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.
Wonderful cookies! I followed the recipe exactly with the exception of leaving out the white chocolate chips (because I didn’t have any) and instead adding in a tsp of vanilla extract, then sprinkling them with sanding sugar after slicing/before baking. I can’t wait to try them with the white chocolate chips – I think that sounds fabulous – but I did love the additional crunch the sanding sugar provided. I refrigerated them overnight and they held up beautifully, the buttery, not-too-sweet hint-of-bitter-macha flavor was very grownup and sophisticated (and additctive!); the color absolutely gorgeous. I would add to ensure the pinch of salt you add is healthy (esp if using unsalted butter, which I always bake with) as it sets off the sweet and hint-of-bitter flavors. I will make these again and again!
Hi Liz! Thank you for your kind feedback! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed these cookies. I’ve also made with sparkling sugar and turbinado sugar around the cookies too, and it’s lovely (I like the look too!). Thank you so much again for your kind words. I’m really happy that you enjoyed these cookies. 🙂 xo
My sister made these cookies. They were excellent! Quite easy, no complex procedures. Delicious, the sweetness was just right (not too sweet). She says she will definitely make it again. Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe Nami!
Hi Vicky! I’m so happy to hear your sister tried this recipe and you enjoyed these cookies! Thank you so much for writing your kind feedback, Vicky!
Hi! This is a great recipe. Thanks!
I tried making it and it tasted delicious. So good! However, my cookies turned out to be quite hard. Any suggestions on why this happened? Wondering if I’m missing a step.
Thank you!! Love your recipes
Hi Novi! Thank you for trying this recipe! Really hard? This is butter cookies or shortbread, so it should have that cookie dough consistency. If it’s too soft, when you cut and bake, the cookies become too droopy. It should have the edge even after baked. 🙂
This was tasty. Second time around I followed the instructions and left dough in fridge. Better shape when cut, true, but more importantly the 15m bake time is for cold dough. If you’re going to skip the fridge then bake for less time with room temperature dough.
Brush the tops with egg yolk and dust with table sugar halfway thru.
Hi Allab! Yeah butter cookies usually require chilling time to hold the shape. Otherwise the cookies will be droopy (or flat, without sharp edge). Glad you enjoyed these cookies. Thank you for your tip! xoxo
Those biscuits are a beauty: soft and crunchy at the same time, light and fluffy, not too sweet, and the matcha is but a subtle aftertaste! I’ll be using this recipe for sugar cookies from now on, the texture is unbelievable!
Hi Fumettosa! Thank you for trying this recipe! So glad you liked this recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback! xo
Gah, I did everything and midway baking they are all burnt Gah!!!!!!!!!!!????????????
I’m sorry yours didn’t come out well. 🙁 If you could tell me a little more, maybe I can help what went wrong? As I wasn’t there, it’s hard to pin point… as I am not familiar with your ingredients, oven (everyone has different hot spot, and oven temperature may not be exact temperature despite the oven says so), etc. This recipe is very popular and made by many people so far. I’ll be happy to help finding out the problem source.
Hi Nami:
Thank you for a yummy recipe. I made them over the weekend and have eaten half of them already. I just can’t eat them before bedtime as I understand matcha has caffeine and I was up all night last night!
Hi SeaDee! Haha, I can relate. They are so delicious we finish them very quickly… Matcha shouldn’t be too strong in this recipe, but each one should react to caffeine differently.
Hi Nami: these matcha cookies are so delicious! They are so addictive. My mother said the flavouring reminded her of some Chinese green ingredient (laver, moss? don’t know the English equivalent) that is often used to make green laver-covered crackers or to cook with peanuts as a side dish.
Now my problem is that they cookies got brown on the edge and the bottom was pretty brown as well. How can I tell that they are ready? Yours had just a tiny bit of light brown on the edge. I even shortened the baking time for the 2nd pan of cookies. Still brown & ugly. I think my logs weren’t as thick as yours and that could have contributed to the “burning” look on the thinner cookies. I ended up with 3 smaller logs because I couldn’t roll them properly.
The other issue is when I cut the logs after taken them out of the fridge from chilling overnight. Each piece is not as flat as yours. When I cut the log, the knife tends to lean to the right instead of straight down. Should I have brought the logs to room temperature before cutting? If yes, how long? Two minutes?
Thanks in advance for your baking help.
Hi Christina! I’m glad you enjoyed these cookies! Hmm I’m not sure which Chinese green ingredient your mom is talking about, is it a type of seaweed? Other green ingredient that I know of is pandan leaves which is commonly used in Malaysian cuisine.
It can be your oven too. Each oven is slightly different and my new oven heats faster on the left side (and annoys me like crazy as I can’t open the oven door and rotate for some recipes). Maybe the temperature can be too high? If you think the cookies get darker too fast, reduce the temp. Also darker pan gives darker cookies on the bottom of the cookies. Is your baking sheet dark?
You can leave it out for a few minutes if it’s too stiff, but with a sharp knife, it should slice cleanly. Sometimes when the chocolate chips are in “wrong” area, the cookie piece gets crack from that white chocolate chip area. But I usually fix it with my fingers. It should be chilled dough before going to the oven. Not room temp dough. Otherwise, the cookies get flat. Hope my tips are helpful…
No worries. It’s not pandan leaves. It’s an ingredients often used in Shanghai. If I ever get the English name I’ll for sure to let you know & hopefully with photos.
Guilty. One of my baking sheets was dark but the other one not. Still the cookies got golden burnt edge & bottoms. I’ll have to remember to reduce the baking time in the future.
I see. I think the white chocolate chips might be the culprit.
Thank you again Nami for taking the time to answer my questions.
Happy New Year in advance to you and your family! Health & happiness for 2017!
Thank you Christina! Happy holidays to you and your family! xo
Hi Nami,
I was wondering if you have any recipes for a meal in a jar? Like a soup where all you need do is pour in boiling water and Voila, instant dinner!
My nephew, since he has returned from Japan, is in “everything japanese” mode and he lives alone and works late so he really doesn’t have time to make a healthy dinner when he gets home.
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks, Melissa
Hi Melissa! I don’t have a meal in a jar. I’ve seen them, but it’s not a common meal in Japanese cooking. I highly recommend freezing the foods. Lots of meals can be made ahead of time and freeze them, so all he needs is to defrost and reheat. This list may not be a complete list, but it’s a good start: https://www.justonecookbook.com/tags/freezer-friendly/
How many cookies does this recipe make?
Hi Sandra! You can make about 24-28 (It’s written in the recipe top area. 🙂 )
Hi nami! Do these cookies freeze well?
I plan to make 300 for a event im hosting 🙂
Hi Adrienne! Wow 300!!!! I’ve never made that many, and never freeze the baked cookies… (I’ve frozen the dough before, which works). I recommend testing once before the event?
i loved it. i made it for a bake sale at my school.
Hi Kristen! I’m so happy to hear you liked it! Thank you for your kind feedback!
Everything worked out flawless in my case! Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!
Hi Miki! AWESOME! Thanks so much for your kind feedback! I’m so happy you liked this recipe! 😉
I’ve tried your banana cake, deep fried katsu and they are all great!
I’m gonna try this cookies and the green tea chiffon for a matcha loving friend. Wish me luck!
Hi Lee! I’m so happy to hear you liked my recipes! Hope your matcha recipes will come out well! 🙂
Hi! Can i substitute all purpose flour with top flour which are finer?
Hi jthq! What’s top flour? Is it cake flour? I think you can, but the texture will be slightly different. 🙂