Healthy Vegan Matcha Cookies With Poppy Seeds - Gluten Free Recipe + Video
Healthy vegan matcha cookies with crisp edges, chewy centers made with oatmeal and poppy seeds – a recipe that’s both vegan and gluten free. These are basically matcha sugar cookies tweaked to be healthier and without refined sugar.
Gather all ingredients and heat oven to 350°F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Form the matcha cookie dough
Cream together the softened butter and maple sugar for about 3-4 minutes until it gets fluffy and aerated. Then add the matcha powder and blend in.
Add the rest of wet ingredients, and then incorporate the dry ingredients at the end. Mix well.
Chill in the fridge
Chill the cookie dough 20-30 minutes in the fridge. Chilling will solidify the fat in the cookies and will prevent spreading too much and too fast while baking. Plus a firmer dough is easier to work with and form balls.
Shape the cookies
Shape the cookie dough into small balls using a small ice cream scoop (size of about 1/2 tablespoon). Arrange balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. You can also gently press each cookie but you don’t want to smoosh them totally down, just flatter rounds, they will melt and spread anyways.
Bake the matcha cookies
Bake for exactly 12 minutes. Keep an eye on them, they may not look fully set yet (the centers are still soft), but they will continue to cook a bit as they rest on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes. Tip: to get perfectly round matcha sugar cookies, gently push the edges with a spatula toward the center while the cookies are still hot.
Transfer the matcha cookies to a wire rack, and let them cool completely (cookies will continue to crisp as they cool).
Video
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Notes
Vegan Matcha Cookies Recipe Variations & Tips
Changing the ingredients will change the outcome: another version of a vegan egg: mix 1 tablespoon of applesauce with 1 table spoon of ground flax seeds and 1 tablespoon of water. I also reduced the amount of sugar from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cups and forgot to add the baking soda: the cookies didn’t spread much and they came out more fluffy and softer.
Using an egg instead of vegan “flax egg” works the same.
Add other seeds if you like (pumpkin, sunflower, chia, hemp etc.) or nuts.
Add more healthy fiber by using oatmeal flour (ground oats) not just a premixed store-bought gluten free flour blend. in this recipe the oat flour works beautifully. The addition of flax seeds is an extra bonus!
Cooking Time: for softer fluffier cookies, cook a bit longer, for chewy cookies don't bake more than 11-12 minutes.
You could cut the sugar in half if you want, but the texture will be less chewy or crispy.
Make Ahead
Make the cookie dough in advance and keep the raw dough in the fridge up to 48 hours before baking.
Storing The Vegan Matcha Cookies
Keep in airtight container for up to 5-7 days.
Freeze the cookie dough for up to 2 months, in an airtight container. It’s best stash them in the form of cookie balls. This way you could place each ball on the cookie sheet and bake right away when needed without the hustle of waiting to thaw. Or freeze the cookies after baking.
The best way to defrost your matcha cookies is to place them frozen on a cookie sheet and heat in a preheated oven at 300F. You'll get warm cookies in 20 minutes.