Description
If you love matcha as much as I do, then you’re gonna love these cookies. They are crisp, melt in your mouth, and so easy to make. Add some sweet decorations, like vegan white chocolate, and you instantly have a Japanese inspired treat. Switch up your shortbread cookie game with these delicious matcha cookies!
Ingredients
Scale
Shortbread Matcha Cookies:
- 256g (2 cups) – all purpose flour, leveled and sifted, see notes
- 40g (1/4 cup) – white rice flour, sifted (not glutinous, see notes)
- ½ teaspoon – salt
- 3 tablespoons – culinary grade matcha, sifted, I used Mizuba Brand
- 1 teaspoon – vanilla extract
- 256g (2 sticks + 2 tablespoons) – vegan butter, softened at room temp
- 120g (1 cup) – powdered sugar, sifted
Optional Toppings:
- Melted vegan white chocolate
Here are some choices: https://amzn.to/3B7n4VX or https://amzn.to/3ESmNau - Regular chocolate:
- 1 bar, baker’s chocolate https://amzn.to/3m5K4dy
- ½ teaspoon – melted coconut oil
- Royal Icing:
- 1 ½ cup (180g) – powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon – vanilla extract
- 1–2 tablespoon – non-dairy milk
Equipment:
- Food scale https://amzn.to/3ulF5fj
- Fine mesh sieve or strainer
- Stand mixer or electric hand mixer
- Plastic wrap
- Rolling pin
- Your favorite cookie cutters, optional
- Thin spatula
- Parchment paper
- 2 Large baking pan
- Wire cooling rack
- Piping bags, optional
Instructions
Cookies:
- Before starting, remove butter from the fridge and allow it to soften at room temp. About 20-30 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, white rice flour, salt, and matcha powder.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a separate mixing bowl), cream the softened butter and powdered sugar. Mix until creamy and well combined.
- Next, reduce the speed and add in the dry ingredients. Mix until all the ingredients have combined into a dough.
- Transfer the dough onto a work surface and lightly knead it until it becomes a smooth and cohesive dough.
- Shape the cookie dough into a 1-inch thick disc. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for about 1 hour or in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit, and prep two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Transfer the chilled dough to a floured work surface. If it’s too hard to roll out, allow it to soften for about 10 minutes at room temp.
- Flour the top of the dough and your rolling pin. Roll your dough by starting from the center and working outwards in all directions. Occasionally turn and flour the bottom of the dough so it doesn’t stick to the work surface. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness.
- Cut out your cookies with your favorite cookie cutters. Remove any excess dough, and reuse them later! Flour a thin spatula and gently and carefully slide it under the cookies and transfer it to the baking pan. If you floured your work surface well, you should have no problem with the dough sticking.
- Leave about an 1 inch in between each cookie and bake the cookies for 10 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool on the baking pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. They will be soft right when you take them out of the oven, but they will harden as they cool.
- Decorate the cookies with optional toppings. I used melted vegan white chocolate.* Allow the decorations to set before serving.
Optional Toppings:
* I didn’t need to add coconut oil to the brand of vegan white chocolate I used. Since it isn’t even real chocolate, I find that the consistency was perfect after I melted it.
Melted Regular Chocolate:
- Melt chocolate in the microwave on high in 20-second intervals, stirring in between. When it’s completely melted, stir in coconut oil until combined.
- Pour into a piping bag and cut a tiny hole at the end. Get creative and decorate your cookies!
Royal Icing:
- In a large bowl, combine the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and 1 tablespoon of milk to start out with. It will look like it’s not coming together, but continue to whisk together until it does. If the consistency is too thick, add a bit more milk if needed.
- Pour into a piping bag and cut a tiny hole at the end. Get creative and decorate your cookies!
Notes
- Measure your flour properly. I test my recipes, 100% in grams. A common reason baked goods fail is incorrectly measured flour. I always recommend using a scale for accuracy when baking. This greatly improves your chance for success and lessens room for error.
- If you’re measuring by cups, avoid scooping the measuring cup directly into the flour. This tends to pack the flour into the cup, resulting in too much flour and a very dense or gummy finished product. Instead, aerate your flour (fluff it with a fork or spoon) and then spoon it into your measuring cups, leveling it with your finger or the back of a butter knife. Keep in mind though, that this method is not guaranteed to be accurate.
- Use culinary-grade matcha. Culinary-grade matcha is smoother in flavor and texture, while the ceremonial grade is the strong stuff, and is ideal for ceremonies or drinking straight.
- Also, be sure you buy high-quality matcha. The color, the smell, and the taste are so much cheaper than the cheaper matcha. How to know if your matcha is high quality, first of all, the price. Matcha is an expensive product, and another indicator is the color. High-quality matcha is bright green while low-quality matcha is yellowish green.
- Adding a bit of rice flour gives the cookies a nice crumbly texture.
Keywords: vegan, vegan shortbread cookies, vegan shortbread matcha cookies, shortbread matcha cookies, shortbread cookies, matcha cookies, matcha, culinary matcha, matcha baked goods, vegan matcha baked goods, matcha recipes
