Matcha White Chocolate Cookies

Matcha White Chocolate Cookies are the perfect combination of earthy sweet matcha and creamy white chocolate chips. These matcha cookies are elevated further with brown butter making them even more delicious. 

Right out of the oven, these green tea matcha cookies are gooey in the middle, crispy on the edges and chewy all at the same time! Make sure you let them cool down enough to allow all the texture and flavor settle in before digging in though.

Why you’ll love this recipe

• Crispy and chewy – these matcha and white chocolate cookies are made with both granulated sugar and brown sugar to give them their signature chewy texture with crispy edges.
• Exceptional flavor – the melted butter also contributes to their characteristic chewiness, while brown butter enhances the flavor.
• Freezer friendly – the dough as well as the baked cookies freeze wonderfully so you can make them ahead for birthday parties, the holidays, or for your freezer stash.

Ingredients and substitutions

As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below are some notes and substitution tips:

1. Butter – I used unsalted butter but you can use salted butter in a pinch. If you do make this substitution, you have to reduce the amount of salt added by half. Even then, the balance of salty sweet may still be thrown off because the amount of salt in salted butter may not be the same depending on the brand of butter you use. If you can, stick to unsalted butter.

2. Brown sugar – I used light brown sugar, dark brown sugar will work as well. If you don’t have brown sugar, granulated sugar can be substituted but your cookies will lack chewiness as well as a depth of flavor.

3. Granulated sugar – a small amount of granulated sugar is also used in this recipe to give these cookies some crispiness. 

4. Egg – two whole eggs are used here.

5. Vanilla – I use pure vanilla extract to add complexity even though the main flavor is matcha.

6. Flour – simple all-purpose flour will work for this recipe.

7. Matcha powder – I’m using culinary matcha powder for cooking and baking. There is no need to use a more expensive version (ie. ceremonial grade). But make sure you’re not using a matcha green tea mix which may already be sweetened. 

8. Salt – I used kosher salt, if you’re using table salt, only use about a half to two thirds as much.  

9. Leavening agents – both baking soda and baking powder are used in this recipe. Baking soda will contribute to browning and spreading of the cookies as well as making them more chewy, while baking powder will add a little bit of lift.

10. Chocolate chips – I have used white chocolate chips as well as wafers for this recipe. You can use any style of white chocolate.

Tools you’ll need

• A stand mixer or electric mixer will be super useful since the butter and sugar and eggs need to be beaten for a good amount of time to allow the eggs to emulsify. Making the cookie dough by hand is possible but will take a lot of elbow grease.
• A cookie scoop to get consistent size cookies so they all bake at the same time and you don’t end up with some that are too under or too over.

How to make matcha white chocolate cookies 

The following instructions, step-by-step photos, and tips are here to help you visualize how to make the recipe. You can always skip straight to the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

First, brown one stick of butter in a small light color saucepan and immediately pour it over the other stick of butter in your stand mixer bowl, stir until completely melted and allow to cool.

Tip: a light color saucepan is essential when browning butter so you can see when it’s time to take it off the heat. Also, cut up the other stick of butter into smaller chunks so they melt faster.

Add sugar to the melted/brown butter in your stand mixer bowl and beat with a paddle attachment for at least 2 minutes until light in color. 

Next, add egg, and vanilla to the beaten butter and continue to beat for at least another 2 minutes until light and fluffy. 

Tip: Don’t be afraid to beat the wet ingredients really well at this stage, even longer than 2 minutes to allow the eggs to emulsify into the butter. You may need to scrape the bowl in this step.

Sift together flour, matcha powder, baking powder and baking soda. Then stir in the kosher salt. Add it to the wet ingredients and stir to combine. You may want to stop the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl in this step to make sure everything is well combined but don’t over mix here.

Finally, add the white chocolate chips, and stir to distribute them evenly throughout the cookie dough. Stop the mixer and use a spatula to give it a final mix to ensure everything is distributed evenly.

Divide the dough with a medium size (3 tablespoons) cookie scoop and place them on a lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour before baking.

Tip: you could refrigerate the cookie dough before scooping. However, if you accidentally forget about it, the dough may get too hard to scoop easily. This is why I always divide my cookie dough before refrigerating.

Bake the cookies, one tray at a time in the middle of the oven. You should be able to fit 8 to 9 cookies per tray. 

The testing process

How much white chocolate to use

The original recipe is adapted from my famous milk chocolate chip cookies, but some of the flour was swapped out for matcha powder and the milk chocolate was swapped out for the white chocolate. 

They were good but the flavor was somewhat ordinary. Recently I made them again and found that they lean on the sweeter side, and perhaps a bit too loaded with white chocolate chips. 

I have two options: I could potentially reduce the amount of sugar or the white chocolate chips. I went against reducing the sugar because the base of the cookies tastes right on point if you get a bite without any chocolate. 

So I went with the other option, testing these matcha green tea white chocolate cookies with 2 cups, 1 ½ cups and finally 1 cup of white chocolate chips. The recipe works fine with any amount but I found that 1 cup gives just enough sweetness and creaminess to these cookies. I think 1 cup is the perfect amount, but feel free to add any amount of white chocolate to your liking.

To brown or not to brown butter 

This matcha cookie recipe will also work with melted (not brown) butter, that was how I made it originally. So if you don’t want to brown butter or are afraid to do it (which you shouldn’t be… I have a how to post to guide you through making brown butter), you can simply melt the butter instead.

However, just browning one stick of butter adds a little bit of complexity and flavor nuance to these cookies and enhances the flavor of the matcha. I highly recommend using brown butter here.

How much matcha powder to use

I tested the recipe with 2 tablespoons and 3 tablespoons of matcha powder. The batch with less matcha powder is still tasty with a light matcha flavor and lighter in color as well. And obviously, the batch with more matcha powder has a more intense, deeper, sweeter matcha flavor.

