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Chewy Chai Sugar Cookies pack a flavor punch with a blend of chai-inspired spices. If you love chai, these are the cookies for you!
I feel like the older I get, the less interested I am in shopping inside actual stores.
You know with other humans, shopping carts and checkout lines?
Lately, I feel like I’ve been heavily relying on Instacart to do my grocery shopping. And every single time the little popup shows me how many hours I’ve saved by having them do my shopping just keeps me ordering allthethings from the app.
I do actually drive to pick up the groceries as opposed to having them delivered, so there’s that.
Don’t even get me started on Amazon Prime. Let’s just say I’m on a first name basis with pretty much every single delivery driver in my town.
Since we have so many deliveries at this time of year, I love to leave a little box on the porch full of snacks, water and Gatorade for the delivery drivers to enjoy on their route.
While I’d love to say I thought of this, I actually got the idea from Kristen at Dine and Dish about 4 years ago and it’s become one of our favorite holiday traditions.
This year, I’m thinking of packaging up homemade cookies to leave for them as well!
I mean, who wouldn’t love to get Peanut Butter Blossoms, Chocolate Chip Cookies, or these Chai Sugar Cookies during the holidays?
What are chai spices?
Have you ever had chai?
“Chai” literally means “tea” in Hindi. In India, chai isn’t just a type of tea…it is tea!
Here in America, chai refers to a spiced, milky black tea. The spices usually include green cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and black pepper. Sometimes other spices such as cloves or star anise are used as well.
I love chai and like to use chai spices to flavor all sorts of baked goods, such as Maple Chai Cinnamon Rolls, chai spiced granola, and Chai Spiced Candied Nuts.
Pretty much anything that would be good with cinnamon would be good with chai spices. I even have a recipe for Chai Spice Blend that you can mix and keep on hand any time you want to add some chai flavor to your recipes.
Chai-spiced sugar cookies
Since I know that chai spices are a great substitute for cinnamon, I was inspired by snickerdoodle cookies to see what might happen if I flavored a chewy sugar cookie dough with chai spices.
Spoiler: The result was amazing.
Cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, allspice and black pepper combine to create an incredibly aromatic spice blend that transforms a plain, chewy sugar cookie recipe into a complex and comforting cookie.
Bonus? Chai Sugar Cookies pair perfectly with a piping hot cup of tea.
Make a batch of Chai Sugar Cookies, steep a pot of tea, and curl up to watch some Christmas movies with your loved ones.
They would also be a great cookie to take to a holiday cookie exchange! They are the perfect combination of familiar and new, with their chewy texture and spicy flavor.
I think you’re going to love them.
Chai Spiced Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¾ cups white sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl combine sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice and black pepper. Remove 1/4 cup of the sugar-spice mixture, set aside to reserve for rolling the cookies.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar-spice mixture until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Beat in egg and vanilla extract, combine until fully incorporated.
- Slowly blend in dry ingredients mixing until just combined.
- Using a small scoop (2 teaspoons) roll dough into balls and then into the reserved sugar-spice mixture. Place dough balls on prepared baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart.
- Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Let stand on baking sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.
Notes
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Oh yum, these look AMAZING!
Hi there! My friend and I stumbled upon this recipe and decided to make it because we love chai tea and sugar cookies. However, when we started mixing everything together, the texture did not become light and fluffy – it resembled that of apple crisp. We searched around for some other chai sugar cookie recipes, and decided to add the vegetable oil and milk that the other recipes had. We used 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, and 2 tbsp.of almond milk. It turned out great, and we even garnished the cookies with orange zest!
Danielle-
Thanks so much for your input – that’s kind of the beauty of recipes – you can adapt them and make them your own. However, I can assure you that this recipe works well as it is written. I have made them twice with great results as have quite a few readers. Happy New Year to you!
-Jamie
Just made these tonight. I had the same issue Danielle had at first, but then I added the oil and almond milk & had perfection. Will make all year long since I cook with these spices all the time. :-)
I have been obsessed with chai for the past week, so I am all over these cookies! Yum!
Awww darn. I’m so sorry that you had to make these chewy, nummy cookies again. I’ll come and help tou get rid of them if you need? ;D
WOW These are inspired! I really love the spices. I am going to give these at Christmas next year, along with some teas to go with them. Awesome!
Oh my, these might just be the death of me! They look fantastic and sound even better! I might just have to pick up those few extra ingredients tomorrow! Thank you for sharing!
Beautiful! Chai spice cookies, how wonderful is that. I must add these cookies to my list.
This recipe showed up at the perfect time! I made them for a party last night and a guy actually got up front with the microphone and asked who made them and asked for the recipe! Everyone was talking about how great they were. Thank you!
Oh how I love chai and cookies. So both together? Sounds perfect! I will have to make this recipe with a good GF flour blend.
Any chewy cookie is a cookie for me!