Does it matter what grade of matcha I use for cooking?

The grade or quality of the matcha can impact the taste and color of your matcha infused product. For these cookies, I like to use ceremonial grade matcha as it yields the best flavor and color. You can use culinary grade matcha, but note that it will have more bitter undertones to it. And unless you are using a very vibrant green culinary grade matcha, you will likely have a more dull or muted green color to your cookie.

Can I make these gluten-free?

You can! I have tested this recipe using gluten-free oat flour. Grind together 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats into as fine of a flour as you can make it , then follow the instructions as is. Make sure to flatten the cookie before placing in the oven. They will be slightly more cracked on top, but still have a lovely chewy texture.

Is there a way to reduce the sugar?

These cookies are supposed to mimic a sugar cookie. From traditional sugar cookie recipes, I have reduced the amount of sugar to still help make these palatable. You can cut it down to 1/2 cup sugar without consequence to the recipe. If you’d like a sugar cookie recipe with much less sugar, I suggest trying out this recipe for Almond Butter Sugar Cookies .

Matcha powder is loaded with antioxidants as it’s brilliant green hue suggests. These antioxidants help to reduce oxidative damage to our cells, which helps to reduce chronic disease risk. Matcha happens to be highly concentrated in these antioxidants compared to regular green tea. While matcha has caffeine, a component in matcha called L-thianine helps to stabilize energy levels better than coffee and promote less stress.

Matcha Sugar Cookies - Plant Based RD

Description

The perfect cookie for matcha lovers and people new to it. These Matcha Sugar Cookies are beautifully green and sweet to balance out the wonderful earthy matcha notes.

Ingredients

Scale

Wet Ingredients

1/2 cup cashew butter or tahini
2/3 cup organic white sugar
1/4 cup aquafaba
2 tbsp unsweetened plant based milk (I used almond milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 to 2 tsp matcha powder, ceremonial grade preferred
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt (1/2 tsp if using unsalted tahini)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

Maple Sugar Glaze (optional)

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

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Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In one mixing bowl, combine together your sugar, aquafaba and nut or seed butter. For best results, whip them together using a whisk or hand mixer until nice and smooth. Fold in vanilla and milk and set aside.
To a separate bowl add in your dry ingredients, making sure to sift in the matcha to remove any clumps before giving all the dry ingredients a good mix.
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until a slightly sticky dough appears. With a cookie scoop, spoon some dough into clean hands and roll your dough into balls and place on the baking sheet.
With your palm, lightly press down on the dough to flatten slightly. Then place the cookies in the oven to bake for 9 minutes.
Allow to cool on the baking tray before serving or glazing. To make the glaze, combine glaze ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth, adding an extra tablespoon of water as needed until the glaze is smooth and drizzly. Spoon or dip your cookie to coat it half way and allow to drip off excess. Place the coated cookie on a parchment lined tray and allow the glaze to set for at least 3 hours to harden.

Notes

If using nut or seed butter, make sure it is runny! Runny nut butters will yield a chewy crumb, so avoid using nut butter at the very bottom of the jar as they will dry out your cookie.

Make sure to spoon and measure your flour or weigh it out according to instructions. Fluff your flour with a fork before spooning it into your measuring cup. Avoid sticking your measuring cup into the flour to measure as this will cause you to measure too much flour and lead to a dry cookie.

Adjust the matcha based on your preference. Start off with 1 teaspoon of ceremonial grade matcha if you aren’t sure about the taste. I find for me, 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons gives me enough matcha taste, but you can add more or less based on your own preference.

If replacing nut butter for vegan butter, make sure to use softened butter and cream it with the sugar using a hand mixer first before adding other wet ingredients. These will spread easier depending on the brand of vegan butter you use. So test one rolled or flattened in the oven before baking the rest of the cookies.