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.
Would you be able to replace powdered sugar for brown sugar
Hi Josh! For this recipe, I don’t recommend. 🙂
I do not care for “white chocolate chips”, never have. Can I omit? Is there a suitable substitution?
Hi Lorraine! You can omit it. I’ve seen people made it with macadamia nuts too, and some people skip altogether. 🙂
Hi there! I was so excited to try these. But after I added in the flour mixture it was super crumbly. I tried to chill it but it’s still crumbly and not sticking together. I’m wondering what I did wrong?
Hi Melissa! I wonder if you measure flour with a cup measurement? That’s my first thought (as many people have same issue with not measuring with a scale). This recipe is a lot more crumbly than my other cookie recipes (this recipe wasn’t mine) but I still think it’s workable if you measure correctly. It’s just a tad crumbly… 😀
Made these today without the white chocolate. I rolled them out and used a cookie cutter which worked quite well. also brushed some of them with egg and sprinkled on shredded coconut. So good! Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Jen! Thank you for trying this recipe! Ohh I love the idea of shredded coconut. Delicious! Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂 xo
Hello Nami! Hope you and your family are doing well. I am interested in trying many of your matcha recipes, but noticed that in your matcha recipes and matcha information post there are different links for Maeda-En Matcha for culinary quality and universal quality. Is there a difference? Can they be used interchangeably? For example, if I were to get culinary quality would I not be able to make green tea to drink? Please let me know. Thank you.
Hi Emmie! Thanks for your kind well wishes. Yes, the quality of these two is different (and the price too). For this recipe, I used the culinary level (see in my ingredient picture?), that’s why I link to it. Overall, I think the universal quality is good for baking and drinking (just a bit more expensive than culinary). 🙂
these are sooo good!! do you know how many calories it is around per cookie? thank you !!
Hi Julie! Thank you for your kind words! I’m sorry but I’m not sure. However, I would like to incorporate calorie and nutrition information for the site in the near future… 🙂
Hi Nami,
Can i roll the dough and use molds to get a different kind of shape? thanks
Sure! But I’d recommend putting the dough back in the freezer/fridge right before you bake to make sure it’s firm. You don’t want soft dough going into the oven because the shape won’t stay. The dough should be cold so it has enough time to cook before butter melt away. 🙂
I made them a few weeks ago and they’re great! I’m trying again today with a bit more matcha and a tiny bit less sugar. I might make a batch with houjicha powder too. Thank you for all your recipes!
Hi Juliette! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback. Hope the hojicha one came out well too! 🙂
I made these for work and everyone loved them. I am making them again today for Chinese New Year. I actually left the dough in the refrigerator for a few days last time.
Hi Sharon! So happy to hear that you enjoy this recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback! Happy Chinese New Year to you and your family!
Extraordinary! I am so impressed! I am so excited to try all your recipes. My first Japanese recipe is going to be green tea cookies 😊Today I bought from the store Matcha Green Powdered Japanese Tea so fresh and so good🥰 I am thinking how it will be Homemade Maccha Chocolate because in my childhood the homemade chocolate was my favourite 😊
Thank you very much! Congratulations!
Hi Isabel! Ohhh you have to try this Green Tea Chocolate (https://www.justonecookbook.com/green-tea-chocolate/)! Hope you enjoy the cookies (I recommend using a scale to measure the right amount of flour)! Thank you for your kind words! xo
Is it possible to use brown sugar and not powder sugar?
Hi Connie! I don’t recommend it for this particular cookie recipe. 🙂
I made these cookies following the recipe almost exactly (left butter out on the counter overnight to soften, measured everything by weight) and they turned out fantastic! The only change I made was leaving out the white chocolate chips in the dough and adding a white chocolate drizzle after the cookies cooled instead. Beautiful cookies with great texture and awesome green tea flavor. I didn’t find them bitter but I used good quality matcha, so maybe that’s the difference?
Not sure if it’s just luck or leaving out the white chips and making sure the butter was very soft, but the dough was extremely easy to work with and shape and easy to slice after chilling for a few hours. Thank you, I will be making this again!
That’s okay, they just add some sweetness. 🙂
With all due respect, there is no such thing as a “properly measured cup of flour.” If you were to ask 10 people to measure out a cup of flour, you would get 10 different amounts of flour by weight, ranging from your 120 g. to close to 200 g. You are to be complimented for making it clear that 240 g. is the correct amount for this recipe, but no serious baker uses volumetric measurements for ingredients such as flour, sugars, etc., so why even mention “2 cups?” Anyone who doesn’t have a kitchen scale should go out and get one before baking another thing.
Hi Dave! I agree with you, I have been trying to convince my American audience to use a kitchen scale… but it’s not in their custom to use metric system. I always encourage people to buy a kitchen scale (which is $10 on Amazon!). American’s proper way to measure flour is to fluff up flour, scoop with a spoon to a cup, and level off. It’s the closest number you get but each time varies slightly….
Nami, thank you for posting this recipe! I’m about to try this for the first time. The matcha powder that I happen to have at home is this one: Green Tea Powder (Fine Matcha) from Tienxi (https://tienxi.myshopify.com/products/japanese-fine-matcha). Is this the right kind?
Also, after mixing with the flour according to your recipe so far, it’s now a very, very pale green. I’m attempting to make green cookies to look like tennis balls (will use royal icing to draw the seams & labels). But it’s important for the cookies to look green. (Admittedly, my matcha is almost 2 years past the “best-before” date–could that be why it’s in very pale green color.) Should I add a little food coloring?
I’m not a baker at all. Thanks for any help.
Hi Carl! I’m sorry I couldn’t get back to you in time while you’re baking. $10 for 100 g is really cheap (1/3 of what I pay for culinary grade matcha from the supermarket). It’s very hard to achieve the color without the actual nice color matcha (and it will be very bitter taste when the color is not beautiful). Matcha gets oxidize once it opens, so next time buy 30 g (it’s a typical can size in Japan) and use it all in 3 weeks or so. 🙂
Thanks, Nami. Actually, the pale green darkened more once mixed & baked; so they looked good (as intended to look like tennis balls). And they taste great. Thanks!
Hi Carl! What a relief! Thank you so much for letting me know! I’m glad you enjoyed them too. 🙂
I found this a bit harder to do without a mixer but it worked! I am a novice baker but the cookies came out great! I accidentally put almost double the amount of chocolate chips and it was a delicious mistake. My cookie dough was too sticky so I balled it up in the fridge first and shaped later which worked out. Thanks for the recipe! Saving it for next time! Perfect amount of matcha:)
Hi Yumi! Thanks so much for trying this recipe! So happy to hear you enjoyed these cookies! Thanks for your kind feedback. xo