Matcha Brownies – Fudgy & Vegan

These matcha brownies are sweet, fudgy, moist, soft, and super delicious! They are made with all plant-based ingredients, 100% vegan, and great for snacks or dessert. You can also make them without store-bought white chocolate, yet it tastes and smells amazingly white chocolaty.

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Hello my lovely bakers! Today is a bit of a special day. My first official baked recipe with matcha! I present to you these delicious vegan matcha brownies. They are super moist, fudgy, white chocolaty and so delicious. If you like my classic vegan brownies, you will love this one too! Brownies are one of my favourite baked goodies since I was a kid. It’s so addictively delicious.

To be perfectly honest with you, I thought developing a matcha brownie recipe would be easy. I already had ingredients in mind, and how I would approach making them step by step, so all I had to do was mix everything, bake, and thought boom! delicious matcha brownies ready to go out there all over the world. Oh how wrong was I!

Turns out, developing this recipe was a lot more delicate than I thought it would be. So I poured my heart into creating that perfect moist and fudgy texture with a lovely thin crusty top as well as giving it the perfect ratio of matcha and white chocolate flavour, without store-bought white chocolate. Sounds good? Let’s make them!

Baking brownies is relatively easy. You mix dry ingredients, pour the wet ingredients, mix and bake. Here are some tips and tricks you can use to bake your perfect brownies.

Ingredients and substitutions

Plain flour: The base of this brownie is plain flour. I like the texture plain flour gives to baked goods which is fluffy, soft, and tender. You can substitute for gluten-free flour mix if you want to make it entirely gluten-free!

Rice flour: I like using a small part of rice flour to make my brownies rich and dense in texture. It’s suitable for gluten-free baking too.

Matcha powder: Main ingredient for the flavour! Matcha powder. Matcha is a powder made from grounded matcha leaves. It has rich and a little bitter green tea flavour and vibrant green colour. Matcha is full of antioxidant, vitamins and minerals too.

You can’t really replace matcha with anything else for this recipe – you may find green tea powder in your local supermarket but it has a less strong flavour and the taste is completely different to matcha powder. So definitely find good quality matcha powder.

Brown sugar: I used brown sugar in this recipe to make it moist and fudgy. Brown sugar creates a richer texture than regular white sugar.

You can also use: white sugar alone in this recipe or half and half would work too!

Cacao butter: How did I make this matcha brownie chocolaty without using store-bought white chocolate? The secret is cacao butter! Cacao butter has a lovely aroma of cacao because it’s made from cacao beans, the main ingredient of chocolate. The colour is creamy white and it’s solid at low temperature and becomes liquid at just under human temperature. You can try and replace cacao butter with store-bought vegan white chocolate. However, because each white chocolate has a different ratio of fat and sugar, the texture and taste of the final product will probably be different.

Vegan butter: I used vegan butter to give a nice moist texture to the brownie as well as a buttery flavour to it. You can substitute for other fats such as coconut oil or vegetable oil if you don’t have vegan butter on hand. The texture of the final product may be different if you use any other type of oil, especially if it was coconut oil as coconut oil gives a slightly firmer texture than vegan butter.

Soy milk: I used soy milk in this recipe as soy milk is one of the most versatile plant milk I use all the time in my baking. You can substitute for any other plant milk of your choice! I would suggest trying coconut milk, almond milk, or oat milk.

Maple syrup: I added some maple syrup for extra flavour and sweetness. I love using maple syrup in my baking because I love the aroma and taste of it! You can also use agave syrup or date syrup if you prefer. Pretty much any liquid form of sweetener works perfectly in replace of maple syrup in this recipe.

Tapioca flour: Tapioca flour is amazing in vegan baking! Why? Because not only does it create a lovely moist and chewy texture when you want it in baked goods, it works as a replacement for eggs! Tapioca flour or any other starchy flours do the same trick. You can substitute for cornflour, arrowroot flour, or any other starchy flour.

*I use bone char-free sugars for all of my recipes. I cover the topic in my article Vegan Baking 101. Go to the “Is sugar vegan?” section to learn more!

Recommended equipment for this recipe

Square/rectangular tin: You need either a square or rectangular tin to bake these brownies. I used an 18cm (about 7inch) square tin. If you don’t have the exact size, similar sizes should work too. If the tin you are using is a lot bigger or smaller, you may have to adjust the baking time.

Saucepan: Use a small to medium-sized saucepan to melt the vegan butter and cacao butter. Use a saucepan that is not too small so it will make it easier to stir the ingredients.

Wooden spoon: I like using large wooden spoons to mix batter because it’s more gentle than a whisk and doesn’t develop too much gluten in the batter. You can also use a large whisk if you don’t have a wooden spoon.

Parchment paper: This might be obvious to some people but very important in baking. Parchment paper! Lining your baking tin with it will greatly help when taking the brownies out of the tin. It makes it easy to remove as well as prevents them from sticking to the bottom and sides so your brownies have nice edges and corners when cut into squares.

*The ingredient list and measurement for this recipe can be found in the recipe card at the bottom.

How to make these vegan matcha brownies

Step 1: Make white chocolate mixture

First, we are going to create a “white chocolate mixture”.  This is how you make white chocolatey flavour without white chocolate! In a saucepan, melt the vegan butter and cacao butter on low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Cacao butter’s melting point is just under human temperature so you don’t need to bring the mixture to a boil. In fact, DO NOT BOIL it, I’ll explain in the next step.

Step 2: Add sugar and soy milk

Add the sugar and soy milk to the white chocolate mixture and stir until dissolved. Be extra careful when adding soy milk, because if the butter mixture is too hot the soy milk may bubble up and splash unexpectedly. Now, can you smell the lovely chocolaty aroma? It smells so nice, doesn’t it? This butter mixture is going to make the brownies extra rich, fudgy, moist and super delicious.

