Matcha Crinkle Cookies
The green tea matcha flavor gives these soft and sweet Matcha Crinkle Cookies an extra layer of sweetness and natural green color that everyone will love! We’ll show you how to make your own matcha crinkle cookies at home from scratch.
Matcha is finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea. It contains the most antioxidants out of all types of tea, which means it helps fight against various diseases when consumed regularly in small amounts.
Matcha is the perfect natural food coloring for your desserts. It’s delicious, and it’s also very healthy! You can use matcha to create green cakes or frostings without any artificial colors or flavors needed.
You can also use it to make these beautiful naturally green tea crinkle cookies!
A crinkle cookie is a crunchy American-style sugar cookie that’s rolled in powdered sugar before baking. As the cookie spreads, the sugar creates a “cracked” texture that looks like it’s crinkled.
🍵 Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour – We like to use all-purpose flour because it gives the cookies a nice, soft texture. You can also use whole wheat pastry flour or gluten-free all-purpose flour for a gluten-free crinkle cookie.
- Baking Powder – Baking powder is a leavening agent that helps the cookies rise and gives them a light and fluffy texture.
- Salt – Salt balances all of the flavors in this recipe and also helps bring out the sweetness.
- Vanilla Extract – Vanilla extract is a must-have ingredient in most dessert recipes. It gives the cookies a delicious warming vanilla flavor and aroma.
- Eggs – Help bind the crinkle cookies and give them structure.
- Butter – We use unsalted butter in this recipe because it has a more pronounced flavor than salted butter. If you only have salted butter on hand, feel free to omit the salt from the recipe.
- Matcha Powder – We use this matcha powder to give the crinkle cookies their signature green color and light green tea taste.
- Sugar – Sugar is what makes these cookies sweet and delicious. It’s used inside the cookie dough as well as the outside to help the outside layer of powdered sugar stick.
- Powdered Sugar – Powdered sugar is also known as confectioners’ sugar. It’s a type of sugar that has been ground into a very fine powder. We use it to coat the cookies in before baking and to give them their signature crinkle texture.
🧾 How To Make Matcha Crinkle Cookies
Prepare for baking: Preheat your oven to 350F. Add parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to two baking sheets. Set aside.
Combine the wet ingredients: In a stand mixer or large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the room temperature butter with the sugar for 1-2 minutes or until it’s light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds or until smooth and combined.
Prepare the dry ingredients: In a medium-sized bowl, add the all-purpose flour, matcha, baking powder, salt, and matcha. Whisk until fully combined and the mixture is a pale light green color.
Mix the cookie dough: Turn the mixer on medium-low speed and add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in batches just until combined. Do not overwork the dough.
Roll the cookies in sugar: Roll the cookie dough into balls that are 1.5-2 tablespoons large. Add the remaining granulated sugar to a bowl and add the powdered sugar into a separate bowl. Roll each ball in granulated sugar, then coat it generously into the powdered sugar. It may look like there is a lot of powdered sugar on the cookie dough, but it will spread out when baked.
Bake the matcha crinkle cookies: Add the sugar-coated cookie dough balls onto the prepared sheet pan and space about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies have “cracked”. You want to make sure you take them out after they have finished spreading and the edges get slightly crispy. This will ensure the cookie stays soft.
Remove and serve: Remove the cookies from the oven. Let them cool for 10 minutes on the sheet pan before moving them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
👩🏻🍳 Chef Val’s Cooking Tips
- We recommend using a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients if you’re new to baking. Baking is a science and every ingredient has a precise measurement.
- This recipe scales really well without much change in the outcome, so feel free to double or triple as needed.
- Make sure not to over mix the dough because this will make it tough and less crinkly when baked.
- Use good quality matcha powder from a tea shop or credible source for the best results.
- We roll the matcha crinkles in granulated sugar before the powdered sugar because it gives them a better crinkle texture and also helps prevent the matcha powder from coming off too easily when you’re handling the cookie dough.
- Gluten-Free Matcha Crinkle Cookies: Substitute gluten-free all-purpose flour for the regular all-purpose flour and use a certified gluten-free baking powder. The gluten-free flour blend should be a 1:1 ratio with all-purpose flour and should already contain xanthan gum such as King Arthur Brand or Krusteaz.
🧊 Storing & Freezing
Storing: Store your matcha crinkle cookies for up to a week at room temperature in an airtight container.
Freezing: You can freeze the matcha crinkle cookies in an airtight container for up to three months. Thaw them on the counter at room temperature before serving and enjoying. To freeze unbaked cookies, roll them into balls without coating in sugar and freeze in a single layer on a baking sheet. Once frozen, transfer the cookies to an airtight container or bag for up to 3 months. Let them thaw overnight in the fridge before rolling in granulated sugar and then powdered sugar.
❔FAQs
Matcha has a light sweet taste with a slightly bitter undertone. It’s also described as having a light earthy flavor.
Yes, you can definitely leave out the matcha powder if you don’t want green cookies or if you’re not a fan of Matcha tea. The cookies will just be a light color instead of green.
You can use any type of granulated sugar you like for this recipe, such as white, brown, or even raw sugar. Just make sure it’s a fine grain sugar so that it will coat the cookies easily.
🍪 More Crinkle Cookie Recipes
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
- Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies
Matcha Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- 4 tsp Matcha Powder
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Eggs
- ½ cup Unsalted Butter room temperature
For Rolling The Cookies:
- ⅓ cup Granulated Sugar
- ⅓ cup Powdered Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F. Add parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to two baking sheets. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer or large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the room temperature butter with the sugar for 1-2 minutes or until it’s light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds or until smooth and combined.
- In a medium-sized bowl, add the all-purpose flour, matcha, baking powder, salt, and matcha. Whisk until fully combined and the mixture is a pale light green color.
- Turn the mixer on medium-low speed and add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in batches just until combined. Do not overwork the dough.
- Roll the cookie dough into balls that are 1.5-2 tablespoons large. Add the remaining granulated sugar to a bowl and add the powdered sugar into a separate bowl. Roll each ball in granulated sugar, then coat it generously into the powdered sugar. It may look like there is a lot of powdered sugar on the cookie dough, but it will spread out when baked.
- Add the sugar-coated cookie dough balls onto the prepared sheet pan and space about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies have “cracked”. You want to make sure you take them out after they have finished spreading and the edges get slightly crispy. This will ensure the cookie stays soft.
- Remove the cookies from the oven. Let them cool for 10 minutes on the sheet pan before moving them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Came out great! Not too sweet. I made for Obon Japanese festival and they were a hit. They don’t seem done when you take them ou,t but do as she says and leave on the pan for 10min and they come out perfect.
I compared several green tea cookie recipes and chose this one for the simplicity of ingredients and presentation. They did not disappoint! Thank you!