White Chocolate Matcha Cookies
These white chocolate matcha cookies are my contribution to the Creative Cookie Exchange. This month, we’re showcasing coffee or tea in our cookie recipes. Grab your apron and come on in to my virtual kitchen, and I’ll show you how easy and fun these delicious cookies are to make!
I’m a huge coffee lover, but truthfully, I don’t enjoy tea. At all. I find it to be too bitter, and besides, after I was diagnosed with anemia, I read this article, which explains that the tannins associated with tea can prevent absorption of iron into the body.
Being anemic is challenging enough on its own without fighting to hang on to the little big of iron I do keep in my body. But on the positive side, matcha has a lot of great health benefits.
FOOD FACTS – GREEN TEA
~ Incredibly high content of flavonoids, which are plant-derived antioxidants.
~ Green tea is the best food source of a group called catechins. Catechins are more powerful than vitamins C and E in halting oxidative damage to cells, and appear to have other disease-fighting properties. too.
~ Studies have found an association between consuming green tea and a reduced risk for several cancers, including, skin, breast, lung, colon, esophageal, and bladder.
So although it’s probably not great for me to consume in mass quantities, a little bit in a couple of small cookies won’t hurt anything on my part. Besides, I had to taste test them for you. It’s what I do 🙂
I wonder… is it acceptable to drink tea with ones tea cookies?
I hope you enjoy these matcha cookies!
Matcha White Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
- 6 ounces unsalted butter slightly softened
- 3.3 ounces (1/3 cup) brown sugar
- 3.3 ounces (1/3 cup) granulated sugar or sugar substitute (I use NuNaturals PreSweet Tagatose)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6.2 ounces (1.5 cups) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon black sesame seeds (optional)
- 1 Tablespoon food safe matcha powder
- 2 ounces white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 F.
- Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, Whisk together flour, matcha powder, salt, and sesame seeds (if using); set aside.
- Place butter and both sugars into the large bowl of an electric stand or hand mixer; cream on high speed for 3-4 minutes, or until mixture is very light and fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. (Because there’s no leavening agent in this recipe, you want to incorporate lots of air into the dough)
- Reduce mixer speed to medium and add egg and vanilla extract, mixing until fully incorporated. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing just until combined (you may still have some flour showing). Turn off mixer and incorporate white chocolate by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula.
- Use a small cookie scoop or your hands to form 18 balls of dough. Space evenly on prepared baking sheets, about 1/4 inch apart. Use your fingers to gently press down on each ball of dough to flatten slightly. If desired, sprinkle tops of cookies with a few more sesame seeds.
- Bake in preheated oven for 9-10 minutes, or until bottom of cookies are barely golden and tops are still somewhat shiny. Don’t over bake, as cookies will continue to bake after being removed from the oven.
- Allow cookies to cool on pan for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
Matcha is indeed very healthy =) Love the addition of the sesame seeds =) Thank you for the recipe and the intro to Tagatose.
Isn’t it great when we can justify junk food as healthy, Kim? 😉 Thanks for stopping by!
I have to admit that if I had just heard this recipe it wouldn’t appeal to me, but with the facts you provide and just looking at those beautiful pictures, my mouth is watering.
Spinach isn’t for everyone, Karen, but I’ll be the first to admit that if you put a creamy, decadent sauce over it, I’ll probably eat anything you put in front of me! 🙂 I hope you’ll give this recipe a try. It really is awesome next to a juicy steak!
I’ve been wanting to bake with Matcha for quite sometime now, but sadly it’s not available here. Looking at your cookies I’m more disappointed about it’s unavailability…. since green tea is so healthy, why not include it in cookies, right? and that addition of sesame seeds is very interesting!
I put off buying matcha for SUCH a long time, and now I think I may be hooked! If you shop at Amazon.com, you can pick some matcha up through them. Thanks so much for stopping by!
I’ve seen matcha powder a few times but hesitated to buy it as I wasn’t sure what to do with it– your recipe and others shared today have given me great ideas. What a striking color for a cookie!
