Chewy Vegan Matcha Cookies with White Chocolate Drizzle

These chewy vegan matcha cookies have a matcha latte vibe, whether on their own or drizzled with a bit of white chocolate. Just 8 (or 9!) ingredients, super easy to make, these cute green cookies yield 48 mini cookies or 24 regular ones.

Whether mini or mega, these chewy vegan matcha cookies are so easy to make and just the right amount of sweet!

If you love a matcha latte, you are going to LOVE these chewy, not-too-sweet matcha cookies because they come together super quickly – about 30 minutes – with no chilling so you can whip up a batch whenever the craving strikes!

I’ve been on a bit of a cookie spree these days and by cookie spree, I mean two cookie recipes within a few weeks of each other (did you try my chewy pink cookies??). Which may seem odd for someone without much of a sweet tooth…but I think maybe I’m not the only one who likes their sweets not too sweet?

And that’s the weird thing about creating plant-based recipes for a living: even 2 bestselling cookbooks in, I guess I’m still just trying to make food I like, for the people who like the same stuff as me. Try fitting THAT on a business card, ha! 

Pssst…have you picked up your copy of my newest plant-based cookbook, Plant Magic, yet?

I’m on a real cookie kick because I love the idea of a kitchen that always has cookies in the cookie jar for when you need a little something. As a dietitian, I want my kids to grow up knowing that living a healthy life means eating your veggies AND enjoying a cookie. That all foods really can fit. And it’s my kids who have inspired this shift to baking cookies with regular flour…because I am almost maniacally driven to put nuts in everything but then that means I can’t send these cookies to school. 

All this to say that if you like your sweets not too sweet, these vegan matcha cookies are just the thing. You can make them with regular or whole grain flour and they bake up nice and chewy – with no dough chilling. It’s a super easy recipe, even for the novice baker as all you have to do is cream the butter, sugar, vanilla and a splash of plant milk, then work in the dry ingredients until a simple drop batter comes together. 

Gluten free? I haven’t tested a GF version of these yet…but I would suspect, given the nature of the dough, that a reliable 1:1 GF baking mix will work here too. And if that mix is mostly starches, that would also make these cookies low FODMAP!

Now, for the fun part: you can make a TON of mini cookies, scooping and rolling a teaspoon of batter…which is great if you need something for a bake sale, party favours or a dessert grazing board. Yes, you can also make regular sized cookies, just use a typical 1 tablespoon cookie scoop!

The cookies are perfect as is, but it’s hard to resist adding a little drizzle of white chocolate (I tried dipping them but thought it was too sweet…) just enough to look cute and enhance that matcha latte flavour. Plus, these cookies keep really well…all week in fact…if they last that long. Luckily, when they run out it doesn’t take long to make more!  

Let’s talk ingredients

These matcha cookies are so easy to make and yield 48 mini cookies (my fave!) or 24 x 2 inch cookies with NO chilling required. You only need 9 ingredients (most of them totally basic pantry staples) but I wanted to highlight a couple of ingredients to help you choose the best option. 

Just 9 ingredients – including the white chocolate drizzle – so you’ve probably got most of these already!

Matcha: A high quality finely ground green tea from Japan, matcha has a bright green colour and a fresh, grassy flavour. I’ve used 2 teaspoons here to give these cookies a matcha latte flavour but if you want a strong matcha flavour, you can up it to 1 tablespoon. There are many excellent brands out there including Do Matcha and Golde. 

Butter: vegan butters are all VERY different…and when it comes to baking, that matters. Some that I love for spreading on toast, like Melt, just don’t cut it in baking (yes, that includes their baking sticks…I’ve had some DISASTERS!). My favourite for baking is absolutely Earth Balance Baking Sticks because it wins on price and functionality. If you want more of a true vegan butter and are willing to spend a bit more, Miyoko’s is fantastic. 

Vegan White Chocolate: traditional white chocolate is a blend of cocoa butter, milk, sugar and vanilla. But cocoa butter is pricey so a lot of brands are super sugar forward…vegan even more so because, well, no milk! But I finally found a vegan white chocolate that has 40% cocoa butter so it tastes like more than just sugar: Cocoa Camino (not sponsored!) but if you can’t find that, you can just use chopped white chocolate for melting.

How to make these chewy vegan matcha cookies

You ready for easy? This recipe is “bake fresh cookies just before movie night” easy. In 30 minutes, the cookies are DONE and you can just let them chill, if you want to do the drizzle. Here’s how:

Using handheld beaters makes it easier to get the cold butter fluffy, so you can avoid a chilling step.

Add the flour mixture, half at a time, mixing until well combined.

Beat until dough starts to come together, then knead a couple of times with your hand so it doesn’t get overworked.

Step One: Preheat oven to 350F (176C) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. The cookies won’t spread that much so you can cram them all on a single sheet if you have one big enough.

Step Two: cream the cold butter and sugar with handheld beaters or in the bowl of a stand mixer until fluffy with no butter chunks left. Do NOT put the butter in the microwave or you’ll the batter will be all melty and you’ll have to chill the dough. Add your milk and vanilla and mix in thoroughly. You can do this by hand too if you’ve got the forearm strength.

Step Three: Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and matcha and then add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly with beaters or by hand. Add the remaining flour and mix just until starting to come together as a dough. You can use your hand to knead it a couple of times so it looks like a uniform dough.

To make 48 mini cookies, scoop out about a teaspoon (5 mL)

Roll into a ball then gently flatten for a 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide cookie

The cookies won’t spread much, so you just need 1 inch for larger cookies, less for minis

Step Four: ROLL!! Scoop about a teaspoon for mini cookies and a tablespoon for regular cookies. You want to roll the dough into a ball and then press gently into a one inch (mini) disk or 2-3 inch (regular) disk. Leave 1 inch (2.5 cm) between cookies.

Step Five: BAKE! Bake 9-12 minutes…you want them a bit underbaked and soft on top but golden on bottom. Check them after 9 minutes (for minis) or 10 minutes (for regular) just in case! Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then remove them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely if you’re going to drizzle with white chocolate.

You can melt the chocolate in the microwave, or in a heatproof bowl over simmering water.

If your brand of chocolate looks thick when melted, add in 1 tsp of oil.

Then just drizzle over the cookies, letting them cool completely before storing.

Step Six: DRIZZLE! Fill a small pot with 2 inches of water. Fit with a heatproof bowl and add the white chocolate chips. Simmer on medium until chocolate is just melted, stirring often. If your white chocolate is looking waxier, you can add a teaspoon of coconut oil or other neutral oil to help thin it out. Then, just drizzle over the cookies with a spoon! I find a quick flick of the wrist helps you get a thinner drizzle.

You can place drizzled cookies in the freezer if you want to set them faster. Once set, they’ll do fine on the kitchen counter unless it’s quite warm in your kitchen, then you might want to store them in the fridge. 

More easy vegan cookie recipes!

Ultimate Healthy Breakfast Cookies (GF/Low FODMAP)

Quick Vegan Snowball Cookies with Almond Flour

Tender Cardamom Orange Shortbread

Chewy Pink Cookies (coloured with beets!)

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