Matcha Sugar Cookies

These matcha sugar cookies taste amazing, rolls out like a dream and doesn't distort or spread when baking. Matcha is earthy, with a hint of sweetness and umami flavor. My matcha sugar cookies are not too sweet, with a hint of almond to compliment the green tea.

When making these cookies, I thought, what better way to highlight a green cookie than with a Halloween theme decoration. This witchy cauldron cookie with glowy green potion bubbles with some sugar eyeballs, bones and sprinkles. But the options to decorate these cookies are endless.

Jump to:

• What is Matcha?
• Why You Will Love This Recipe
• Recipe Ingredients
• Recipe Instructions
• Decorating Supplies
• Decorating Instructions
• Expert Tips
• Storage and Freezing
• Recipe FAQs
• More Cookie Recipes to Try
• Recipe
• Comments

What is Matcha?

Matcha is a high-quality green tea ground into powdered form. Matcha is a green tea that is known for being a powerful antioxidant, with a lot of health benefits. With traditional green tea, the leaves are steeped in hot water, but with matcha, the dried leaves are actually ground into a powder and mixed with water or a drink. The tea has a unique, smooth, grassy taste and bright green color and is known for being the most aromatic form of green tea. Matcha is very important and ceremonial in Japanese culture, but is also popular around the world and used in drinks, like lattes, lemonades, and boba tea and as a baking ingredient in everything from donuts, cakes, and cookies to ice creams and candy.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

• These cookies don't lose their shape when baking.
• Matcha green tea is nutty, fresh, and earthy and tastes amazing in these buttery cut out cookies. The flavor and sweetness of the cookie is so good topped with icing or buttercream.
• This cookie dough is easy to roll and cut out.
• The matcha can be increased or decreased to taste.
• Cookies are crisp on the outside and softer towards the center, just like a sugar cookie should be.

Recipe Ingredients

All purpose flour

Matcha tea - culinary grade.

Fine sea salt

Unsalted butter

Granulated sugar

Egg

Vanilla extract

Almond extract - Just a small amount to compliment the matcha tea flavor.

Recipe Instructions

1. Whisk together the flour, matcha and salt.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until well combined.
3. Beat in the egg, vanilla and almond extract.
4. Beat in the flour mixture until just combined.
5. Turn the dough out onto a work surface sprinkled lightly with confectioner's sugar. Pat the dough into a disc shape. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

6. Roll out the dough to ⅛" - ¼" thick. The thinner the cookie the crispier it will be after baking. ¼ inch is best for softer cookies
7. Cut out desired shapes and place the cookies 2" apart on the cookie sheets. Chill for 30 minutes.
8. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes, or until the edges start to start to turn golden. Cool completely before icing.

Decorating Supplies

Royal icing - ½ of batch of prepared royal icing, 15 second consistency, colored black, bright green

Cauldron cookie cutter

Toothpick or scribe tool

Piping tips 2 - #2 piping tips (optional)

Couplers - 2 (optional)

Piping bags - 2

Small bone candy sprinkles

Small eyeball sprinkles

Halloween sprinkle mix

*Piping tips and couplers are optional. You can decorate these without piping tips and tumblers if you have tip-less piping bags.*

Decorating Instructions

9. To give these cauldrons a used, dinged up look just to kind of make them look old and witchy, outline the cauldron shape on the cookie with black icing. Fill the outline with black icing (#2 piping tip), leaving some areas more sparse than others. This will give the icing an uneven look when they're completely filled in with icing. If you want a more solid look not-so-banged-up look, flood the cookie evenly and wiggle it back and forth on your work surface to even out the icing. Pipe "feet" onto the cauldron and fill with black icing.
10. Once the black icing has mostly dried, with a piping bag fitted with a #2 tip, pipe the bubbles. Pipe various sized dots along the top area of the cookie, with some also on the cauldron pot. Be sure the dots do not touch otherwise they will run together.
11. Wait for the bubbles to crust over and dry a bit, then add a second layer. Repeat this step 2 or 3 more times.
12. While the dots are still wet, place the eyeball and bone sprinkles, followed by Halloween themed sprinkles. Let the cookies dry completely before storing and packaging.

Expert Tips

• Beat together the butter and sugar until just combined. Overbeating can cause the cookies to puff up or distort when baking.
• Rolling the cookies between two pieces of parchment paper makes clean up easier and keeps the dough from sticking.
• For a brighter green cookie color, add a couple drops of leaf green gel color to the dough.
• You can make the candy bones and eyeballs using white royal icing. To make the eyes  pipe different small sized rounds on a parchment paper. Keep them small but varying in size. Let them dry completely, then use an edible marker or black gel food color to paint the black centers. To make the bones, use a #1 tip to pipe a "Y" shape, then pipe an upside down "V" on the bottom of the Y. Let them dry completely.

Storage and Freezing

Cookie dough can be kept in the fridge for up to two days. Dough and unbaked cookie cut outs can also be frozen for up to three months.

Unfrosted, baked cookies can be frozen for up to three months.

Frosted cookies can be left at room temperature for up to 2-3 weeks. These cookies are perfect for bagging individually once iced, for party favors or gifts.

I don't recommend freezing decorated cookies.

Recipe FAQs

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