Name: Marbled Matcha Black Sesame Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: vegan
Ingredients: 1/2 cup cashew butter (130g); 3 tbsp aquafaba (45g // or substitute with non-dairy milk); 1/4 cup maple syrup (80g); 1 tsp vanilla extract (5g); 3 tbsp raw cane sugar (36g); 1/3 cup almond flour (37g); 2.5 tbsp black sesame seed powder (18g); 1/3 cup fine oat flour 30g; 2 tbsp sweet rice flour 20g; 1 tsp matcha powder (5g); 1/2 tsp baking powder (2.5g); 1/2 tsp baking soda (2.5g); 1/2 tsp salt (2.5g)

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matcha black sesame marble cookies on white parchment paper landscapephoto

These Marbled Matcha Black Sesame Cookies are perfectly soft and chewy in the middle and crispy around the edges. The perfect balance of sweet, nutty and mellow savory flavours. (Vegan + Gluten Free)

3 marbled matcha black sesame sugar cookies on a black cooling rack with flaky salt on top

Matcha Black Sesame Cookies

You've probably seen black sesame seeds lightly sprinkled over salads, rice, sushi rolls and other various Japanese dishes but have you tried it in desserts? It has a fragrant roasted rich nutty flavour with a mellow bitter-sweet undertone and is very commonly used ingredient in Japanese desserts.

One of my all time favourite parings is Matcha and Black Sesame! They pair so well together and compliment each others earthy-bitter and rich-nutty flavours.

So if you're a) a matcha lover, or b) love chewy, soft, crispy sugar cookies-- then you're totally in the right place. These Japanese inspired sugar cookies are textural and flavour perfection.

ingredients for matcha black sesame cookies in bowls on a marble blue backdrop

How to Make Marbled Sugar Cookies

These cookies are made with wholesome ingredients, friends. No eggs, butter, dairy or refined sugars used in these vegan sugar cookies. And they also happen to be gluten free too! Check it out:

The Ingredients

Cashew Butter: The base of these cookies giving it a slightly nutty profile and soft sugar-cookie like texture. Do not substitute with another nut butter as cashew butter is the most neutral and won't over power the matcha and black sesame flavour.
Aquafaba: Helps bind the cookies and make them chewy.
Maple Syrup + Cane Sugar: Gives moisture, crisp and sweetness.
Gluten Free Flour Blend: For these cookies, we're using a blend of oat flour, sweet rice flour and almond flour. My secret hack for making extra chewy cookies is by adding a bit of sweet rice flour (think mochi!).
Matcha
Black Sesame Powder
Vanilla

The Directions

Unlike all of my other cookie recipes, these do require a bit more work because we'll be making three cookie doughs with different flavours but they are still very easy to make. No stand mixer or fancy equipment needed, just a couple bowls, whisk and cookie scoop needed.

First we're doing to make the base of each dough by mixing the cashew butter, maple syrup, aquafaba and vanilla. Then adding in the oat flour, sweet rice flour, cane sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Next, we divide the dough and portion out ⅓ into another bowl. Add in the black sesame powder, mix and chill.
Back to the original bowl, portion out half the amount and sift in the matcha powder and mix until well combined. Then chill all 3 doughs for 30 minutes.
Remove from the refrigerator and working quickly, scoop out 1 tablespoon of dough from each bowl, roll them into balls and place on a parchment lined cookie tray. Work quickly because the dough is quite sticky. If you're making these in a warm or humid enviroemnt, you can scoop the dough onto the cookie sheet and use a spoon to mold them into taller balls that way. Making taller balls will help with excessive spreading of the cookies.
Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes, just until the edges are slightly golden brown. (NOTE: the cookies photographed here are purposely under-baked by 2 minutes because I wanted each of the colours to really shine).
Bake the cookies for 15 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Then remove from the oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes (they will continue to bake just a bit). And then lastly, transfer them to a wire rack to let them cool for another 10 minutes before digging in. They are very soft right out of the oven but will firm up once cooled.

japanese matcha back sesame marbled sugar cookies on a cooling rack

These cookies aren't just gorgeous, but they taste incredible. They remind me of Pillsbury sugar cookies-- crispy on the outside, soft and chewy in the middle with a slightly mochi-like texture. When biting into all three flavours at once, you get this lovely combo of earthy matcha, nutty black sesame and the humble vanilla.

There probably won't be leftovers but if there are, I do suggest storing them in the freezer so they retain their texture. When ready to eat, pop them into a toaster oven or oven at 350 F for about 5-8 minutes. I secretly think they're even better after baking them again.

7 marbled sugar cookies on parchment paper with flaky fancy salt on top

More Vegan + Gluten Free Cookies to Love!

