/powdered sugar to see how it goes?
This was sooooo good! I personally would add more white chocolate chip cookies next time!
Hi Kim! Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
Aloha!
Is there something I can add to make it chewy? I just tried a matcha cheesecake Oreo cookie from a bakery and wanted to try to recreate that. It was a mixture of chewy matcha cookie, globs of cheesecake, and Oreo. Thanks!
Hi Joyce, Aloha! We currently don’t have the recipe on the site. However, chewy cookies are it’s all about the moisture content. You can use honey or brown sugar to add moisture or replacing butter with shortening etc. Good luck!
Thanks for this! Tried the recipe and the first time, my dough was too dry and crumbly and cannot be shaped at all (I measured everything correctly, only switched confectionary sugar for granulated sugar because the former wasn’t available). Had to add an extra egg and extra butter to make it work – it’s now on the slightly oily side though ^^”
Hi J, Thank you very much for trying this recipe! The confectioners’ sugar and granulated sugar are very different. If you are using granulate sugar, it will be about 4 ounces of granulated sugar and a tiny bit of cornstarch that you need. We hope this solves the mystery!
If I don’t have a stand mixer can we do this recipe?
Hi! We have never tried other methods, but other readers tried with a hand mixer and left a comment for us.
“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 a while, after it starts to clump around them.”
We hope this helps!🙂