Whenever I see a matcha dessert on the menu, I have to think long and hard if I should order it. Matcha is one of my favorite ingredients for sweets because of its earthy, herbal essence. Okay so that might not sound appealing to you but how about if you take that matcha powder, turn it into frosting, and spread it on a soft cookie? Sounds pretty good, right? These matcha and white cookies are a twist on the New York classic treat, the black and white cookie. Traditionally the cookie is chocolate and vanilla but I swapped the flavors for matcha and coconut. Was it a mistake? Absolutely not!

Matcha and White Cookies

45 minTotal Time

Yields 10 cookies

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Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 ¼ cup powdered sugar
• ¼ cup plus 1 tbsp coconut milk
• 1 tbsp matcha powder

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine 1 1/3 cups flour with ½ tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp baking soda, and ½ tsp salt in a medium bowl. Combine 1/3 cup buttermilk with 2 tbsp yogurt and 1 tsp vanilla in another bowl.
3. Cream together ½ cup softened butter with ½ cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add 1 egg and beat until well combined.
4. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Add ½ of the buttermilk, stirring until just combined. Add another 1/3 of the flour followed by the remaining buttermilk. Add the remaining flour, stirring until combined. The batter should be fairly thick.
5. Ice an ice cream scooper or greased ¼ cup measuring cup and scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheet. Leave at least 2 inches in between the cookies, giving them room to spread.
6. Bake the cookies for 15-17 minutes or until lightly golden on top and golden brown on the bottom. Let the cookies rest for 5 minutes on the baking tray. Flip the cookies over and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Meanwhile, make the icing. Beat together 2 ¼ cups powdered sugar with ¼ cup milk until well combined. The icing will be thick but spreadable. Reserve half of the frosting and add 1 tbsp matcha and 1 tbsp milk, stirring until well combined.
8. Spread the vanilla frosting on one half of each of the cookies. Let sit for 10 minutes, then spread the matcha frosting on the other half. Let sit for 10 minutes. Serve.

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**Helpful tips and common mistakes

When I gave my friends these matcha and white cookies to taste, I was surprised to discover that none of them had a black and white cookie before. If you never had the pleasure, I will tell you now that these are no ordinary cookies. The texture is incredibly soft and delicate because they are cakey cookies! Normally, I like my cookies with a little chew but these are an exception.

If you take a look at the recipe, you will notice that the batter is very similar to a cake batter. You start by creaming the butter with the sugar then adding the egg. The dry ingredients and wet ingredients are added in rotation, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scoop 1/4 cup of the batter onto prepared baking sheets, giving them plenty of space in between to spread. A quarter cup seems like a lot but black and white cookies are known to be large.

Bake the cookies just until the tops are light golden brown. Don’t worry if the tops of the cookies are bumpy because you’re going to ice the bottom of the cookies. Yup, that’s right. The bottom of the cookies become the top! When cooling the cookies, I flipped them over so that the bottoms were facing up. This way, they won’t get the lines from the wire rack imprinted on them.

While the cookies are cooling, make the frosting. You’re going to need two different frostings, matcha and coconut. Mix together the powdered sugar with coconut milk, then set aside half. For half of the batch, add matcha powder and a touch more milk to make matcha frosting. The frostings should be thick but still be able to spread easily. If they are too thin, they will run off the sides of the cookies.

Now here comes the most time-consuming part, decorating the cookies. I’ll be honest, these took way longer than expected. Start with the white coconut frosting, spreading it on half of the cookie. Let it dry for about 10 minutes, then spread the matcha frosting on the other side.

Let the matcha frosting set and then grab a cookie and take a big bite right in the center. Close your eyes and enjoy that soft tender texture coated in beautiful matcha and coconut frosting. Isn’t that glorious? Matcha and white cookies are definitely now on my list of best matcha desserts (alongside matcha beignets of course). And the list keeps growing…

Looking for someone to come to your house and prepare these dishes for you? It is possible! If you are in Los Angeles and looking for a private chef, please feel free to contact me. For more information, visit Private Kitchen Los Angeles.