And if you're looking for a classic vegan chocolate chip cookie, here's my favourite recipe!

marble matcha black sesame sugar cookie half broken on parchment paper

If you recreate this Marbled Matcha Black Sesame Cookies recipe let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment and rating below or by tagging me on Instagram @Okonomikitchen, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!
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Marbled Matcha Black Sesame Cookies

Print Recipe

★★★★★

4.8 from 9 reviews

These Vegan Marbled Matcha Black Sesame Cookies taste are perfectly chewy in the middle and crispy around the edges. (Gluten Free + Dairy Free)

Author: Lisa Kitahara
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 12 1x
Category: dessert
Method: baking
Cuisine: vegan, gluten free, north american, japanese

Ingredients

Scale

½ cup cashew butter (130g)
3 tbsp aquafaba (45g // or substitute with non-dairy milk)
¼ cup maple syrup (80g)
1 tsp vanilla extract (5g)
3 tbsp raw cane sug ar (36g)
⅓ cup almond flour (37g)
2.5 tbsp black sesame seed powder (18g)
⅓ cup fine oat flour 30g
2 tbsp sweet rice flour 20g
1 tsp matcha powder (5g)
½ tsp baking powder (2.5g)
½ tsp baking soda (2.5g)
½ tsp salt (2.5g)

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Instructions

Into a mixing bowl add in the cashew butter, aquafaba, maple syrup and vanilla and whisk to combine. Then add in the oat flour, sweet rice flour, cane sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and stir until combined.
Take ⅓ of the dough and add it to a separate bowl. Add the black sesame powder and stir until combined. Cover and place into the refrigerator to chill.
Next, back to the large mixing bowl add in the almond flour and mix until combined. Take half the amount of dough and transfer to another bowl. Sift in the matcha and then stir until combined. Cover both bowls and place into the refrigerator. Chill the cookie dough for about 30 minutes.
Pre heat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or use a silpat). Scoop out about 1 tablespoon of dough from each bowl using a small cookie scoop and roll into a bowl. Do not over-roll but just enough to form a ball. If the dough is very sticky, scoop out the dough from each bowl onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and use a spoon to combine and shape the dough into rounds.
Bake cookies for 15 minutes or until edges are golden brown. After 5 minutes, carefully remove the cookies from the tray onto a wire rack and allow them to cool for another 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Notes

Helpful Equipment: spatula, mixing bowls, whisk, cookie baking sheet, small cookie scoop
Nutritional Information Disclaimer: Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated on an online tool (Cronometer).

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 cookie
Calories: 273
Sugar: 16.1
Sodium: 151.9mg
Fat: 15.4
Saturated Fat: 2.6
Unsaturated Fat: 11
Trans Fat: 0
Carbohydrates: 30.1
Fiber: 2.3
Protein: 6.6
Cholesterol: 0

Keywords: matcha black sesame marble sugar cookies, vegan matcha cookies, marble cookies

SAVE IT FOR LATER! ↓

matcha black sesame sugar cookie half broken on parchment paper

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Victoria says

August 07, 2021 at 9:07 am

I tried to follow this as closely as possible, weighing everything out by the gram, and found that the recipe calls for way too much matcha if you go by the grams (it went bitter and the texture was very different to the other flavour doughs. Kind of disappointing since I trusted the recipe and used up so much of my expensive matcha.) I suspect it would have been the correct measurements if I had just used a teaspoon instead of scales.

If you use a measuring tablespoon to measure out the dough for each cookie, you will end up with half the number of cookies the recipe said it would make, so instead of 1 tablespoon of each batter, you actually need half a tablespoon.

For this next note, it could be due to me making the cashew butter on my own using my vitamix and not blending it enough, leading to a stiffer cashew butter and a different cookie texture, so it may not be the recipe's fault; when i put the balls of dough in the oven, they only spread slightly but were pretty much still balls, so I had to manually flatten them 10 minutes in. For the next batch, I flattened them beforehand, but when I cooked them thoroughly, the texture ended up really tough, like a rusk. My cookies looked nothing like the photos. So if you're planning to make this recipe, I would recommend using store-bought cashew butter or just making sure your home-made cashew butter is blended really well. My cashew butter was already a smooth paste but perhaps that wasn't enough. I also used normal caster sugar instead of raw cane sugar; not sure if that would have affected the texture too?

Also note that the metric measurements in the brackets don't change when you use the button that multiplies the recipe amounts. I went to the store to grab something for this recipe only to realise I didn't have enough when I got back because the metric measurements don't increase with that functionality.

★★★

Marbled Matcha Black Sesame Cookies (Vegan + GF)

Matcha Black Sesame Cookies