It’s been such a long time since I’ve revisited this matcha cookie recipe. I first developed this recipe for matcha cookies a few years ago when I was first beginning my love affair with matcha and specifically matcha desserts. That love has since grown, so I wanted to take a chance to improve this recipe with all the knowledge I’ve gained in the past few years. I tested this recipe a few times over the past week, and made some huge adjustments that improved not only the texture but taste of this recipe.
Ingredients, Substitutions & Adjustments
I’ve added notes and tips to the ingredient list, so make sure to read through them.
- 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.
- Matcha powder – The addition of matcha powder balances out the sweetness of the sugars in this cookie. It also gives the cookie its pretty green color. My favorite matcha brand is Aiya Matcha. I used their culinary grade matcha powder for this recipe. Use cookingtherapy10 to get 10% off your purchase!
- 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.
- 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 chips – Any type of white chocolate should work for this recipe!
Tools you will need for these matcha cookies
- 2 baking sheets – You will need 2 baking sheets so your cookie dough can be placed 2 inches apart. Be careful not to crowd the baking sheet.
- 2 mixing bowls – One is for dry ingredients, and one is for wet ingredients.
- Parchment paper – Parchment paper makes it easier to clean your baking sheets after you’re done baking, and it prevents your cookie from sticking to the baking sheets.
- 1 3 tablespoon ice cream scoop – An ice cream scoop makes scooping cookie dough so much easier. I would highly recommend it.
Making my matcha cookies
These matcha cookies take a little bit of patience and time, but they are well worth it. 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. Next step is to combine your dry ingredients. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and matcha powder into a medium-sized bowl. Make sure to sift your matcha powder 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 (~1 minute). Finally combine your wet and dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until a green dough forms. Add in your white chocolate chips and combine.
Rest your dough for 1 hour in the fridge to allow the liquid to rehydrate the dough. (If you want flatter cookies, rest the dough for less time) This will allow your cookies to bake more evenly. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. After resting, use a 3 tablespoon ice cream scoop to scoop cookie dough onto your baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes. You are looking for the bottoms to be a light brown color. Once out of the oven, cool for 10 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack. Cool the cookies for another 15 minutes before serving. Cooling the cookies will help the cookies hold its shape.
White Chocolate Matcha Cookies Video
Please note that I only made 1/2 the recipe in this video. I ran out of eggs the day I filmed it :(.
Tips for making the best matcha cookies
Make sure the brown butter is not too hot
Cool down the butter before combining with the rest of your wet ingredients, so the heat from the butter doesn’t cook the eggs. Additionally, butter that’s too hot will create a greasier cookie.
Why do I use brown butter?
Brown butter creates a cookie with a crispy outside and a chewy center. It also adds an extra nutty flavor to the cookies.
Which pan should you use to brown butter?
Make sure to brown your butter in a light coloured pan so you can see the color of the butter as it browns. This helps to prevent you from burning the butter.
Why do you need to sift the matcha powder?
Sifting the matcha powder prevents clumps from forming and results in a more even green color.
How to get the perfect thin, chewy texture
Whisk your wet ingredients until you get a light and creamy mixture. This is the key to getting crispy and chewy cookie. If you are looking for a crispier texture, see my crispy matcha cookie recipe.
Rest the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes
Resting the dough allows the liquid to distribute throughout and ensures the cookie bakes more evenly. It also helps to cool down the dough, so your butter melts at a slower rate. The faster your butter melts, the more your cookies spread in the oven. If you want a really chunky cookie, add more flour. If you like a thinner cookie, rest it for a shorter amount of time.
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, most efficient way to form the cookies.
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.
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 before baking. Simply put them on a baking sheet and throw them in the oven.
How do you store cookies?
Cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days. They can be stored up to 7 days in the fridge and 2 months in the freezer. A good hack for storing soft cookies like these is add a piece of white bread to the container. The moisture from the bread helps the cookie keep its texture.
Did you make my matcha cookies?
If you made this dish, I would love to see!
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Brown Butter White Chocolate Matcha Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp matcha powder
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Brown your butter. Heat your butter over medium heat until it turns a golden yellow color. Pour butter in a heat proof bowl to cool. As the butter cools, it will get darker in color.
- Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and matcha powder in a medium size mixing bowl. Mix well and set aside.
- Next add in white sugar and brown sugar to your butter. Mix to combine. Once well combined, add in your eggs and vanilla. Whisk together. Whisk until you get a light and creamy texture (~1 minute). This is the key to getting a crisp and chewy cookie.
- Once the wet ingredients are well mixed, slowly add in the dry ingredients from step 3. Combine with a spatula until a green dough forms.
- Add in the white chocolate chips and mix until they are well incorporated.
- Let the dough rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a 3 tablespoon (1.5 oz) ice cream scoop to scoop cookie dough onto baking sheets. Cookies should be 2-3 inches apart.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes.
- Let cookies cool for 10 minutes before putting them on a cooling rack.
- Cool cookies for another 15 minutes before serving.
Video
Notes
- Rest your dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Cookies spread more when the fat melts faster. Cooling down the dough will prevent the fat (ie. butter) from melting too fast, creating a chunkier cookie. If you like a thinner cookie, rest it at room temperature or in the fridge for less time.
- Some people have mentioned that the cookies don’t have enough matcha in them, and I think the biggest culprit for that is the quality of your matcha. I use Aiya culinary grade matcha which holds its flavor and color really well in the oven. However, if you think your matcha is lower quality, use at least 2 tablespoons to ensure both the color and flavor come through.
- Update 3/15/23
- Many people have mentioned they’ve had issues with spreading. A cookie spreads because the butter is melting too fast and/or the balance of wet to dry ingredients. Because of this issue, I added an additional 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour to the recipe and increased the resting time in the fridge to 1 hour to reduce the spreading. If you want a flatter cookie, don’t add the additional 2 tablespoons and rest for less time.
- Additionally, I have tested many cookie recipes since developing this one and have found that the texture and flavor of cookies in general is better if you rest the dough for 24 hours. This will further reduce the spreading. This dough can rest in the fridge for up to 72 hours.
Can I replace butter with oil, sugar with honey and white all-purpose with brown all-purpose flour?
Hi Ellie. I have not tested this recipe with all those substitutions, so I don’t know unfortunately. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.
texture seems more underbaked than chewy and they get too flat which makes them look really sad:(
I’m sorry the recipe didn’t work out for you. If the texture seems underbaked, bake for longer. Leave the cookies in the fridge for longer if they are too flat.
So good
Thank you!!
I followed this recipe and and lessened the sugar because I’m not into too sweet. They taste great! However, the color changed into a moldy green brown mix which can be not appetizing to eat since they look moldy. Is that a normal behavior due to the browned butter. I think overnight it turned color, stored it in a disposable plastic box
Hi Anne. Honestly I am not sure. I haven’t encountered this issue before. After doing some research, it could be due to the matcha oxidizing, but like I said, I haven’t encountered that issue with these cookies before.
The cookies turned out very good, although I could decrease sugar a bit, and they are somewhat very greasy so I’m wondering if I could decrease butter as well. I used high quality matcha and it was strong enough.
Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for trying the recipe! You can definitely reduce the butter a bit if you want. The greasiness can come from the butter not being cool enough before mixing it in with the rest of the ingredients.
I just made these cookies. I have a huge sweet tooth, but even for me these were way way too sweet. Browned butter (which I LOVE A LOT), but in this recipe it kind of hides the matcha flavor. Thanks for sharing your recipe. They turned out yummy, but if I used your recipe again, I would definitely reduce the sugars and maybe increase the matcha.
Hi Kimberly. Thanks for trying the recipe and your feedback!
How to store the cookies?
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Love this recipe, I’ve made them twice now! I probably don’t have really high quality matcha, so I doubled the amount as recommended and I’m really happy. I just found peach flavoured matcha today and can’t wait to find out if the flavour comes through in the cookies.
Ohhh! That sounds interesting and very yummy! Let me know if you can taste the peach flavor if you try them!
Thank you so much for this recipe. My cookies came out delicious!
Yay! So excited they came out delicious!! 🙂
Why is it the cookies have different texture on video compared to the pictures you have here?
