This Matcha Green Tea cookies recipe is a great way to make decorative green swirl cookies for the holidays without any artificial dyes. The recipe simply uses matcha green tea powder
to make the cookies feature a vibrant green spiral. These green tea cookies are of course great anytime, but would be particularly festive for the Christmas and St. Patrick's day holidays due to the lovely natural green color of the swirls.
Spiral Matcha Green Tea cookies for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap
I made these green tea cookies for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap this year. It was a fun project. Each participant was given three bloggers to send a dozen cookies to, and three different bloggers also sent them cookies. It was top secret Santa stuff.
Since all the participants are food bloggers, I wanted to do something a little different. I decided create this Spiral Matcha Green Tea Cookies recipe using matcha
(high grade powdered green tea) to both flavor and provided natural color for the cookies. Granted the green was not quite a standard Christmas green, more like vibrant avocado, but they are green without using fake dye and have an appealing green tea flavor. I vacuum packed the cookies cookies for shipment, stuffed in some red packing shreds and included a glittery holiday card, then they were on their way.
Matcha Green Tea Cookies Recipe
Well, without further ado, here is my little contribution to the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap body of knowledge, my Spiral Matcha Green Tea Cookies recipe.
Get Your Matcha On
&
Matcha Green Tea Powder Organic - Japanese Culinary Grade (Smoothies, Lattes, Baking, Recipes) - Antioxidants, Energy Boost - Jade Leaf Brand [30g Starter Size]
Davidson's Tea Bulk, Gunpowder Green, 1 PoundStarter Matcha (16oz) - USDA Organic, Kosher & Non-GMO Certified, Vegan and Gluten-Free. Pure Matcha Green Tea Powder. Incredible Flavor, Delicate Aroma, Natural Energy Booster and Fat Burner
![Matcha Green Tea Powder Organic - Japanese Culinary Grade (Smoothies, Lattes, Baking, Recipes) - Antioxidants, Energy Boost - Jade Leaf Brand [30g Starter Size]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91VXEq%2B8A6L._SL1500_.jpg)
For more delicious cookies with a surprise Asian ingredient, try my Chai Cookies or Tahini Cookies recipe.
Spiral Green Tea Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 ½ tbs matcha powder
Instructions
- Cream together the butter and sugar in large mixing bowl.
- Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix.
- Add the flour, baking powder and salt, and mix well.
- Take out about half the dough, ball it up. wrap in plastic wrap and put aside.
- Add the matcha powder to dough remaining in bowl, and mix until color is thoroughly blended.
- Ball this dough up, and wrap, as well. Refrigerate the dough for about 15-20 minutes, just enough to stiffen it a little.
- Divide each ball in half then roll out into long rectangle. Tuck edges in as they crack, helping the dough to obtaining a relatively uniform shape.
- Lay one white over one green and vice versa.
- Trim off edges. And gently roll like a cigar (plastic wrap can be helpful in doing this). You will end out with two long dough logs.
- Place the dough logs in refrigerator for at least an hour.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Take out the dough, and slice off ¼ inch cookies. Place the cookies on parchment lined baking sheets.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes. Pay close attention after about 10 minutes, we don't want these cookies to brown at all on tops.
- Place cookies on racks.to cool.
Notes
Nutrition
Many thanks to Julie of The Little Kitchen and Lindsay of Love & Olive Oil for all their hard work putting this together.
Toni says
Those are so pretty and festive. I bet they taste great too!
Ayashi says
i tried these and taste amazing . Except no matcha taste ? Is it meant to be like that ?
Robin Gagnon says
While not super strong, you should be able to taste the matcha.
Ayashi says
Noted with thanks . Will try again with additional matcha 🙂 thanks for replying .
Anya says
I recently got some Matcha powded and then found out I hate it when brewed so I decided to try baking with it. Made these and they were amazing. Even my boyfriend and his friend liked them and they both hate green tea. Though next time I think I'll add in a bit more sugar
Robin Gagnon says
Honesty, I use green tea more often in my baking and homemade beauty products, than I ever drink...lol
Rob says
I love the color contrast! They would like great on a party tray!
I can't wait to try these ones out!
Thanks for sharing!
Niki says
All these wonderful comments and I'm here to leave a negative one.... I thought the recipe turned out very flour-y. I could taste the matcha but couldn't get past the taste on flour. Only thing that I could imagine went wrong was if my baking powder expired (if that's a thing that would affect it)
Karen O says
These cookies are beautiful and delicious. I’m always trying to find ways to add matcha into my diet and these make cookies seem less sinful. They are delightfully crispy with just the perfect touch of sweetness, a lovely accompaniment to a steamy cup of tea. Do you think coconut oil would be a suitable substitute for the butter or to replace half of the butter with coconut oil? I love the combination of matcha and coconut!
Thank you for the recipe!
Robin Gagnon says
I think unrefined coconut oil would be delicious in these. I would probably go with 1/2 and 1/2 as the two oils be behave a little differently. 100% swap may work out great, but more risky.
Let me know how they turn out.
Sarah says
Maybe someone can give me some constructive criticism. I tried making green tea cookies and I found the dough to be very crumbly. Was wondering if I had over worked the dough ? I loved the color , but the cookies were exceptionally small. I really want to try again. Help if you can.
Cjs says
Made a half batch as a test and everyone loved it so much I’m making more a week later 🙂