Green Tea Matcha Sugar Cookies
These chewy green tea matcha cookies are vegan, gluten free and so easy to make! They’re just like a sugar cookie, but with matcha for a fun twist. They’re made in one bowl and perfectly sweet.
On a matcha kick! Matcha pancakes, matcha muffins, matcha chia pudding, now matcha cookies! If you aren’t familiar with matcha, it is essentially powdered green tea leaves. It has a slightly bitter flavor but is packed with antioxidants and chlorophyll which gives it its vibrant green color.
It is used in a variety of things such as teas and lattes, but also ice cream, doughnuts, smoothies and more. Matcha does contain caffeine, but doesn’t give you that jittery feeling like coffee does.
Leave them plain like a classic sugar cookie, or add in some white chocolate chips! If you love this recipe, try my gluten free matcha cupcakes or gluten free sugar cookies next!
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Easy to make
- One bowl
- Minimal chill time
- Perfectly sweet & chewy
How to make matcha cookies
Step 1. In a medium mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugar for about 1 full minute. If your butter was previously in the fridge, just microwave for about 20 seconds to soften, or let it sit out until it reaches room temperature.
Step 2. Beat in the apple sauce and vanilla. Add in the dry ingredients, making sure to spoon and level the flour, don’t scoop from the bag.
Step 3. Fold together until well combined. If using white chocolate, add this in now. Set the dough in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
Step 4. Remove the dough from the fridge and use a medium cookie scoop and roll into balls. Roll each cookie dough ball in sanding sugar (regular white sugar will also work) and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Step 5. Place each dough ball several inches apart, I usually do no more than 6 per cookie sheet.
Step 6. Bake for 11-15 minutes, 13 is usually perfect in my oven, but all ovens are different. They will continue to harden as they cool.
Step 7. Use a round cookie cutter to scoot around the edges of each cookie to create perfect circles as soon as they come out of the oven and are still warm. Let cool, then enjoy! Try my bakery style gluten free sugar cookies next!
The best matcha for baking!
There are two kinds of matcha, culinary grade and ceremonial grade. Either of these can be used in baking, but ceremonial grade is generally the top pick for drinking.
When it comes to these cookies, you can use either kind, but ceremonial grade will have a more vibrant green color, though it is more expensive.
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Optional mix ins
You can either add white chocolate chips and make these matcha white chocolate chip cookies, or you can add a simple white chocolate drizzle on top of the cookies when they cool.
Regular chocolate chips would also be delicious, but the flavor of white chocolate usually pairs better with matcha than regular chocolate.
I did a poll on my instagram, and leaving these as plain matcha cookies was the winner, so that’s what I went with!
Another option is to frost them with my matcha buttercream!
Do matcha cookies have caffeine?
Yes. Because matcha contains caffeine, these cookies contain caffeine.
Matcha has about 35 mg of caffeine per 1/2 teaspoon, so these contain between 140 mg and 210 mg of caffeine depending on how much you use. This comes out to 11 to 17 mg per cookie.
Can I make them vegan?
These cookies are already vegan and gluten free, so no need to make any special adjustments as long as you use vegan butter!
We’ll be using apple sauce instead of an egg and gluten free all purpose flour. However, you can easily use regular AP flour if you are not gluten free.
Try these next!
- Funfetti Sugar Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Brownies
- Vegan Lemon Cupcakes
Lastly, if you want more recipes straight to your inbox, be sure to subscribe to my email list. If you make this recipe, be sure to tag me on instagram and leave a comment below!
Matcha Sugar Cookies
by: claire cary
Ingredients
Wet
- ½ cup softened butter vegan or regular
- ¾ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup apple sauce
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Dry
- 1 ¾ cup gluten free all purpose baking flour can also use regular AP
- 1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2-3 teaspoons matcha see notes
- Sanding sugar for rolling
- optional: 2/3 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugar for about 1 full minute. If your butter was previously in the fridge, just microwave for about 20 seconds to soften, or let it sit out until it reaches room temperature.
- Beat in the apple sauce and vanilla.
- Add in the dry ingredients, making sure to spoon and level the flour, don’t scoop from the bag.
- Fold together until well combined. If using white chocolate, add this in now. Set the dough in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and use a medium cookie scoop and roll into balls. Roll each cookie dough ball in sanding sugar (regular white sugar will also work) and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Place each dough ball several inches apart, I usually do no more than 6 per cookie sheet.
- Bake for 11-15 minutes, 13 is usually perfect in my oven, but all ovens are different. They will continue to harden as they cool.
- Use a round cookie cutter to scoot around the edges of each cookie to create perfect circles as soon as they come out of the oven and are still warm.
- let cool, then enjoy!
Notes
Comments
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I brought a double batch of these to a St. Patrick Day party and they were a hit! I substituted chocolate chips for pistachios. Thanks for the easy and delicious recipe!
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Thank you, Anne! So glad they were a hit.
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Do you think I could add pistachios instead of chocolate chips?
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Yes, that should work!
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Do you think these would freeze well in balls? I love batching my cookies for sweet tooth moments lol
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Yes! Still chill the dough, then scoop, roll in sugar and freeze in a ziplock bag until ready to bake. I’d bake right from frozen at 325 for a few extra minutes to account for the frozen dough.
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I made these cookies with Oat Flour and it was really good! gave it such a nice flavor 🙂
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So glad that worked out! Thanks, Jolene!
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I’ve made these many times, and they’ve always turned out great. They are my best friend’s favorite cookies. I’ve even made them with Truvia Sweet Complete to cut down on sugar and they still turned out amazing.
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So glad that sub worked out well!
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Hi! Can I replace the flour with almond flour? Thanks!
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Unfortunately, I don’t recommend that here!
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Can I use coconut oil instead of applesauce in this recipe please
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The apple sauce is actually acting as an egg replacer, so I’d suggest one large egg in place of apple sauce!
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Randomly found these cookies when I was looking for a different recipe online and let me tell you… SO GLAD I DID! These cookies were heavenly! Try to stay gf and df and sometimes it is hard because treats don’t just taste the same but these, you can’t tell! I ended up not rolling them in sugar but added dark chocolate chips and it was the perfect sweetness! Gave them to a bunch of friends and family members and they told me to never lose the recipe lol! Thank you so, so much for sharing and so excited to try some other recipes you have!!!
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Makes me so happy to hear, thank you Kaleigh!
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Cookies taste great but they came out fluffy and more cake like rather than flat as shown. Any idea what I did, over whip the butter?
Thanks! 🍵-
Be sure to check that your baking soda is not expired. Did you make any changes? And how did you measure the flour?
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I measured the flour by spooning & leveling, as instructed. The baking soda isn’t expired either. Not sure what I did to change the consistency but the flavor was great
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Would it work to sub. flax eggs in place of the apple sauce?
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Just one flax egg might work! Mix 1 tbsp flax with 3 tablespoons of water. Haven’t tried this myself so can’t say how they will turn out!
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These cookies are gorgeous! And I think they’re going to taste that way! P.S. I wish you’d include a nutritional chart with all your recipes.
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Nutrition is included in the bottom of each recipe card!
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these were delicious !! even my sister who doesn’t really like cookies loved these, the only thing is, I had to press them down a bit cuz my dough turned out too hard I think? anyways, try it, you will not regret it!! 🙂
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Do you think I could use Stevia instead of sugar with these? I know sugar is the star ingredient, but just curious as I am focusing on a sugar free diet (and here I am browsing cookies!)
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Not stevia but you could use a monk fruit 1:1 sweetener instead. I like the one from the brand In The Raw.
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