Matcha White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love everything matcha – from matcha lattes to matcha Kit Kats, I can never get enough. One day, while dipping a chocolate chip cookie into my matcha latte, I had an idea: what if I added matcha to the cookie itself? I did a little background research, and was surprised to find out that as long as the matcha is food-grade, this is a super easy addition to make to a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe! Most matcha packages will have an indication of this (even if the writing is in Japanese, there’s usually a picture of it being used in food that shows it’s baking appropriate).

Matcha isn’t available at most North American grocery stores, so you may have to make a special trip to the Asian grocery store or tea house. The higher quality matcha you use, the greener your cookies will be. In my case, the matcha powder I found didn’t have the big visual impact on my cookies that I was hoping for, so I added a few drops of green food colouring to give them that iconic matcha green look.

This is a great recipe to make year-round, but it’s especially fun to make for St. Patrick’s day! So long, green beer and green pancakes.

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons high-quality matcha powder (suitable for baking)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon  salt
• Green food colouring (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325° F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract until creamy (I like to use my electric beater, but you can do this by hand with a whisk or spatula if you don’t have one).
3. In a small mixing bowl, sift together flour, matcha powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually mix this in to your sugar mixture.
4. If the cookie dough isn’t green enough for your liking, add in a couple drops of food colouring at a time, mixing thoroughly, until you reach your desired matcha green colouring.
5. Stir in white chocolate chips.
6. Drop by heaping tablespoon onto greased or parchment covered baking sheets, about 2 to 3 inches apart (the cookies will flatten a lot in the baking process).
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.
8. Cool on baking sheets for 3 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.