Green cookies with white chocolate chips on plate

Matcha White Chocolate Cookies

Matcha and white chocolate are one of those pairings that require no convincing once you've tried it. The bitterness of the matcha against the sweetness of the white chocolate is a straightforward contrast that genuinely works. These cookies are chewy in the center, slightly crisp at the edge, and intensely green.

This is a standard drop cookie method - cream butter and sugar, add eggs, mix in dry ingredients, fold in chocolate. No chilling required, though chilling the dough for 30 minutes does produce a slightly thicker cookie. Total active prep is around 20 minutes.

Recipe Card
Prep time 20 minutes
Bake time 11-13 minutes per batch
Total time 35-40 minutes (plus optional 30-minute dough chill)
Servings 18-20 cookies
Dietary Vegetarian

Ingredients

Dry ingredients: - 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour - 2 tablespoons (12g) BENBU Matcha ceremonial grade powder - 1 teaspoon baking soda - 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Wet ingredients: - 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature - 3/4 cup (150g) granulated white sugar - 1/2 cup (100g) light brown sugar, packed - 2 large eggs - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix-ins: - 1 cup (170g) white chocolate chips or roughly chopped white chocolate

Optional: - Flaky sea salt for topping (highly recommended) - 1/4 cup chopped pistachios for texture

Equipment

  • Stand mixer or hand mixer
  • Two baking sheets
  • Parchment paper or silicone baking mats
  • Cooling rack
  • Fine mesh sieve (for sifting matcha)

Steps

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

  2. Sift the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, matcha powder, baking soda, and salt. Sifting the matcha is important - it has a tendency to clump even in dry mix. Set aside.

  3. Cream butter and sugars. In a large bowl, beat softened butter with both sugars on medium speed for 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy. Don't rush this step. Properly creamed butter and sugar create the foundation for the cookie's texture.

  4. Add eggs and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla extract. Beat until combined and the mixture looks smooth and slightly increased in volume.

  5. Add dry ingredients. With the mixer on low, gradually add the sifted flour-matcha mixture. Mix only until just combined - overmixing develops gluten and makes cookies tough. Some streaks of flour at this stage are fine.

  6. Fold in white chocolate. Switch to a spatula. Fold in the white chocolate chips by hand. Distribute evenly through the dough.

  7. Chill (optional but recommended). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Chilled dough spreads less and results in a thicker, chewier cookie. If skipping this step, cookies will be thinner and crisper - also good, just different.

  8. Scoop the dough. Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop or two spoons to form balls roughly the size of a golf ball. Place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

  9. Add flaky salt. Press 2-3 flakes of sea salt onto each dough ball before baking. This is optional but strongly encouraged - it elevates the final cookie noticeably.

  10. Bake. Bake at 350F for 11-13 minutes. The edges should be set and very lightly golden. The centers will look underdone and slightly glossy - this is correct. They will firm up as they cool.

  11. Cool. Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Moving them too early causes them to break.

Recipe Notes

  • Room temperature butter is important. Cold butter won't cream properly; melted butter produces flat, greasy cookies.
  • BENBU Matcha is stone-milled in Japan to an ultra-fine texture. This fine grind disperses evenly through the dough without leaving specks. Coarser matcha powders can create an uneven appearance and flavor distribution.
  • The matcha color will deepen slightly during baking. Some oxidation at high heat is normal; the cookies will still be clearly green.

Getting the Color Right

Matcha cookies should look green. Distinctly, visually interesting green. A few things affect the final color:

Grade of matcha. Ceremonial grade matcha - like BENBU's, made from first-harvest shade-grown leaves from Kagoshima - is vibrant and chlorophyll-rich. This translates to a brighter green in the baked cookie. Older-harvest or culinary-grade matcha with less chlorophyll produces a duller, more brownish-green tone after baking.

Oven temperature. High heat oxidizes chlorophyll and turns green matcha brown. Baking at 350F and pulling the cookies when the centers still look slightly underdone preserves more color. Do not bake past 13 minutes.

Amount of matcha. Two tablespoons (12g) across 18-20 cookies gives a clear green. If you reduce the matcha to 1 tablespoon for a subtler flavor, the color will be pale. If you increase to 3 tablespoons, the color gets deeper and the flavor more pronounced - also excellent.

Baking sheet color. Dark baking sheets absorb more heat and can cause the bottoms of cookies to brown faster, affecting the overall appearance. Light-colored or heavy gauge baking sheets work better for matcha cookies.

