Chewy Vegan Matcha Cookies With White Chocolate

Ingredient Notes

* You can find all the vegan matcha cookie ingredients below.

• Vegan White Chocolate: I highly recommend using a bar of vegan white chocolate and roughly chopping it yourself. It melts beautifully. But if you can only find chips, those work too.
• Vegan Butter: Use vegan stick butter if you can rather than the spreadable tub version. Stick butter has a lower water content, which helps prevent the cookies from spreading too much.
• Flax Eggs: A mixture of ground flaxseed and water is used to create vegan eggs, which help both bind the dough and add to the texture.
• Cornstarch: This is part of the key to creating a chewy, fudgy texture. Cornstarch helps to inhibit gluten from overdevelopment.
• Matcha Powder: Use a high-quality culinary grade matcha. Lower-quality matcha can taste dull or muddy and won't give you that beautiful green color.
• All-Purpose Flour: Measure by weight if you can. Using too much flour makes dry, cakey cookies and is one of the most common mistakes in cookie baking.
• Almond Milk: Just a couple of tablespoons add the exact amount of moisture needed to bring the matcha cookie dough together. You can swap this for oat or soy milk if preferred.

How To Make Vegan Matcha Cookies

Here is a simple step-by-step look at how simple it is to make matcha cookies vegan!

Scroll down to the recipe card to find the exact amounts and detailed instructions.

Make your flax eggs. Mix 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed with 6 tablespoons of water and stir well. Set it aside for at least 5 minutes. You're looking for a thick, gel-like consistency. If it's still watery, give it more time. Don't rush the flax eggs or the dough won't bind as well.

Melt the white chocolate and butter. Put the chopped vegan white chocolate and vegan butter in a heatproof bowl and microwave in 15-second intervals, stirring between each, until completely smooth. I typically find it takes about 45 seconds. Then let the mixture cool while you measure and sift your dry ingredients.

Mix your wet ingredients. Pour the cooled chocolate-butter mixture into a large bowl, then add the sugar, flax eggs, almond milk, and vanilla extract. Use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer and mix on medium speed until smooth and glossy. If doing this step by hand, use a whisk.

Fold in the dry ingredients. Gradually add the dry mixture into the wet ingredients until just combined. Stop as soon as you don't see dry flour. Overmixing develops the gluten and will make your vegan matcha cookies tough instead of fudgy. I use my mixer on low speed for this step but it can also be done by hand.

Chill the dough. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Chilled dough spreads less in the oven and is what gives you chewy soft cookies.

Scoop and press. Use a cookie scoop to form the dough into tablespoon and a half size balls. Then put them on the baking sheet 2 inches apart and press each one down slightly before baking. The press is what gives you that wide, flat shape with the crinkly edges.

Bake. Put the cookies in the oven to bake for 10 minutes at 350°F (175°C). When done, the edges will look set, and the centers will still look slightly underdone. They firm up as they cool.

Cool. Let your cookies sit on the baking sheet for about 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Storage & Make-Ahead

• Room Temperature: You can store baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
• Freezing Baked Cookies: For longer term, you can freeze the baked cookies in a freezer-safe bag or container for up to 2 months. Just let them thaw at room temperature.
• Freezing Dough: The best way to freeze the dough itself is to scoop the dough into balls, press them flat, and freeze them on a baking sheet until solid. Then transfer the formed cookies to a freezer bag for up to 3 months. When ready, you can bake them straight from frozen, just add 1-3 extra minutes to the baking time.
• Make-ahead tip: The dough can be made and refrigerated for up to 48 hours before baking, which actually gives the flavors time to develop.

How To Serve

• Serve warm alongside an iced almond milk matcha latte or hot vegan latte.
• Sandwich dairy-free vanilla bean ice cream between two cooled cookies to make a vegan ice cream sandwich.
• Top them with a bit of vegan cream cheese frosting for a quick and easy dessert.
• Pack them into a tin for a potluck or holiday cookie exchange.
• Crumble a leftover cookie over a bowl of vegan yogurt.
• Put a dozen in a pretty box and give them as a yummy homemade gift.