Easy matcha shortbread cookies that are flaky, and vegan and gluten-free – also filled with whipped cream. A very easy recipe that is full of the healthy match tea, a high-quality version of green tea, an antioxidant super power.
Matcha Shortbread Cookies
I brought superfood matcha shortbread cookies to the table today. A superfood powerhouse, in cookies!
These easy to make cookies are buttery shortbread cookies that are full of green tea. And not just sit-there-and-do-nothing cookies, but cookies stuffed with a sweet whipped cream. ALL vegan and gluten-free, helped along in that direction using organic coconut palm sugar and gluten-free baking flour.
How Nutritious is Matcha Tea in Cookies?
Matcha powder is a quality version of green tea. It has origins from China, dating back to 1100s.
It is made from crushing quality matcha leaves, actually called ceremonial-grade matcha leaves.
That powder is what we whisk into hot water to create Matcha Tea as a creamy green drink. So this green differs from the normal green tea which is actually made by steeping and discarding the leaves as with any traditional tea.
But matcha powder is useful in baking and other recipes besides drinks. This is great news because there is potential to turn desserts into powerfully nutritious snacks.
So how nutritious is matcha powder in snacks? Well just a few tsps can add a slew of vitamins and minerals, and antioxidants that protect against disease, support the heart and anti-age!
One NIH study attests that matcha powder contains 137 times more antioxidants then other teas, even anti-oxidant-strong traditional green tea.
Also matcha is supposed to boost metabolism, making weight control easier.
I love that it has slow-absorbing caffeine so you don’t get a rush and tumble as with coffee – although I still love coffee, but it’s fun to switch off. But no drinking today. Today, I used matcha in a recipe for cookies!
How to Make Matcha Shortbread Cookies
These buttery matcha shortbread cookies that are flaky and filling and haunting in flavor. The cookies are made of 5 simple ingredients. The sweetener I used is a coconut palm sugar, but the flakey texture comes from the coconut oil. Use refined coconut oil if you don’t want any coconut flavor. However virgin coconut oil provides more health benefits.
The whipped cream is coconut whipped cream with powdered sugar and a stiffener – not the healthiest with the sugar, but fun! However, obviously you do not have to make them into sandwich cookies – you could just eat them on their own, dipping into a cup of hot tea!
Here are a few other unusual treat recipes:
homemade marzipan recipe
2-ingredient sugar cookies
Sparkling Sugar Cookies with Chocolate Coating
Chocolate Homemade Crunch Bars
Chocolate Sugar Cookie Truffles
Chickpea Cookie Clusters
2-Ingredient Fudge with Chocolate Coating
Butternut Squash Fudge
Pumpkin Fudge Cups
Colorful Vanilla Fudge
Pink White Chocolate
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Healthy Matcha Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
Matcha Shortbread Cookies (Add ingredients to one bowl)
- 2/3 cup gluten-free baking flour (See notes to help you get the flour texture right. If you can weigh your flour, you need 85gms.)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil (melted by putting jar in a pot of just boiled hot water)
- 2 tsp matcha (My two favorite matcha brands are Matcha Maiden and Kenko Matcha)
- 1/2 cup plant milk
- 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
- pinch of salt
Whipped Coconut Cream (Add ingredients to one bowl)
- 1 can (13.5oz) high fat coconut milk (solid cream scooped from a can chilled overnight in refrigerator)
- 1/4 cup organic powdered sugar (a vegan brand with no bone char)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
- 1 tsp arrowroot or tapioca (for stiffening)
Instructions
Make the Cookies
- Chill a can of full fat coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight.On baking day, preheat the oven to 350 F
- Blend up the wet ingredients in a mixing bowl with a hand-mixer or wisk. Do the same with the dry ingredients in another bowl.Add the dry to the wet and mix to achieve a dough that can be pressed onto parchment and either rolled or pressed flat for a cookie cutter.
- You can play with the flour and milk amounts to get the kind of texture you need. For instance, depending on the flour you use, you might have to add a a tbsp more milk.
- Once you have a texture that can be shaped into a ball and rolled out, sprinkle some flour on a piece of parchment paper, and press the dough onto it.
- Then place another sheet of parchment on top of the dough, and roll it flat. I used a glass but you can use a rolling pin. If the dough is sticking to the top parchment, you might want to sprinkle a bit of flour on top of the dough. But be careful about using too much flour during the rolling step because the more flour you sprinkle, the more it dries out the dough.
- Peel back top parchment and cut cookies out.
- Either peel away excess dough and roll and cut again, or remove the circles from this parchment paper and place on the cookie sheet parchment paper. Sometimes I like to leave cut out cookies undisturbed on the parchment so they don't become distorted.Bake 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven, cool in pan 2 minutes, and on a cooking rack for 10 minutes. Pro tip: Four or so of my cookies had a bubble of air rising up so I put them under a layer parchment and put a pot on top of that to flatten them so I could have 18 cookies flat and uniform to create 9 sandwich cookies.
Mix Coconut Cream
- Scoop only the solids out of the chilled coconut cream (or milk) can. Save the coconut water for another recipe. Blend up ingredients using a hand mixer until creamy.
- Use a frosting piping bag or sandwich bag with corner snipped to pipe about 1 tbsp of cream onto one cookie and top it with the other.
- Keep the cookies refrigerated in a sealed container, although by the next day the cookies will soften considerably.
- I like to eat them the first day, while the cookies are flaky and the frosting is fluffy.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Dee Dine is founder of Green Smoothie Gourmet, a plant based recipe blog, and author of the recent cookbook, Crazy Healthy with 4 Ingredients . On this blog you’ll find incredibly easy recipes with hidden veggies for anyone wanting to eat healthier, regardless of diet. Dee has graduate degrees in immunological nutritional studies and journalism. More about Dee Dine here.
Julia
These are wonderful! I used white sugar instead of brown because that is all I had. And I had the right flour, this 1 to 1 baking flour you mentioned, so the recipe worked for me. I read your comments on your Pinterest and so glad I did.
Dee | Green Smoothie Gourmet
Julia! Yes, using this gluten-free flour with xanthan gum is very important to this recipe – without it, it won’t bind. I will update recipe notes on that. So glad you liked the recipe! Dee xx
Kathleen
I just tried this recipe and I’m not sure why but it didn’t work out for me! I used all-purpose flour instead of GF flour which is the only thing I can think of that may have been the problem. When I followed the recipe, my dough was very soft and not able to roll or shape at all, so I had to add more flour. I even put the dough in the fridge to help make it more workable. In the end, I was able to roll and cut it, but I could tell that the dough was not the right consistency. When baked, they shrank right up and were crispy on the edges and raw inside.
Dee | Green Smoothie Gourmet
Kathleen, sorry the batter didn’t bind well. It was because you used an all-purpose flour. This recipe calls for not only gluten-free flour, but one with xanthan gum because that is the primary binding agent. I suppose if you had added xanthan gum to your all purpose flour it might have worked, but I’m not sure because as a rule gluten-free flours are dryer. Dee xx
Natalia
Hola buenas tardes hice la receta con los ingredientes y medidas que son y fueron buenos.
Dee Dine | Green Smoothie Gourmet
Muchas gracias, ¡estoy tan feliz de que te haya gustado la receta!