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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.
Hi,
I want to make about 15 batches for Christmas. Can I prep these ahead of time and freeze them? If so, at what point in the recipe do I freeze them?
Thank you.
I’m guessing you could probably freeze the dough!
I love this recipe and have made it a bunch of times. It’s a favorite. I’m new to the gluten free baking world, though, and am wondering what luck people have had adapting this to gluten free flour. I have almond, coconut, cassava, brown rice, tapioca flours and xanthum gum on hand. Any recommendations? Thanks!
this is AWESOME!!! yummy. I can’t wait to try this! Pinned! so healthy!!
Let me know how you like them, Shilpa!
Sorry, correction: 1 1/4 cups butter as opposed to just 1 cup to make the cookies hold better; mistyped.
No worries! :)
So I followed this recipe exactly, and I was also having a bit of trouble with the dough; it was very dry and crumbly. Tasted great, but when I did a test run of the cookie, it didn’t really hold together very well. I saw in the comments that some people had the same problem, and it was fixed with adding another egg, but I decided to try adding some more butter and turns out that worked. I did it a little out of order, but I think it should be fine from the start. When you’re mixing the sugar-spice mixture with the butter, try 3/4 cup butter as opposed to just a 1/2 cup, and make sure it’s very soft, but not melted; I would even suggest a little warm. When you mix in the flour mixture, It’ll hold itself much better. After that, I baked it for 12 minutes instead of 10 just to crisp them up a little bit more, and that worked wonders, without diluting the flavor.
I absolutely love this recipe, it’s definitely going in the books!
Thank you so much for the suggestions, Amelia Ann! I’m so glad you liked the cookies!
Thank you so much for the suggestions, Amelia Ann! I’m so glad you liked the cookies!
It seems like this is the same recipe from JBF (jamesbeard.org) except with an extra 1/4 c. flour, which might be why a lot of people are finding the dough to be on the crumbly side.
https://www.jamesbeard.org/recipes/chewy-chai-spiced-sugar-cookies
Thanks for the link, Mary! I’ll have to give the James Beard recipe a try!
These were wonderful! I like a lil extra zing so I added a pinch of Ancho Chili powder and Garam Masala!
Sounds wonderful, Tania!
I sprinked some sea salt on top of the cookies before baking – yummm
Love it, Ivy! Such a great idea!
-Jamie
Hey do you know how many calories and carbs are in the cookies?
Hi, Jenny! I really don’t know off hand. You’d probably have to plug the ingredients into a nutrition calculator. I hope you enjoy them!
I have been making these cookies for about 3 years. Everyone I’ve ever served them to has loved them! They like them better than sugar cookies. If I take an entire batch somewhere, it’s rare I leave with any to bring back home. Crowd pleaders! Great for parties anytime of the year, but especially Christmas!
I agree, Kenra! I love them, too!