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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.
Home from school today, because it is a snow day, a teacher’s dream. Made these cookies. LOVE THEM! Next time I think I’ll bump up some of the spices, to have an even more intense flavor. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Hi!
Thanks for the recipe. I am baking it right now and the first batch came out of the oven. One problem though. They don’t seem to have spread in the oven and they didn’t come out flat like yours did. I bought a new oven a couple of months ago so I don’t think it was that. And I did everything exactly like your recipe but the cookies are pretty thick.
Oh well. I’m sure they taste good.
Thanks though!
Hello! Mine were really thick, too, and the dough was crumbly. I added an extra egg and they came out perfectly flat and chewy. Hope that helps!
Hi Jamie, thank you for the recipe. it sound lovely, I love chai and I’m going to try this as soon as I can. I only have a question first – what do you mean by “1/2 teaspoon ground allspice” – which kind of spice is that? I have “all round” spices here in Sweden, but they’re hot, chili like. I imagine it’s not the same. Do you think I could do without that specific ingredient? It seems it only adds to the other spices, so I’m hopeful. Thanks again!
@Annika, where I live we have Mixed Spice and Allspice.
Mixed Spice is much milder than Allspice, and although they are used in similar recipes, they’re not considered to be interchangeable.
Allspice is the dried, unripe berry from a tropical evergreen tree, Pimenta dioica, which is native to the Caribbean and parts of the central Americas. Unlike Allspice, which is a single spice, Mixed Spice is a blend of several spices, including Cinnamon, Coriander Seed, Caraway, Nutmeg, Ginger and Cloves.
What can you use in place of Allspice?
Ground cloves are a good substitute for ground allspice. Cloves are strong in flavor, so start with a 1:2 ratio of ground cloves to ground allspice, and add more to suit your taste so that the flavor doesn’t overpower your dish.
I hope you find this interesting. I haven’t substituted Allspice but thought this might be of help.
Mine turned out really gooey for some reason and i baked them for 20 mins… oops!
I especially love chai spices this time of year… They just warm everything up. These cookies sound just perfect to enjoy with a cup of tea!
Loved these. Made them this morning and my kids loved them. Thanks for sharing.
These are DIVINE! Is the dough supposed to be so crumbly, though? It almost seemed as though it needed one more egg. Even with the crumbly dough, these are a favorite!! Thank you for sharing!!
I made these on Sunday and they are delicious! Kind of like jazzed up snickerdoodles. My husband wasn’t convinced of their deliciousness the day they were made, but mentioned when I got home last night that “they are better the 2nd day and actually really addicting” and had eaten 4 of them :) They definitely get better overnight. Thanks for the great recipe with ingredients that I always have!
Regular snickerdoodles are like that, too. They get better overnight!
I love when you come across a yummy looking recipe and have all the ingredients on hand. I’ll be making these tomorrow! :)
These were so good!! The best part the recipe is easy and makes a lot of cookies!