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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.
its not properly explained.
Ive set aside flour (with salt baking soda and powder) now I mix egg in it or what?
The directions are listed in order, you’ll need to follow with steps 3-9.
-Jamie
Loved these. I’m also obsessed with chai tea so I’m not surprised. I halved the recipe and used one large egg. Perfection.
These were wonderful straight out of the oven ! I made them the night before my husband came home from a short trip. I ate a couple which were perfectly soft and delicious, then stored the rest in an air tight pastry container. By the next morning they were hard as a rock! Very disappointed :(
Rachel-
I’m sorry the cookies didn’t turn out the way you hoped. I appreciate you stopping by.
-Jamie
Can you do these as cutouts?
Stephanie-
I would not recommend this dough for cut-out cookies. Thanks so much for stopping by.
-Jami
Just wanted to say that I made these three times last year, and they’re now my go-to holiday cookie. Looking forward to making them tomorrow for Thanksgiving – thanks for the recipe!!!
Melanie-
I’m so glad the recipe is a success for you. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
-Jamie
These were lovely! I reduced sugar by 100g and because my kids are a little spice shy I went short on those too. I think I could try even less sugar and they’d still be fab. I’d like to see some reduced sugar options as I worry about teeth. I’ll defiinitely bake these again, and experiment with lower sugar versions.
Enjay-
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cookies. Thanks for visiting.
-Jamie
I will grounded a 3 tablespoons of loose chai tea. Wonderful recipe.
Thanks for stopping by.
-Jamie
Great recipe!! My boyfriend, who barely cooks and has never baked in his life, made these for my birthday, and they were amazing! Kudos.
The dough was fairly crumbly for me but I didn’t read the comments until now; still, the cookies came out great! Not thin and flat like the picture, but rounder and puffier. The flavor is good and the texture is crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. I’m really happy with these, though I may still try adding an extra egg if I make them again.
Could these be made with a soft brown sugar, or Muscavado type as I would prefer to use these instead of white, do you mean granulated or the finer castor? And wouldn’t they taste even nicer with brown?
Hi Leone,
These could be made with brown sugar or Muscovado sugar, certainly. I’m referring to granulated sugar. Castor sugar is not common in the US.
– Jamie