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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.
Just tried out these cookies this weekend and they were amazing! My friend and I cooked an Indian themed dinner and served these for dessert. We may or may not have used them to make ice cream sandwiches….definitely going to make these again!
Had a couple issues with crumbly dough, and bake time too… Not sure if it’s my oven or what. Had to bake for 25 minutes but they’re delicious!
I just tried these blindly for a cookie swap. The recipe is amazing! Just like chai! A very easy cookie to make. I also thought the dough was slightly crumbly, but only towards the end after it had been sitting a while. Rather than add ingredients, I just warmed the dough in my hand to soften the butter again and it did the trick. I would reserve 1/4 cup + 1 T of the sugar mix just in case. Makes exactly 48 cookies of perfect size. Will do this one again!
So delicious! thanks for the recipe. Used two small egss due to previous post concerns and they were PERFECT!
Esy-
Thank you so much! And, thank you for the tip. Happy holidays!
-Jamie
I love these!!! I make them to impress company!! I did however swap the butter for oil and used a chai-tea bag instead of cardamom which i could not find in the store and they came out amazing! I ate half of them before i even served them. Thanks so much for these!
Hales-
Thank you so much! Your substitutions sound like they worked perfectly. Have a wonderful day!
-Jamie
Just found these on pinterest…. and my husband is going to be soooo excited! He loves Chai tea, so I am sure this will be a hit! Thanks for sharing!
Serena-
Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope your hubby enjoys the cookies! Have a great weekend.
-Jamie
If you want to add a tea flavor, what I would suggest is infusing the butter on the stove with the tea in a tea ball or tea bag. Let it simmer a bit but don’t burn the butter. Let it cool til consistency of room temp and prepare recipe as listed. This is what I do with tea shortbread cookies my husband loves and I didn’t like the consistency of the ground tea in them. Now wee are both happy…. Anyway…just thought I would share that. Happy Autumn!
Thanks for the tip, Jopalis!
-Jamie
Bravo!! I made these yesterday and they were a hit! I had to hide them from my cookie monster husband.
These will definitely be in my cookie arsenal from now on :) Thank you for sharing!
Sabine,
Thank you so much! I’m so happy that you enjoyed the recipe. Have a wonderful day and thank you for following MBA!
Jamie
These sound so good!!! I am going to make them gluten free, YUM!
Nicole,
Thanks so much! Come back and let us know how they turn out with your substitutions! Have a wonderful day!
Jamie
I made a gluten and dairy free batch and my 4-year-old twins approved! The only change we made was to add in a half bag of cranberries and we used King Arthur gluten free flour and Earth Balance soy free butter – roughly the same amounts. My husband loved it though he felt there was just a bit too much ginger and they were just a bit too crumbly so I think I’ll take the other suggestions and try adding in another egg – I think our issue is probably having to use the gluten free flour. I’m making them for a Christmas cookie exchange – I think adding in the cranberry provides nice flecks of red that will look very festive when a few of the cookies are wrapped together with a green ribbon.
Lenore-
Thanks for sharing your tips. I appreciate you stopping by.
-Jamie
Just came across this recipe and noticed that it calls for dough balls that are about 2 teaspoons in size…could this possibly be 2 Tablespoons? Otherwise I’m coming up with mini cookies :) Trying to adapt these for gluten free, will let you know how they come out!
Hi Hilary,
My original cookie scoop was only 2 teaspoons. Most small sized cookie scoops are only 1 tablespoon, which is 3 teaspoons. The cookies spread quite a bit.
– Jamie