To be honest, I made the video a few months ago, so I can’t remember what the conditions were of that test. I will test these again. It’s possible my butter was still too warm when I baked them.
Hi. Is it possible to substitute granulated and light brown sugar with erythritol and use half a cup less?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Ida. I haven’t tested this recipe with erythyitol, so I don’t know for sure. Based on my research, you might actually need to add more because it is a little less sweet than regular sugar. If would like your cookies less sweet, definitely use less but keep in mind it’ll change the texture of the cookie.
Step 1 is preheating the oven and Step 7 is waiting an hour.
Maybe make preheating Step 6 instead?
Hi Will. Thanks for pointing that out! I adjusted the recipe.
Hi Becca!
Thanks so much for posting this recipe, it was so good! I’d never browned butter for cookies before but now I understand why everyone raves about it. The recipe was really awesome and turned out lovely. I used what was probably lower quality matcha and I’m going to follow your advice to increase it a little bit for next time. I doubled the batch since I was making them for several different people, and it turned out great!
Beautiful recipe, thanks so much for testing it out and writing it for us!
Hi Amelia. Thank you for trying the recipe and your kind words! I’m so excited you like them! 🙂
Unfortunately these were far too sickly sweet and spread heaps in the oven. Going to try and add some more flour and matcha to the rest of the mix.
Hi Rosalie. I’m sorry they were too sweet for you and they spread too much! Let me know if you have any questions or want some suggestions.
The two cookies I baked immideately melted in the oven and they were both very thin and almost covered the entire baking sheet, i folowed the recipie exactly and im not sure what could have caused this.
Hi Cami. I would recommend letting the cookie dough cool for at least 30 minute before baking. I usually do it for at least an hour.
Your recipe is superb! Tried it today, halved the recipe as didn’t want such a huge batch (adjusted ratio to use 1 egg only), used 45g white sugar and 70g brown sugar to reduce sweetness. 1 whole tbsp matcha powder because I bought a normal-grade one from a baking store. 100g of white chocolate chips as that was the bag I bought it in. Chilled for 30 mins. Spread just enough to keep the outside crunchy and inside moist! Will definitely be keeping this, thanks so much for sharing!
Hi Ann. Thank you so much for trying the recipe! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
very yummy and cute but i baked 32 and the ones on the bottom rack burned 😊 my bad. thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!
Oh no!! I’ve done that too 🙂
I tried this recipe, thank you! However my cookies turn out to be pretty soft/damp even after cooling it for more than 20minutes.
I left the dough in the fridge for 3 hours before baking and I baked it for 10minutes.
Should I be baking it longer? Or did I add too much brown sugar or too little all purpose flour? Thank you!
Hi Kay. If your cookies are still damp, I would bake for a few minutes longer. I would also check the temperature of your oven to make sure it isn’t too low. You can check the temperature using an oven thermometer. I got mine for $7 on Amazon.
Normally I do not leave comments on recipes but this one I felt I need to. I made the recipe almost the way it was written. After reading the reviews I saw that a lot of people were having problems with their cookies spreading out and becoming really thin so I took that into consideration.
After you mix the dough as it states to be mixed cover and then stick in the freezer for one hour. When you take it out leave for five minutes to come down and temperature and then scoop into cookies. Once you have your cookies scooped put them on a wax paper lined tray recover them and stick them back into the freezer for another 20 minutes. After set your oven to 350 and let it come to temp. Cook cookies for almost 12 minutes. Most cookies that have a tendency to spread is because the butter is not cold enough. If you chew your cookies that have large amounts of butter in them then they will not spread as badly. My cookies came out a perfect green as well without adding extra matcha.
Hi Destiny. Thanks for making the recipe and the feedback! I updated the recipe in response to all the comments on spreading. I appreciate the feedback since it helps me make the recipe better!
Hi!
May I know how many grams is 1 tbsp of matcha powder?
17 grams!