My final version of these matcha white chocolate cookies contains 3 tablespoons of matcha powder, but if you want to use 2 tablespoons only, simply increase the amount of flour by 1 tablespoon to make up for the reduction in matcha powder.

More baker’s tips

• Measure flour correctly – adding too much flour can dry out the cookies, especially since matcha tends to have a drying effect on baked goods. So make sure to fluff your flour before scooping, then level it off. Or use a kitchen scale for more exact measurement.
• Don’t overmix – gluten develops during mixing, and overmixing will further develop gluten in the cookie dough making it dry, so make sure not to overmix.
• Chill the dough – this will allow the melted butter to re-solidify so the cookies don’t spread too much. It also allows the flour to hydrate properly and the flavor to develop.
• Shape them – I found that these cookies tend to spread very evenly resulting in pretty round cookies as long as you divide them with a cookie scoop. If any of them gets out of shape, use a large round cookie cutter or a spatula to scoot the edges of the cookies toward the center to make them perfectly round.
• It’s better to underbake – these cookies should come out of the oven with the middle underbaked. That’s okay, let them sit on the baking sheet for 10-15 minutes to finish baking. This ensures your matcha and white chocolate cookies are soft and chewy instead of dry and hard.

Storage

Room temperature

These earthy matcha white chocolate cookies will stay fresh when stored in an airtight container for 3 to 5 days. 

Adding a slice of sandwich bread to your storage container will keep the cookies softer for longer. However, avoid placing the bread directly on top of the cookies since the bread can get stuck to the cookies. You could place the piece of bread off to the side in the container or place a small piece of parchment paper between the bread and the cookies to avoid direct contact.

Refrigerator

The baked cookies do not need to be refrigerated. But the cookie dough can be kept in the refrigerator for 3-4 days before baking.  

Freezer

You can freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months, thaw at room temperature for a few hours before serving. You could pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften and warm them up, they will taste like freshly baked.

You can also freeze this cookie dough for 3-6 months. I prefer freezing the cookie dough over freezing the baked cookies because you can pop them into the oven and get freshly baked cookies anytime you want.

To freeze cookie dough, simply portion them out on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze until hardened. Then transfer the dough balls to a freezer bag and keep them frozen.

You can bake frozen cookie dough directly from the freezer without thawing. Simply increase baking time by about 30 seconds to 1 minute. You want the outer edges to brown but still underbaked in the middle for maximum gooeyness.

FAQs

More matcha recipes

• Matcha butter shortbread cookies
• Matcha madeleines
• Matcha banana bread
• Matcha green tea cupcakes
• Matcha mochi

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📖 Recipe card

Matcha White Chocolate Cookies

Matcha White Chocolate Cookies are the perfect combination of earthy sweet matcha and creamy white chocolate chips. These matcha cookies are elevated further with brown butter making them even more delicious.

5 from 2 votes

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes minutes

Total Time: 32 minutes minutes

Yield: 25 cookies

Author: Trang

Equipment

• Stand Mixer
• Baking Sheet
• Cookie Scoop
• Saucepan

Ingredients

• ▢ 8 oz unsalted butter (227 g)
• ▢ 1 ¼ cup brown sugar (250 g)
• ▢ ¼ cup granulated sugar (48 g)
• ▢ 2 large eggs
• ▢ 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (275 g)
• ▢ 3 tablespoon matcha powder (18 g)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 1 cup white chocolate chips (172 g)

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

• Brown half the butter: place 1 stick (4 oz, 113 g) of butter in the stand mixer bowl and heat the second stick of butter in a light colored saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter melts, it will become foamy. When the foam subsides, you will see clear bubbles, start whisking continuously at this point to keep the milk solids from burning. When the butter is caramel in color and smells nutty, turn off the heat and immediately pour everything including the brown solids over the butter in the stand mixer bowl and stir to melt. Set aside to cool.
• Once the butter has cooled down, add sugar to it, and beat with the paddle attachment for at least 2 minutes until light in color.
• Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and continue beating for at least another 2 minutes until fluffy and creamy.
• In another mixing bowl, sift together the flour, matcha powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir in the kosher salt and give it a good mix to distribute. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredient mixture in the stand mixer bowl, stir until incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.
• Add the white chocolate chips and stir to distribute evenly. Stop the mixer and use a spatula to scrape the side and bottom of the bowl to ensure good distribution of chocolate chips throughout the cookie dough.
• Portion the cookie dough with a 3-tablespoon cookie scoop and place them on a lined baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour, and up to 3 days, before baking.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Place 8 dough balls on a baking sheet (3 along the top and bottom edges and 2 in the middle), about 2 inches apart, and bake 1 batch at a time for 12 minutes, until the outer edges of the cookies start to turn golden and the middle is still underbaked.
• Remove the baking sheet from the oven, but allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet to finish baking from the residual heat for 10-15 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

• For a lighter matcha flavor, you can reduce the amount of matcha powder to 2 tablespoons and increase the amount of flour by 1 tablespoon.
• Make sure to chill the dough to allow the butter to re-solidify, the flour to hydrate and the flavor to develop.
• These matcha cookies spread very evenly, so you should have almost perfectly round cookies. But if some get out of shape, scoot the edges toward the center using a spatula or a large round cookie cutter, right when the cookies come out of the oven and are still soft. This will make them perfectly round.
• You can use a large (¼ cup) cookie scoop to make larger cookies, this should yield about 18 cookies. Increase the baking time to 15 minutes.
• The cookie dough can be kept frozen once portioned. You can bake from frozen and increase baking time by 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Nutrition

Serving: 44g | Calories: 196kcal

Course: Cookies, Dessert

Cuisine: American, Japanese

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