These Vegan Matcha Shortbread Cookies are delightfully salty-sweet, crisp, crunchy and filled with juicy dried cranberries! A pretty and elegant sweet treat!
To make crunchy shortbread cookies, you need to use brown rice flour, not white rice flour, which creates a soft cookie (like my Sugar Cookies) rather than a crunchy one.
Where can I buy brown rice flour?
If you can’t find brown rice flour in your local supermarket, you’ll be able to find it in local health stores or online.
What is matcha?
Matcha is green tea powder.
I love using matcha in desserts, as it adds a beautiful colour and delicious earthy flavour.
Where can you buy matcha?
You can buy matcha in most supermarkets (in the tea section), local health stores, online or in Asian supermarkets.
Why you’ll love these Vegan Matcha Shortbread Cookies:
- they’re undetectably vegan and gluten-free
- they’re crunchy and have a “snapping” sound
- they’re crumbly and “buttery”
- they’re perfectly sweet with a hint of salt
- they’re fragrant
- they’re filled with tart-sweet dried cranberries
- they’re pretty and colourful
- they’re easy to make
- they’re refined sugar free
- they’re perfect for Christmas or St. Patrick’s Day
- they make excellent edible gifts!
How to make these Vegan Matcha Shortbread Cookies
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Place the ground almonds, brown rice flour, matcha powder and salt in a
glass mixing bowl and mix well.
- Add all the other ingredients and mix well again.
- Lay out a sheet of greaseproof baking paper on a counter.
- Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until about 1 cm/1/2 inch thick.
- Use a circular cookie cutter to cut shapes out of the dough – you will probably have to roll the dough a few times until you use it all up.
Tip: You can use any other shape if you don’t want to use a circular one.
- Transfer the cookies onto a rectangular baking tray.
Tip: Line the baking tray with greased 
baking paper to make sure the cookies don’t stick.
- Bake in oven for around 20 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch (bearing in mind that they will firm up more once cooled and out of the oven).
- Leave to cool completely before putting away to store.
How long do these Vegan Matcha Shortbread Cookies keep for?
These Matcha Cookies taste best eaten within the day but keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a few days – they do become softer the longer you leave them, though.
Substitutions you can make to this recipe:
- you can replace the coconut oil with coconut butter
- you can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc
- you can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc
- the ground almonds (almond meal) can be substituted with ground walnuts
- for a nut-free version, use ground sunflower seeds instead of ground almonds and use a nut-free milk
- you can replace the dried cranberries with chopped pecan nuts, chopped macadamia nuts or vegan white chocolate chips!
Tip: The brown rice flour CANNOT be substituted with white rice flour or any other gluten-free flour – it is essential for creating a crunchy shortbread texture.
More gluten-free vegan cookie recipes:
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Blueberry Breakfast Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Oatmeal Cookies
- Lemon Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Carrot Cake Cookies
- Millionaire Shortbread
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Vegan Matcha Shortbread Cookies (Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
- 150 g (1 1/4 cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 150 g (1 cup) brown rice flour **
- 3 teaspoons matcha powder to taste
- Generous pinch salt to taste
- 30 g (1/8 cup) coconut oil (or sub coconut butter)
- 10 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other similar sweetener)
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- 40 g (1/3 cup) dried cranberries (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (340 degrees Fahrenheit)
- Place the ground almonds, brown rice flour, matcha powder and salt in a large bowl and mix well
- Place the coconut oil in a separate bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave
- Add to the flour mixture along with the maple syrup, almond milk and dried cranberries – add an extra splash of milk if it’s looking too dry to combine
- Lay out a sheet of greaseproof baking paper on a counter and roll out the dough until about 1cm or 1/2 inch thick
- Use a circular cookie cutter to cut shapes out of the dough – you will probably have to roll the dough a few times until you use it all up (you can use any other shape if you don’t want to use a circular one)
- Transfer the cookies onto a baking tray lined with greased baking paper
- Bake in oven for around 20 minutes until firm to the touch (bearing in mind that they will firm up more once cooled and out of the oven)
- Best left to cool completely before eating as they crisp up as they cool
- Leave to cool completely before putting away to store
- Tastes best eaten within the day but keeps in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a few days (they do become softer the longer you leave them)
Notes
almond flour **You MUST use brown rice flour – white rice flour won’t create a crunchy shortbread-like texture - For a nut-free version, use ground sunflower seeds instead of ground almonds and use a nut-free milk.
- You can replace the dried cranberries with chopped pecan nuts, chopped macadamia nuts or vegan white chocolate chips!
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you click through and purchase any of these films, a small percentage will come to me, with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Carol
These look great – would love a gluten-free version!
Rhian Williams
Thank you!
Chan Yen
So that still 5 tablespoons coconut oil?
Rhian Williams
I’ve just changed it, sorry about that! Let me know if you have any other questions 🙂
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much for your feedback!
Leslie
Ok, I figured the flour out – it’s a typo 😉 170gms flour is 1.5c flour – maybe that’s why it seemed to wet for some people. Also the almond milk calls for 3 Tablespoons & then you say 8 Tablespoons? Maybe 8 teaspoons (slightly less than 3 T if milk?I went with 3 T milk (I used oat milk & they were just wonderful 😉
Fabulous recipe!!! Thank you!!
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so glad you liked them! I’m sorry about those mistakes with the conversion – the software I was using to convert the measurements seemed to have malfunctioned for this recipe – I’ve fixed it now. Thank you so much for letting me know!!
Janet Paula
I just made these with homemade coconut butter. Usually, you say that the coconut oil can be substituted with vegetable oil (which is what I do). Is there a specific reason that in this recipe you say coconut butter? I and my daughter both dislike the flavor of anything with coconut. Can grapeseed oil replace the coconut butter and in what amount? I want to know whether I can use melted cocao butter instead and in what amount? I appreciate very much you’re taking the time to address my questions. By the way, I got 19 cookies from this recipe.
Rhian Williams
You can use grapeseed oil in place of the coconut butter – the reason I didn’t suggest another oil was because the coconut oil/butter gives these a nice richness reminiscent of real butter, but any other oil will absolutely work! I would use 4 tablespoons grapeseed oil. I’m not sure about cacao butter as it has a slightly different texture, so I think I’d recommend sticking with the grapeseed oil! Thank you for letting me know about the number of cookies – the number you get will depend on the size of your cookie cutter and how thinly you roll out the cookie dough! Hope that helps.