These cookies are AMAZING! My husband hates, despises and abhors matcha, so I made these for me, and this dude has eaten half of them. Even told me to keep them in rotation lol! They’re dreamy. My only “substitution” was that I used a chopped up white chocolate bar from Lindt cause I didn’t find chips, but I find the different chunk sizes made it even better! Mine weren’t as green but the taste was all there, what a wonderful recipe, thank you SOSOSOSO much!!
Hi Selene. Thank you for trying my recipe! I’m so excited your husband likes them!!
I’ve gotten into the habit of testing a one or two cookies when trying out a new recipe and I’m glad I did for this one. My first batch spread way too much even after resting in the fridge for the recommended amount of time. So, I added about a half cup of flour and rested the dough in the freezer for a bit to really firm them up and they came out perfectly! I also consulted a few other recipes before this one that recommended 325 degrees to keep the color which seems to work perfectly with the 1.5 tbsp I added. Lately, I did a mix of dark and milk chocolate chips and it is excellent! Overall a good recipe that just needed a couple tweaks for my kitchen.
Thank you for the trying the recipe! Loved reading about your tweaks!
We tried this recipe tonight and my entire family LOVED IT! Most definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing
That’s amazing! I’m so glad your family loved it!
If you love butter, especially browned butter, this recipe is for you, SO buttery and chewy! If you are like me though, loving matcha for its flavor and prefer butter in moderation, these cookies are not for you. I found the browned butter quite overpowered the matcha—and I had doubled my culinary grade matcha. Suffice it to say for my tastes and to avoid flat cookies, I’d have to edit the recipe a lot. For you butter lovers out there though, I’m sure this recipe will be a delight!
I’m sorry this recipe didn’t work out for you. Thank you for trying it!
Hi Becca, do you have recommendations on how to keep the cookies soft after baking? How long can the cookies be stored?
They were delicious when they came out of the oven but were hard the next day.
Hi Saher. Cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days and up to 7 days in the fridge. For soft cookies like this, try storing them with a slice of white bread. This helps keep them moist since the moisture from the bread seeps into the cookie. Let me know if that helps!
Hello! I made these last night, and they taste great! I have a question though – in your recipe video, you put in 1 egg, but the written recipe says 2 eggs. Which one would you say it is? I used 2 eggs and the dough was quite liquidy and spread a lot. Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Nicole! I only used 1 egg in the video because I only made half the recipe! I ran out of eggs 🙁 It should be 2 eggs though! If you make this recipe again and you want less spread, add 1-2 tablespoons of flour! Thank you so much for trying the recipe!
Hello! I’ve made these before and they were so good but now I am gluten free. Could I use gluten free flour with this recipe?
Hi Kierra. Unfortunately, I am not sure if you can use gluten free flour with this recipe because I have not tested it. I do have a friend with a gluten free matcha chocolate chip cookie recipe though! She’s an amazing baker: https://bojongourmet.com/matcha-chocolate-chip-cookies-vegan-paleo/. Hope this helps!
Hi there from Germany – these looked perfect for Christmas, but my dough came out like soup. I used vegan butter instead of dairy, but this seems to be fine in other recipes that call for butter. I added some oats to thicken it up, but I still think it’ll be too wet to hold together. Help! What went wrong? Oh, and the recipe says two eggs, but in the video you only added one. Could it be I that I should’ve only used one?
No it’s definitely 2 eggs! I have never made this recipe with vegan butter, so I am not not sure what the difference is. From your description, it sounds like the dough needs more flour and possibly more time in the fridge. It sounds like the balance of wet to dry ingredients is off. I would add enough flour so that the dough does not stick to your fingers anymore. I wish I could be of more help!
Ok, maybe I’ll give it another try with real butter. I noticed another baker who used the metric version (as did I) also had disappointing results. I do love when a recipe can be converted, but perhaps it’s off somehow? Anyway, thanks for all your work and positive energy!
Hmmm that could also be it too. I use a program that converts all my measurements automatically to weights, so it’s possible it’s off. I will definitely revisit this recipe and test it in weight measurements to make sure it works! Thanks for the feedback.
After I read the whole recipe, I was then in doubt with the quantity of the flour used. It was only 2 cups ot 250 g. It would be a very thin cookie and I was not mistaken. I would definitely change the recipe to 355 grams of flour instead of 250 g only.