The flavor profile that BENBU Matcha brings to baked goods is balanced umami with natural sweetness - not harsh or overly bitter. The white chocolate absorbs that bitterness and the result is a cookie that tastes distinctly of matcha without needing a strong tolerance for green tea's more astringent notes.

Tips for Perfect Cookies

Soften the butter properly. The butter should give when pressed but not be shiny or leaving an oily residue. If it's too cold, the dough won't come together. If it's too warm, the cookies will spread flat.

Don't skip sifting the matcha. Matcha clumps easily and those clumps don't break down during mixing. A quick sift into the flour takes 30 seconds and prevents bitter green pockets in the final cookie.

Use quality white chocolate. The white chocolate is the primary sweetener in these cookies beyond the sugar in the dough. Cheap white chips that are mostly palm oil and sugar don't add much. Real white chocolate - with cocoa butter listed as an ingredient - adds a creamier melt and better flavor. Chopping a bar yourself gives you irregular pieces that create better pockets of chocolate in the cookie.

Under-bake by a minute. These cookies continue cooking on the hot baking sheet for 5 minutes after you pull them from the oven. If they look done in the oven, they'll be over-baked by the time you eat them. The center should look slightly underset when you open the oven door.

One baking sheet at a time if possible. Rotating pans mid-bake is less reliable than just baking one sheet at a time in the center rack position.

Variations

Matcha and white chocolate with raspberries: Add 1/2 cup of freeze-dried raspberries to the dough along with the white chocolate. The tartness of raspberry, the bitterness of matcha, and the sweetness of white chocolate is an excellent three-way combination.

Double matcha: Increase matcha to 3 tablespoons (18g) and reduce flour by 1 tablespoon. Stronger flavor, darker color, more bitter finish that needs more white chocolate to balance.

Matcha shortbread cookies: A completely different method - cream 1 cup softened butter with 1/2 cup powdered sugar, add 2 teaspoons matcha and 2 cups flour, roll and cut. Bake at 325F for 12-14 minutes. Crispier, more buttery, no egg.

Matcha crinkle cookies: Add 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar to the dough and roll chilled dough balls in powdered sugar before baking. As they spread, the sugar cracks and creates a snow-dusted look.

Without eggs (vegan): Replace each egg with 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoons of water, rested for 5 minutes. Use vegan butter. Texture will be slightly more dense. Use dairy-free white chocolate.

Storage

  • At room temperature: Store cooled cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Place a piece of bread in the container to maintain moisture if you want to keep them chewy.
  • Freezing baked cookies: Freeze in a single layer, then transfer to a zip bag. Keeps up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature for 20-30 minutes.
  • Freezing raw dough: Scoop dough into balls, freeze on a baking sheet, then transfer to a bag. Bake from frozen at 350F, adding 2-3 extra minutes. Excellent for having fresh-baked cookies on demand.
  • Dough in the fridge: Raw dough keeps in the fridge for up to 72 hours. The dough actually improves with a 24-hour rest - the matcha flavor deepens.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use culinary grade matcha for these cookies? Culinary grade matcha is designed for baking - it has a stronger, more robust flavor that holds up to heat and other strong ingredients. It works in this recipe. The flavor will be more bitter and the color will be less vibrant than ceremonial grade. BENBU produces ceremonial grade matcha, which gives a more refined and nuanced result in these cookies.

Why did my cookies spread flat? Most likely causes: butter was too warm when creaming, the dough wasn't chilled, or too little flour. Measure flour by spooning into the measuring cup and leveling off - scooping directly from the bag compacts the flour and gives you less than intended.

How much matcha per cookie? This recipe uses 2 tablespoons (12g) of matcha across 18-20 cookies. Each cookie contains roughly 0.6-0.7g of matcha. The caffeine content per cookie is very low.

Can I reduce the sugar? You can reduce total sugar by up to 25% without significantly affecting texture. The cookies will be less sweet, which makes the matcha flavor more prominent. Going below 75% of the original sugar quantity starts affecting spread and texture noticeably.

My cookies came out more brown than green. What happened? Likely over-baked, or the matcha was lower quality with less chlorophyll. Pull the cookies at 11 minutes even if they look slightly underdone. They firm up considerably during the 5-minute rest on the pan. Higher-chlorophyll ceremonial grade matcha from first-harvest leaves also holds its color better through baking.

Bake these cookies with BENBU Ceremonial Grade Matcha for the brightest green color and smoothest flavor. Also available in USDA Organic.

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