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Do you like tea with your cookies? How about tea IN your cookies? Freshly toasted spices are ground and incorporated in and around these soft, fragrant cookies, giving Indian flair to a dessert classic.
I put together this cookie recipe as part of a campaign to raise awareness for Cookies for Kids' Cancer.
Julie from The Little Kitchen is organizing this Valentine's event for the 2nd year now. Lots of food bloggers, including myself, are rallying together, donating their money, time, and baking skills to raising money and awareness for this worthy cause.
Did you know that cancer is the #1 cause of death of children by disease in the U.S.? There are 40,000 U.S. children actively battling cancer right now. With less than 4% of the National Cancer Institute's budget going to all childhood cancer combined, I knew it was important for me to get involved.
We have already reached our goal of $3000! Special thanks to Dixie Crystals, Mediavine and OXO, who each pledged to match our donations raised through this campaign up to $3000. And we can still raise more! If you'd like to contribute, please donate here.
So now, back to these awesomely aromatic cookies!
Snickerdoodle cookies have been a family favorite for as long as I can remember. I made some standard ones a few weeks ago for the billionth time, and thought it would be fun to give them a fun twist.
Have you ever toasted whole spices? It's such a great way to enhance their flavor.
A few things to keep in mind - you want to start with a dry skillet. No oil/butter - just a dry skillet. Place the whole spices in there and put it over medium heat. Shake or stir occasionally, until the spices are nice and fragrant, about 5-7 minutes.
Once they're done, pour them into a bowl. The skillet will still be hot for a while after you turn the heat off, and you run the risk of burning the spices if you don't remove them.
I like to use an electric spice mill to grind my spices. The one I use is actually an old coffee grinder, but just be warned that once you start grinding spices, you aren't going to be able to use it for coffee again. Unless you like your coffee to taste like curry. Ha!
You can also use a mortar and pestle or a small food processor, but I think the spice grinder will work best here since the cinnamon stick and star anise are so large.
Be sure to really grind the spices finely so you don't hit any large chunks of spices in your cookies, as that can be a little off-putting.
I really wanted to maximize the spices here, but if you don't have whole spices, you could certainly use pre-ground ones. You'll want about 2 ½ tablespoons total, using mostly cinnamon.
At first my plan was just to mix the spices with the sugar to roll the cookie dough balls in, but then I realized it'd be nice to have some of the spices flecked throughout the cookies as well. So I added part of the spice mixture to the dough, and mixed the remaining into the sugar for the coating.
These cookies turned out phenomenally well! A slightly crispy exterior and a super soft, pillowy interior.
My 6-year-old said that they're the best cookies I've ever made. He actually said to me, "Ooh!! I can see why you added the spices to these cookies!!" - ha! He's most certainly my mini-me.
I hope you give these cookies a try! I'd love to hear what you think of them
Looking for more cookie recipes? Check out some of our favorites:
- Melt-in-Your-Mouth Buttermilk Chocolate Cookies
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies with Vanilla Icing
- Cranberry Orange Snickerdoodles
- Great Grandma Francesca Cardile’s Cookies
- Ricotta Cookies
- Grandma’s Christmas Cookies
- Holiday Cookie Recipe Roundup
- The Duckling’s Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toasted Nuts
- Lemon Ricotta Cookies
📖 Recipe
Chai Spiced Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: About 3 ½ dozen cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies, Desserts
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Do you like tea with your cookies? How about tea IN your cookies? Freshly toasted spices are ground and incorporated in and around these soft, fragrant cookies, giving Indian flair to a dessert classic.
Ingredients
Chai Spice Mix:
- 3 green cardamom pods
- 3 whole cloves
- 2 black peppercorns
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 star anise
- 1 ½ teaspoons loose black tea leaves
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
Cookies:
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup vegetable shortening, at room temperature
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- Place cardamom pods, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon stick, and star anise in a small, dry skillet. Place over medium heat and toast, shaking or stirring occasionally, until the spices are fragrant, about 5-7 minutes. Place toasted spices in a bowl until cool.
- Once cool, place the toasted spices, tea leaves, and ground ginger into a spice grinder and grind until finely ground.
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter, shortening, 1 ½ cups sugar, 1 ½ teaspoons of the ground chai spice mix, eggs, and vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
- In a small bowl, stir together the remaining chai spice mix and ¼ cup sugar. Scoop dough with a #50 scoop (about a heaping tablespoonful), roll into balls, and roll each ball in the sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on un-greased baking sheets.