Thank you for trying the recipe and providing your feedback!
its the absolute best cookie i have ever tasted in my whole life its even better than a bakery’s cookie
Wow that’s a huge compliment! Thank you so much! I’m so excited you enjoyed them 😊
Hello!! I tried the recipe AND IT WAS SO GOOD!! my only issue was that my cookies ended up being very thin. it got a little golden on top but slightly underbaked in the inside. im not sure how to fix it, should i lower the temperature when putting the cookies into the oven?
I would leave them in the fridge for longer. That helps the butter garden more and melt slower in the oven. The faster the butter melts the thinner the cookies will be! In terms of the underbaked center, I would leave them in the oven for 2-3 minutes longer! Let me know if you try them again and how it goes!
The cookies had a nice shape and smelled great but were much too sweet and the matcha’s flavor is barely noticeable.
Hi Naomi. Thank you for trying the recipe! Which matcha powder did you use? If you try this recipe again, you can use more matcha powder to increase the matcha flavor and balance out the sweetness from the sugar.
Thank you for this easy to follow recipe! My cookies turned out well, and I’m very happy about them. It can be a sad when you use good ingredients, but they don’t turn out as well as you liked, but these ones delivered 👍🏼
Thank you for the kind words Evelyn! I’m glad you liked them!
As you expected. Too damn sweet.
I’m sorry this recipe didn’t work out for you. Thank you for trying it!
These are sooooo good! Everyone that tasted it loved it. I did add a bit more matcha because I love the flavor.
I’m so glad you liked them! More matcha is always a good thing in my book!
Great recipe, thank you so much for posting this! I made a triple batch right away on the first try and it turned out so well. I made so much because I’m planning to take them on a camping trip with 8 friends the day after tomorrow. Most of them love matcha but have never heard of hojicha, so fingers crossed for loves.
Tweaks I made include using hojicha instead of matcha, replacing half the butter with coconut oil and replacing once cup of the sugar with more flour because I think your original recipe is way too sweet. Hojicha is roasted green tea so it’s a darker, duller army green instead of the vibrant grass green color matcha gives off. Additionally I used dark brown sugar instead of light, which is delicious, but my batter looked like chocolate when I knew I used none at all. Since I’m doing a triple batch, your recipe says I needed three cups of brown sugar and 1.5 of white sugar; I used two cups of brown sugar and 1 cup of white.
I divided my triple batch into one-and-a-half batch of white chocolate chip and sesame cookies and one-and-a-half batch of dark chocolate chip and walnut cookies. Sweet but not too sweet, with a nutty cruch and that chocolate surprise.
My cookies turned out quite soft and cakey instead of chewy, but I like it like that. I guess that’s a tradeoff for replacing one cup of the sugar with flour. I’d like to try making a gluten free version of these cookies, substituting wheat flour with almond flour next time, because I have a feeling it would work well.
Wow thank you for making this recipe and making it your own! I loved reading all the substitutions you made! I absolutely love hojicha and I bet your cookies tasted amazing!
Hi! Just wanted to ask if I can reduce the brown sugar to 1/2 cup instead of 1 to make it less sweet? Thank you! 🙂
Yes you can but I would also reduce the amount of flour that is used to balance out the wet and dry ingredients. That ensures the texture is not too dry. I have not tested this recipe with less sugar but I think reducing it by 1/4 cup should work! Let me know how they turn out!
Hi! I would love to substitute butter to coconut oil, can I do this end use the same amount of them?
Hi Larissa! I honestly have never tried that, but I have had friends tell me they use coconut oil instead of butter. So that tells me it should work, but I can’t say for sure. Let me know how it turns out if you try it!
Thank you so much for this recipe!! I’ve never bake anything from scratch before and this is my first! My husband also loves it so that’s a plus lol
Hi Trinity! Thank you so much for trying the recipe! I’m so glad it worked out for you and your husband! 🙂
Hi Becca!
I was wondering if I could use ground flax seeds & water instead of eggs? Would that work?
Hi Tiffany. Unfortunately, I’m not sure because I haven’t tried that before. 🙁 I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.