Matcha Cookies
Afternoon tea just got more colorful with these delightful green tea matcha cookies. The subtle earthy taste of matcha is perfectly paired with vanilla and creamy white chocolate chips. They're simple to make with pantry ingredients, fun to eat, and ready in just 20 minutes!
For more fun green-color foods, also try our chia matcha pudding, matcha ice cream, or healthy green goddess dressing.
The mildly earthy taste of matcha melds with vanilla and white chocolate in these sweet and soft matcha tea cookies. They're basically a beautiful spin on the classic sugar cookie with a dazzling green color and dotted with white chocolate chips.
We love using matcha in baking because of its complex flavor. If you've never tried it before, it tastes grassy, nutty, fresh, and slightly bitter. It balances out the sweetness of the cookies and pairs perfectly with creamy white chocolate.
They're the perfect treat to bring for afternoon tea, or occasions when you want to bake something different and fun. Apart from the matcha, the recipe uses only simple ingredients you're likely to find in your pantry. They're easy to make and ready in 20 minutes from start to finish!
Choosing a matcha powder
Turns out there's a lot to know about matcha! Matcha is often divided between ceremonial grade and culinary grade. While they are similar, they have some differences:
- The higher quality the matcha, the more bright and fresh it tastes. Ceremonial grade is higher quality and bright green in color whereas culinary matcha is slightly lower quality and usually has a muted green color (we've experimented with both and chose a ceremonial grade for its vibrant green color – we wanted the color to really pop for these cookies!)
- Ceremonial grade is meant to be whisked into hot water while culinary grade is intended for adding to baking, smoothies, lattes, etc.
- Matcha that is ceremonial grade generally costs a bit more, but we use it in such a small amount that it feels worth it.
Ingredients
Here's everything you'll need to make these green tea matcha cookies:
- Flour – we use regular all-purpose flour in this recipe.
- Matcha powder – use matcha that's bright green (scroll down to see our tips for choosing a matcha powder.)
- Baking soda – to help them rise.
- Sea salt – to bring out all the flavors.
- Butter – for that classic cookie texture and taste.
- Sugar – we use a mix of both granulated and brown sugar.
- Egg – works as a binder to help hold things together.
- Vanilla – for its wonderful floral notes.
- White chocolate chips – for a delicious chocolate taste and pop of white color!
How to make matcha cookies
These unique cookies with matcha look impressive, but they're actually quite simple to make. Here's how to make green tea cookies in a few easy steps:
- While your oven preheats, mix together the flour, matcha powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium-sized bowl.
- Next, in a separate large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugars until fluffy, then beat in the egg and vanilla.
- Now add in the flour mixture and beat on low until it's just combined. Then, fold in the white chocolate chips with a spoon or spatula.
- Scoop about 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie onto a baking sheet and flatten them slightly.
Now all that's left to do is bake them until the bottoms are just browned. Do your best to let them cool before you dig in; the hardest part for sure!
Full recipe instructions are in the recipe card below.
Green Tea Cookies: FAQS
These cookies will maintain their taste and texture for up to 3 days at room temperature.
Definitely! Cookies are always great for making ahead. You can store them in an air-tight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Yes! Chunks of dark or bittersweet chocolate also pair really well with these cookies.
Ideas for serving matcha cookies
We love the sweet earthy taste of matcha and bake these cookies year-round. They make the perfect green-color food for special occasions like st. patrick's day along with our shamrock sugar cookies with natural green frosting. Or swap the white chocolate for red smarties and you have perfectly on-point Christmas cookies!
Unique cookie recipes
- Rainbow Pride Cookies
- Homemade Oreo Cookies
- Bourbon Bacon Peanut Butter Cookies
- Christmas Monster Cookies
Matcha Cookies
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon matcha powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspopon vanilla
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the flour, matcha powder, baking soda, and salt.1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon matcha powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon sea salt
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars with electric beaters for 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla.½ cup butter, ½ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, 1 large egg, 1 teaspopon vanilla
- Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed just until combined. Fold in the white chocolate chips.1 cup white chocolate chips
- Use a medium-sized cookie scoop (about 2 tablespoons) to portion the dough into 18 cookies. Press the tops of the cookies down slightly then bake them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the bottoms are very lightly browned.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Came out perfectly and the dough didn’t need chilling making them so quick to make
Can you use gluten free flour with the same results?
We haven’t tested the recipe with gluten-free flour. But if you have a 1-1 blend that works well as a substitute in other cookie recipes, then it should work for this one, too.