Delicious Matcha Okara Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

Wanna know one way to make your cookies a little more nutritious? Use matcha and okara! Though I love these with butter you can also use olive oil and or walnuts so that your matcha cookies come out a little ‘healthier’  and nutritious than usual 😉

       

Matcha cookies and variations　抹茶クッキー

If you’ve had matcha before you may know it performs well in drink form and in food.

And I especially like to eat matcha in desserts. Can you guess my favorite?

While I use matcha mostly for drinking, I do enjoy baking with it every now and then.

When making matcha cookies, sometimes I use butter along with walnuts to add contrast.

This helps both flavor and texture. Can you ever go wrong with butter in baking?

I think not.

And the same with walnuts!

Walnuts are good because they have good fats and the nuttiness of the walnut plays nicely with the matcha flavor.

Walnuts are actually a very good way to add a new dimension of flavor without causing a clash in flavor.

If you don’t like walnuts, another alternative is to sprinkle some turbinado sugar (thick sugar granules) on top.

Also, you can put in some white chocolate chips (like I did in the video) or even black sesame seeds.

White chocolate and black sesame both complement matcha quite well.

While these cookies are super oishii (美味しい- delicious) and we go through a batch within a day or two, there is a downside.

What could that be?

Matcha is powdered green tea 

And that means that it contains caffeine.

And I guess that could be a pro or con, depending on your intention.

• Do you wanna be stimulated and satisfied from eating matcha cookies?

or

• do you wanna be unstimulated and satisfied from eating matcha cookies?

So while I love to eat these any time of day, I tend not to eat them after dinner so that I can sleep.

And Emi won’t eat them at all after about 3, which is both good and bad for the both of us!

Aside from the caffeine, if you do decide to make these, consider making a double or triple batch.

Since the recipe is really only enough for about 3-4 voracious cookie eaters for a day. e.g. 2-3 cookies per person per day

In case you cook and bake smart (by scaling up)

They do keep well in the freezer for up to two weeks in an airtight glass container.

So what do you think?

Not sure how simple these are to make?

Watch the matcha okara cookie video and let me show you! 

First time hearing about okara?

All good. In simplest terms, okara is the soy bean pulp that’s left over from making soy milk.

It still has a lot of nutrients left inside.

Fiber, protein, vitamins and little bit of the spirit of soy. 😉

And you can okara for both sweet and savory foods.

The good thing about okara?

Just like tofu, it doesn’t have much of a strong flavor on it’s own.

Which explains why it’s so versatile across both sweet and savory Japanese dishes!

Some of my favorite ways to eat okara include savory things like unohana, Japanese hamburger (hambaagu) and in many baked goods like these matcha cookies!

Do you have any favorites? 

Have you had okara before?

If you wanna see how I make soy milk, along with okara and a few other Japanese soy dishes, see what we covered during a 3 day Japanese cooking challenge –

(On the last day of the Japanese cooking challenge, we made the matcha okara cookies with butter and walnuts)

A few tips for these matcha okara cookies – 

• The moisture content of your okara can vary, if you’re lucky to have a market that stocks it versus if you made it yourself you may notice a difference. If homemade, try to make sure all the soy milk has been squeezed out, otherwise your cookies will end up a little more damp/moist. May or may not matter if that’s what you like.
• When substituting olive oil for butter, the substitution is 1 stick of butter = 3/4 cup olive oil (6 Tbsp). I like to use extra virgin for the flavor and spicy kick and find it adds another layer of flavor to the matcha cookie.
• You could consider adding another teaspoon of matcha powder, but you might need to add a couple of Tablespoons of sugar to balance. Sometimes I like to make these more potent that way
• I don’t like my cookies super sweet so if you know you like a sweet cookie consider adding a Tablespoon or two of sugar anyway or top with sugar.
• The batter will be quite thick, but don’t worry they’ll hold their shape once you form them into discs and bake them
• Serve with hojicha tea to balance out the subtle sweetness of the cookies (otona no amasa- sweetness for adults ;))

Have you or will you be making these matcha okara cookies?

Let me know in the comments !

       

Matcha cookies with okara and walnuts

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• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 8 people 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Cuisine: Japanese

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 6 Tbsp olive oil (or 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp matcha powder
• 1 cup hakurikiko (light Japanese flour, alternatively cake flour)
• 1/2 cup okara
• 2–3 Tbsp white chocolate chips

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Instructions

1. First combine olive oil or melted butter with sugar and egg yolk, whisk until combined.
2. Next add in matcha powder, whisk until combined and then flour and then okara until just incorporated.
3. Add in the white chocolate or nuts and use a spatula to evenly distribute
4. Use your hands and form into small balls and flatten between your palms to form into a small cookie
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, until lightly browned on the bottom.
6. Cool on a wire rack and once cool, enjoy!