- Bake cookies in preheated oven until set but not hard, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer cookies onto cooling racks as soon as they come out of the oven.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 127
- Sugar: 9.8 g
- Sodium: 56.5 mg
- Fat: 5.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 17.6 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 1.4 g
- Cholesterol: 17.1 mg
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Lori H
These sound great! I know I don't like to buy a lot of spices that I don't use frequently, so I bet you could probably substitute a little spiced chai latte mix to get a similar flavor.
Ashley
Thanks so much! I think you could use the tea from a bag of chai spiced tea in here, too. I'm not sure if the latte mix would do anything odd because of the dairy that's in it.
Jordan
I LOVE snickerdoodles. I bet the addition of chai makes them even better. I can't wait to try out this variation!
Ashley
It was a really fun twist - my family loved them!
Amanda
I love chai tea and spices in cookies! It's such an unexpected, yet warm and familiar flavor in a cookie recipe. These would be perfect for a snow day!
Ashley
I'm all for cookies on snowy days, too, Amanda! 🙂
Jacqueline Piper | PiperCooks
Snicker doodles are one of my favorite cookies, and I love anything that starts with whole spices - they sound amazing. Nice recipe!
Ashley
Thanks so much! And I agree - whole spices, especially toasted, add such a fun flavor to things! We really, really enjoyed them in these snickerdoodles!
Kiki Johnson
I love anything chai-spiced and your cookies look fabulous. Beautiful shots as well... I'd have them with a cup of hot chocolate or turmeric latte
Ashley
Thanks so much, Kiki! A turmeric latte sounds perrrrrrfect right about now!
Dominique | Perchance to Cook
Such a great flavor combination!! Snickerdoodle and Chai! Yes please!
Ashley
It works SO well together - even better than I had hoped!
Elena
What a lovely tea-time treat! I love chai flavored anything!
Ashley
Chai is so much fun, and I'm learning that it's pretty versatile, too!
TaraTeaspoon
You had me at chai ... looks like I know what I will be baking this weekend !
Ashley
Thanks so much, Tara! I hope you love them as much as we did!
Ben Myhre
These look like some beautiful cookies and I love some snickerdoodle cookies!
Ashley
Thanks so much, Ben! Snickerdoodles will *never* go out of style, right?? 🙂
Carrie | Clean Eating Kitchen
I can never say no to a cookie! The flavours in this sound so goo, a great idea! Bookmarking to make!
Ashley
I hope you love them as much as we did, Carrie!
Ben Myhre
I would eat these cookies all day long. They look great.
Ashley
There has to be a diet for that, right? Cookies all day, every day! 😉
Jenni LeBaron
I want like 9 of these immediately. If snickerdoodles weren't awesome enough, adding Chai takes these over the top!
Ashley
I think 9 is the perfect serving size for these 😉
Stacey
I love the combination of loading up snickerdoodles with my favorite ever tea, chai!!! And yes, I have all the ingredients to make them NOW!
Ashley
Let me know how they turn out if you end up giving them a try! I'm already planning to make them again tomorrow 🙂
Amy Nash
Adding chai spices to classic snickerdoodles is such a great way of changing up an old favorite! These sound completely delightful!
Ashley
Thanks so much, Amy! My mind is already working on more fun twists on this classic 🙂
Jenny
Thank you for a beautiful recipe for such a worthy cause!
Your Mediavine swag is on the way and should be to you soon. It's just a small token of our appreciation for your time and efforts to wipe out pediatric cancer.
~Jenny, Mediavine Marketing Associate
Ashley
Thanks so much, Jenny! It's a great cause, and I'm glad to help raise awareness and funds for it. And thanks in advance for the swag 🙂
Ashima
Being an Indian I love chai! and I love using all the chai spices in baking especially cookies and breads 🙂 Love how you made these for such a beautiful cause!
Good Luck and Thanks so much for sharing!
Prajituri Delicioase
Thanks so much for sharing!I will try this recipe and give you a heads up!
Ashley
I hope you enjoy it!
CookingCraft
So happy to see u and OMG sharing this mouthwatering cookie looks so easy to make so happy u share it. Thanks for sharing my Gorgeous Friend
Aathirai
Thanks so much for sharing!I will try this recipe and give you a heads up!
Ashley
I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!