Holly, I was exactly in your shoes just 2 short weeks ago, and now I think I may be hooked on matcha… at least for baking purposes. I wish you could see the color in person, because it’s SO vivid!
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
What a gorgeous color these are, Becca! I like to think the benefits of matcha outweigh the cons of the sugar and chocolate. I am sure they are delicious!
Thanks, Stacy… and I think I’ll follow your lead and ignore the cons of the sugar and chocolate for now 😉
I’ve been scrolling up and down this post, gazing at your gorgeous photos Becca. This is a wonderfully unique recipe. Great combinations of flavor and you’ve introduced me to Matcha. I’ll be on the lookout. Can’t wait to try these my love. xo Libby
You’re so kind, Libby! I hope you’re able to give matcha a try in a recipe soon. It’s really a lovely way to have sweets without them being, well, overly sweet! 🙂
I couldn’t find any to make my cookies, but your look great, I will have to look harder.
I think it would totally acceptable to have these with tea. I didn’t drink a lot of tea myself because it stains my teeth, but having tea in a cookie? I’m there!
I appreciate you stopping by, Karen! Here’s to unstained teeth and yummy cookies in your tummy 🙂
These look really intriguing! I love the idea of putting white chocolate with the green tea flavor. I looked at getting some matcha powder but like you said the only place you can really find it is from Amazon. I ended up trying to make almond cupcakes with green tea frosting a while back and just tried grounding up the green tea I had. It ended not as smooth as I’d like. I’m hoping to actually bite the bullet and get some of that powder!
Hey Des, you can buy matcha powder at Teavana at the Fox River Mall in Appleton, but it’s $20 for 3 Tablespoons… CRAZY!
Hi Becca!
You’re Matcha cookies look delicious and appreciate the natural green color! Visiting from WUW. Thanks for visiting my blog. So nice to meet another WI blogger! It seems we’re here by the masses. Must be the cold WI weather 😉
Thanks for stopping by, Laura! With a winter like we’ve had, I think all we can do is keep the oven on to stay warm 😉
Since purchasing some matcha powder for lattes and smoothies I have been curious about making other things with it. These look super yummy!
Thanks, Chrystal! I hope you have a chance to try the recipe. I was really happy with how they turned out!
I love how vibrant these cookies are! I love tea and can’t wait to give these a try! I have a small can of matcha powder just waiting to be cracked open!
Thanks, Miranda! I hope you’ll come back and let me know how they turned out for you!
Coming from an avid tea drinker, of course it is acceptable to have tea cookies with tea! 🙂 Hehe. These look super yummy, and I love the color the matcha brings. I will definitely be giving these a try!
tea on tea, right Sophia?! Thanks for stopping by with such a nice comment 🙂
I love you cookies and your photos – I’m having serious cake stand envy too 😉 I’m pretty sure I have matcha powder in my pantry so I am looking forward to trying these soon.
Aww, thank you, Felice! P.S. I’m smitten with my cake stand, but I’d gladly let you borrow it 🙂
So wonderful! I’ve been wanting to try using matcha in baking and I think I’ve found my first recipe.
I’m so happy to hear that, Jane! I hope you love it!
I love the flavor combo in these cookies! I think matcha and white chocolate is brilliant!
Thank you, Laura!
I had never heard of matcha. It sounds very interesting to me. I’m going to have to try these out. Thanks for sharing at Saturday Dishes.
Thanks for stopping by, Kerry! Matcha is more commonly known as green tea, so that’s probably the name that’ll be familiar to you. Matcha is the edible powder that’s formed when you grind the green tea leaves.
I didn’t know that about tea and anemia. I’ve been at least slightly anemic all my life, though not as bad as you, and never heard that before! I’ll have to come back and check out that article.
These look awesome! I have Matcha in my kitchen and don’t use it often enough. YUM!
I hope you’ll make a batch of these matcha cookies, Ashley. They shouted “it’s not easy bein’ green”, but they sure did taste delicious!
Do you think these cookies are safe for preschoolers? I wanted to bake something green for the St. Patricks Day party that did not use green food dye.