Chai Cookies
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These Chai Cookies are full of cozy winter flavors! So soft they practically melt in your mouth. The cookie is loaded with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, and a dash of black pepper. It comes together easily and is bound to become your new favorite cookie.
Inspired by my favorite tea, Chai Cookies come together in a snap! They are melt-in-your-mouth tender and insanely delicious!
Tender, buttery cookies filled with loads of chai spices. You get hints of warm cinnamon, cozy cardamom, spicy ginger, allspice, and just a minute essence of black pepper. They are similar in flavor to my cardamom cookies, but have even more cozy flavors thanks to the ginger, allspice and black pepper.
Incredible! It’s the best way to describe them.
They are soft and pillowy like these banana nut bread cookies and Meyer lemon cookies.
If you plan to share these chai tea cookies with your family and friends, I can guarantee they will be gobbled up within seconds. You may decide to keep them all for yourself and that’s okay because they will stay soft and fresh for up to 1 week!
The dough for today’s chai cookies comes together easily. Like my sugar cookies, the dough for these chai sugar cookies does need to chill for two hours before baking. Because of this, I like to make the dough the night before and bake the cookies first thing in the morning.
When making the dough, start with room temperature ingredients. Beat the butter and sugar together just until combined. Unlike many of my cookie recipes – you don’t mix until it’s light and fluffy. There’s no need for excessive amounts of air in the batter.
When it comes time to roll the dough into balls, roll them a tad bit taller instead of an even round ball. They won’t spread as much and will come out thicker.
Wait for them to cool and enjoy!
Recipe Snapshot
- TASTE: Cozy and comforting, like a chai tea.
- TEXTURE: Soft and chewy
- EASE: Easy – standard cookie recipe.
- TIME: Over two hours but includes required chilling time.
Recipe Ingredients
These exceptional cookies come together using standard cookie ingredients with warm chai spices.
- Flour: Use all-purpose flour and make sure to measure it correctly.
- Cream of tartar: Needed to react with the baking soda so the cookies puff up and deflate. This creates a cracked top appearance. The cream of tartar also adds a little tanginess to the cookies.
- Baking soda and baking powder: Both are used for leavening in this recipe. They react with the cream of tartar and create the soft pillowy texture.
- Salt: Balances the flavors.
- Butter: Adds buttery flavor and richness. As with most of my baking recipes, use unsalted butter so you can control the salt, and have it at room temperature so it creams together with the sugar more easily.
- Sugar: White granulated sugar is best.
- Egg: I used one egg.
- Vanilla: Most recipes are missing vanilla extract. I find they taste so much better with just a little added.
- Chai spice blend: The cookies will get their chai flavor from a blend of cozy warm spices. Cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cardamon, all spice and ground black pepper.
How to Make Chai Cookies
This spiced cookie recipe uses the typical process of creaming the butter sugar, adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, chilling and rolling. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter and sugar. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a hand-held mixer on low speed just until combined. Add in the egg and vanilla and incoporate.
- Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, salt, allspice, and black pepper; stir with a whisk. Add all of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low speed just until incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 48 hours.
- Bake. Scoop 1 ½-tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. Roll the balls so they are slightly taller instead of perfectly round. Place the dough balls 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges. Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Handy Tip:
When it comes time to roll the dough into balls, roll them a tad bit taller instead of an even round ball. They won’t spread as much and will come out thicker.
Tips For Success
- The cookies will appear underdone, puffy and very soft, but they will flatten out and firm up as they cool. Don’t overcook them or they will loose their delicious soft center.
- The cookies get their soft pillowy texture from cream of tartar. Don’t leave it out! If you omit it, the cookies will be crisp and chewy, much like these butterscotch toffee cookies.
Storage & Freezing
- The cookies will keep for up to 1 week stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
- The dough can be rolled into balls and frozen for up to 3 months.
Chai Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (195 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a hand-held mixer on low speed just until combined. Beat in the egg and vanilla just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, ginger, cardamom, salt, allspice, and black pepper; stir with a whisk. Add all of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low speed just until incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 48 hours.
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Scoop 1 ½-tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. Roll the balls slightly taller instead of perfectly round. Place the dough balls 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges. The cookies will appear underdone and very soft. Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- The cookies will keep for up to 1 week stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
- The dough can be rolled into balls and frozen for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided is for convenience and as a courtesy only. It is not guaranteed to be accurate because nutrition information can vary for a variety of reasons. For precise nutritional data use your preferred nutrition calculator and input the exact ingredients and brands you used in the recipe.
I made this during quarantine and OMG, they are perfect, they are like a sip of a chai cup since the very first bite. Loved them!
A winner of a cookie, thanks, Jen! Will definitely be making these again. I also love anything chai, so I added your chai spice concoction to my banana pancakes mixture and it worked quite well! (Added 1/4 tsp ground cloves for an extra kick!) I can see so many other tempting recipes on your website which I’m looking forward to trying out. Thanks for your website!
Made these as written and they were delish! I like my flavors strong so I may add more cardamom next time:)
These are the cookies that you dream of. So unique but yet familiar. I started with 1 batch to try them out and immediately had to make another double batch. The pretty time consuming cookies at the family Christmas luncheon were left and these magically disappeared!
My ever so slight twist was to brown the butter to a golden amber and then to bring it back to a solid. I also added the zest of a small clementine. Either way there delicious!
Thanks for sharing! I love the addition of brown butter and citrus zest. I can’t wait to give it a try!!
Browning the butter is a genius idea! Definitely doing this next time.
These are the cookies that you dream of. So unique but yet familiar. I started with 1 batch to try them out and immediately had to make another double batch. The pretty time consuming cookies at the family Christmas luncheon were left and these magically disappeared!
My ever so slight twist was to brown the butter to a golden amber and then to bring it back to a solid. I also added the zest of a small clementine. Either way there delicious!
what if i dont have cream of tatar? i hope i can just leaave it out!
Yes, you can omit it if you don’t want to use it. That should be okay.
I want to try this recipe, they look Fantastic! I’m not a fan of pepper so is it key to have the 1/8 tsp of black pepper or could I leave it out? What taste does it give?
The pepper is such a tiny amount, you can barely tell it’s there. But, it gives a nice subtle hint of spice. You can leave it out if you don’t want to use it.
Loved these! But I think you need to use less dough for each ball/cookie to avoid them running into each other. I only got 24 cookies by following your recommendation. Next time I’ll try 2 teaspoons, not 2 tablespoons.
If you roll the dough balls slightly taller instead of perfectly round, they won’t spread as much. Also, chilling the dough prevents excess spreading. The instructions also state to roll 1 1/2 tablespoons to 2 tablespoons. 1 1/2 tablespoons will yield you 30 cookies.
Loved these! But I think you need to use less dough for each ball/cookie to avoid them running into each other. I only got 24 cookies by following your recommendation. Next time I’ll try 2 teaspoons, not 2 tablespoons.
I’m SUCK a sucker for chai-flavored anything and these cookies look unbelievably amazing, Jen! So wishing I had a few of these for breakfast right now!!