Hojicha Cookies

My favorite thing to bake recently is cookies! Recently, I made the most amazing oatmeal craisin cookies and a few months ago I made matcha cookies. These matcha cookies are now a huge hit on this blog, and they were also a huge hit in my office. I also couldn’t get enough of them. I ate at least 1 a day until they ran out lol. Because I loved them so much, I decided to make some hojicha cookies this week.

What is hojicha?

Hojicha is like the forgotten sibling of matcha. They have the same parent but all the attention is on matcha. But hojicha definitely deserves some love. Hojicha is made by roasting green tea leaves which is how it gets its brown color. What I love about it is that it has less caffeine than matcha. I am very sensitive to caffeine; I can’t even eat matcha desserts without it affecting my sleep schedule. That’s why sometimes I prefer hojicha to matcha. In terms of cooking and baking, because they are very similar, you can use hojicha in the same way you use matcha.

Ingredients, Substitutions & Adjustments

• Flour – This is the main dry ingredient. The balance between this ingredient and butter are what helps create the perfect cookie texture.
• Baking soda – Baking soda helps the cookie spread. Make sure to use baking soda, not baking powder.
• Salt – Brings out the flavor of the other ingredients.
• Hojicha powder – The addition of hojicha powder balances out the sweetness of the sugars in this cookie. It also helps give the cookie its brown color.
• Butter – I used browned butter for this recipe. Brown butter is when you heat butter on the stove until it turns a golden yellow color and brown specs begin to form at the bottom of the pan.
• White sugar – White sugar encourages browning and spread in the cookie.
• Brown sugar– Brown sugar adds moisture and makes the cookie more chewy. I used light brown sugar because I like that it is less sweet than dark brown sugar. Dark brown sugar is sweeter and makes the cookies more chewy.
• Vanilla extract – Adds flavor to the cookie. You can substitute vanilla extract with vanilla paste.
• Eggs – I used room temperature eggs in this cookie recipe because they are easier to incorporate.
• White chocolate – I chose to use a chocolate bar for this recipe because I love the different sizes you get from chopping up the chocolate. You also have the option to use 1 cup of white chocolate chips.

Making my hojicha cookies

There is a lot of waiting in this recipe, but it is well worth it in the end! First preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Then brown your butter. Use a light colored pan to heat your butter over medium heat until it turns a golden yellow color. Pour it into a heat proof bowl and set aside. You want to cool down your butter so it doesn’t cook the eggs. Next combine your dry ingredients. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and hojicha powder into a medium-sized bowl. Make sure to sift your hojicha to prevent clumping. Set aside.

Combine your brown butter, brown sugar, and white sugar into a large bowl. Add in your vanilla extract and eggs. Whisk until it is a light and creamy texture. Finally combine your wet and dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until a brown dough forms. Add in your white chocolate chips and combine.

Rest your dough for 30 minutes at room temperature to allow the liquid to rehydrate the dough. This will allow your cookies to bake more evenly. Your dough might be a little bit wet but resting it will harden it. After resting, use a 3 tablespoon (1.5 oz) ice cream scoop to scoop cookie dough onto your baking sheets. Bake for 9-11 minutes. You are looking for the edges to get crisp and the center to be chewy. Once out of the oven, cool for 10 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack. Cool the hojicha cookies for another 15 minutes before serving. Cooling the cookies will help the cookies hold its shape.

Why do you need to rest the cookie dough?

Resting the dough allows the liquid in the dough to distribute throughout and ensures the cookie bakes more evenly.

How do you store cookie dough?

Freeze cookie dough for safe storage and pull out in case of cookie emergencies. You don’t need to thaw them out before baking. Simply put them on a baking sheet and throw them in the oven.

More tips on how to make the perfect hojicha cookies

1. Make sure the brown butter is not too hot – Cool down the butter before combining it with the rest of your wet ingredients, so the heat from the butter doesn’t cook the eggs.
2. Why use brown butter – Brown butter creates a cookie with a crispy outside and a chewy center.
3. Which pan should you use to brown butter? – Make sure to brown your butter in a light colored pan so you can see the color of the butter as it browns. This helps to prevent you from burning the butter.
4. Sift the hojicha powder – This prevents clumping.
5. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop the dough – The key to getting consistent round cookies is an ice cream scoop. It is the cleanest, more efficient way to form the cookies.
6. How to prevent your cookies from burning – I moved my oven rack to the top third of the oven to prevent my cookies from burning. I used to cook them in the center, and because they were too close to the broiler, the bottom of the cookies would burn. Moving my oven rack up allowed the cookies to bake through without burning the bottoms.
7. Use an oven thermometer – The other key to getting perfect cookies is the correct temperature. The other reason my cookies used to burn is that my oven is 50 degrees higher than what it says on the oven dial. That’s why getting an oven thermometer was a life changer. It’s a $7 well worth it.

Did you make this dish?

If you made this dish, I would love to see!

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