Step 3: Mix the batter

Mix well the remaining dry ingredients in a large bowl with a whisk. Then add the butter mixture and all the other remaining ingredients and stir gently with a large wooden spoon. It becomes a silky green batter.

Step 4: Bake

Baking time! I baked these brownies for 30 mins. 30 mins is a good length of time to bake for this recipe. The brownies are nice and fudgy with a nice thin layer of crust on top, just the way brownies should be! You can also bake up to an extra 5-10 mins if you prefer more of a cakey consistency. I recommend you not to bake it for less than 25 mins as it will become too moist and uncooked in the centre.

Step 5

Make the white chocolate sauce! In a small saucepan, add the melted cacao butter and powdered sugar. Stir and mix completely. Add the soy milk and stir until smooth.

Tips and tricks

Gentle simmer, no boiling

When you are melting the vegan butter and cacao butter, do so with a gentle simmer and not boiling. This is because we are adding soy milk to the mixture and if the temperature of the butter mixture is too high, it can bubble up quite vigorously and splash the mixture around the saucepan. To avoid this, heat the butter on low heat, and simmer until it’s just melted. Slowly add in the soy milk and sugar and keep low heat until they are all incorporated.

Alternatively, you can use a bain marie if you have one. Or melt the butter in a bowl over a larger bowl with hot water in it, it works too! Whatever method you are using, be careful not to burn your hands!

Use brown sugar

Although you can use any type of sugar of your choice, I highly recommend using brown sugar. Why? After numerous recipe tests, I found that brown sugar gives the best texture – moist and fudgy with a soft crusty exterior.

Fresh cacao butter

Make sure your cacao butter is good quality and fresh! Butters of any sort can go rancid without changing their appearance. Here’s how to know if your cacao butter is fresh or not – smell it! If it has acidic or smells of old oil, then you want to buy a new quality cacao butter. The cacao butter I used in this recipe is from Sunfood, their cacao butter is high quality and easy to use in baking as it comes in buttons, unlike other cacao butter which is one whole chunk.

Also, quality matcha powder

I’m Japanese so finding good quality matcha is pretty easy. But for many of you who are based in the UK, US, Australia, or other western countries, it might be difficult to see the difference between so many variations out there. When choosing matcha powder, go for organic Japanese ones. They have a rich green tea flavour that is perfect for this recipe.

You might get confused with green tea powder when browsing in a supermarket. Matcha is pure ground-up green tea leaves, whereas green tea powder is green tea leaves that have been brewed and then dehydrated into powder form, much like dehydrated coconut milk.

Grease line your tin with parchment paper

Greasing the inside of your tin with a thin layer of butter or oil, or lining with parchment paper will prevent the matcha brownies or any brownies from sticking to the tin. I recommend doing so even if your tin is nonstick, it makes it so much easier to remove when the brownie is cooled down.

To line your baking tin, cut a piece of parchment paper with scissors the same size as the bottom of your baking tin. Do the same for the sides. Grease the inside of the tin with a thin layer of oil or butter, then line with the cut parchment paper. 

Q and A

Can I use white chocolate instead of cacao butter?

I’ve not tested this recipe with store-bought white chocolate, but you can certainly try it. I’m assuming that the final product would be less moist and sweeter, as store-bought white chocolates have less fat and added sugar in them.

Can I throw white chocolate/milk chocolate chips or chunks in the brownie batter?

Absolutely! It would make lovely chocolate chip brownies. I would add half a cup of chocolate chips and sprinkle some on top before baking too.

Why do my brownies stick to the bottom of the baking tin?

You probably poured the batter into the tin without greasing or lining the inside of the tin. Either greasing or lining the inside of the tin with parchment paper should help you. Read above “Grease line your tin with parchment paper” and “Recommended equipment for this recipe” for more about the details.

Why are my brownies too fudgy/gooey?

If your brownies are too fudgy or gooey and that they almost look raw, this may be because the ratio of the wet ingredients is too high or you underbaked them.

To prevent this, measure your wet ingredients by properly measuring with a scale and measuring cup that measures in ml. If your brownies are still too gooey, add 1-3 tbsp of flour to the batter and this should help them firm up.

Also pay attention to your baking time. Did you bake them less than the instructed time? If so, try baking for a longer length of time. If it doesn’t help, your oven might have a lower temperature than it shows on the display. You can either bake them for a little longer, about 3-4 mins or increase the temperature of your oven to 190-200℃.

My brownies are too cakey?

Just the opposite of the above, it might be that you are adding too much flour or overbaking them. Try measuring your ingredients with a scale and see if it helps. Also, try and bake them for a slightly shorter time about 2-3 mins less than the instructed time, or lower the temperature of your oven to 170℃.

Can I make this recipe gluten-free?

You can! I tried it with rice flour and it was amazing. The texture will be a little denser and moister than the original recipe, so I recommend you bake them a little longer in the oven by about 5 mins. Make sure that other ingredients you have are also gluten-free!

How can I store these matcha brownies?

Store the leftovers in an airtight container so they will keep fresh. You can keep them at room temperature for 1-2days, and in a fridge for about 3-4 days. You can also store them in the freezer for a longer period of time about 2-3 months.

Want to master the basics of vegan baking?
Check out Vegan Baking 101 – the beginner’s guide to vegan baking for you to become an excellent vegan baker and familiar with the basics of vegan baking, ingredients, and techniques with useful tips!

You will LOVE these vegan matcha brownies because they are:

• super delicious
• fudgy
• moist
• vegan
• easy to make
• chocolaty

Please leave a comment and rate this recipe in the comment section below if you like this recipe! Let me know and tag me @thechestnutbakery on Instagram too. Thank you for making my recipe, friends!

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