Chai Sugar Cookies
These flavorful Chai Sugar Cookies are loaded with delicious spices are just about the most perfect cookie especially when the cooler weather starts blowing in.
Cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon make these Chai Cookies the perfect holiday treat!
One of my favorite spices is cardamom, it’s warm and sweet and is so delicious in hot teas such as Chai, and in bread too.
And this year, it’s one of the main ingredients in my cut out sugar cookies!
And if the idea of cutting out cookies stresses you out, don’t worry. I’m going to walk you through it, offering tips that will help you get an amazing looking cookie, and more importantly a delicious one.
Cut out cookies are one of my favorite way to dress up a holiday cookie tray.
I have many recipes for them because of this – they go so well with any occasion.
For example, my Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe is perfect if you’re just beginning. It’s also versatile, allowing you flavor options such as lemon or vanilla. And then I have my Soft Sugar Cookies if you’re just not feeling like cutting out the dough. These shortbread ball cookies are also a super fun way to get some great tasting and pretty looking cookies made fast and a great accompaniment to your favorite warm drink this holiday season.
The benefits of this great cookie dough are that it’s easy to make with minimal ingredients, the cookie dough does not need to be chilled, saving time. This cookie dough does not spread, meaning they hold their shape when baked to look just like the cookie cutter you use, no matter how much detail they have.
Let’s get started.
Preheat oven to 400°
In the bowl of a mixer, beat butter and add in powdered sugar slowly on a medium low speed. Once it is incorporated, switch to a higher speed and whip until light in color.
Add in egg and vanilla, and mix on low to medium speed to combine, then mix higher speed if needed.
Combine your dry ingredients. Pour the mix of flour, baking powder, salt, cardamom, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves into your butter mix.
Mix on medium until the dough starts to come together, then on high until the dough is fully blended and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
At this point, you can go ahead and roll it out.
The dough can be rolled out on a floured surface but will be dryer with additional flour. Therefore, I always use wax paper to roll the dough on.
With an rolling pin like this.
And 1/4″ dowels on each side of the wax paper for even cookies.
If you don’t have this item, you can eyeball it! Then use a cookie cutter dipped in flour to cut the desired shapes. Gather cookie dough scraps and re-roll the dough until all cookie dough is used.
Place cut out cookie dough on parchment-lined baking sheets with cookies 2″ apart for even baking.
Bake at 400° for 7 minutes. The bottoms should be golden, the tops of the cookies pale in color.
Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets to avoid breaking them. You also want to be sure they are completely cooled before icing them.
Now, on to the sweet stuff!
For the icing:
Mix all the icing ingredients together until smooth, adding more powdered sugar or water to get the exact consistency you’d like.
I prefer a glaze to dip the cookies into and then I allow the icing to drip over the edges a bit. If you prefer the icing piped on it’ll need to be thicker. Check out this post for more info on piping icing onto cookies.
I have posts and videos on cut out cookies and different types of icing options here.
Allow icing to dry completely before moving cookies, stacking them, or packaging them. I wait overnight to allow the icing to set.
Can I make the icing ahead of time?
Yes! For best results place a piece of plastic wrap on top of the icing in a container then put a lid on top so air does not dry out the icing. It is not necessary to refrigerate it, bring it to room temperature, and stir well before using so if it has separated you’ll mix it smoothly before using.
I’m out of powdered sugar, what can I use instead?
You can make your own if you have regular granulated sugar, cornstarch, and a blender. For one cup of powdered sugar combine 1 cup sugar with 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch and blend it for 60 seconds. If it’s not fine enough, blend for 20-second increments to get the desired consistency. *Don’t skip the cornstarch, it has everything to do with this working right.
I have used granulated sugar, the cookies come out chewier and puff up and spread a little more. I’ve also used brown sugar with similar results.
More tips on Cut Out Cookies can be found here.
And don’t miss seeing my Red Velvet Cut Out Cookies.
Chai Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cardamon
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1/8-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Chai Icing
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamon
- 1/8 teaspoon allspice
- pinch cinnamon
- 1-2 tablespoons warm water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°
- In the bowl of a mixer, beat butter and whipped, add in sugar and mix on medium-high until whipped and pale in color.
- Add in egg and vanilla, and mix on low to medium speed to combine, then mix higher speed if needed.
- Pour in the flour, baking powder, salt, cardamom, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves.
- Mix on medium until the dough starts to come together, then on high until the dough is fully blended and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- The dough can be rolled out on a floured surface but will be dryer with additional flour, if you feel the dough isn't soft and already "dry" enough and it may crack or crumbles roll it out between wax paper. I typically roll it out between wax paper.
- Roll out cookie dough in between 1/4" dowels on each side of the wax paper for even cookies, use a cookie cutter dipped in flour to cut desired shapes.
- Gather cookie dough scraps and re-roll cookie out until all cookie dough is used.
- Place cut out cookie dough on parchment-lined baking sheets with cookies 2" apart for even baking.
- Bake at 400° for 7 minutes. The bottoms should be golden, the tops of the cookies pale in color.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets (to avoid them breaking.
- Baking cookies on thick rolled edge baking sheets will produce nicely baked cookies.
- Allow cookies to cool completely before adding icing.
Chai Icing
- Mix all the icing ingredients together until smooth, add more powdered sugar or water to get the exact consistency you'd like.
- I made a thin glaze to dip the cookies into and allowed the icing to drip over the edges a bit. If you prefer the icing piped on it'll need to be thicker. I have posts and videos on cut out cookie and icing on my website.
- Allow icing to dry completely before moving cookies, stacking them, or packaging them. I wait overnight to allow the icing to set.
- (2.5")cut out cookies 1/4" thick
It says you don’t have to chill, but can you? (Make the dough ahead, roll them out later?)
Yes, you can chill the dough. You can chill the dough, then roll the cookies out, just bring the dough to room temp. to roll out. You can chill the dough already cut out and put on baking sheets. Add a minute then check to see they are firm, but they should not be brown, just lightly golden on the bottoms. This cookie dough can also be frozen, as well as the baked cookies. This dough is flexible to use how you prefer!
Happy Baking!
Thank you!
The icing recipe got cut off. How many TBSPs of water to start?
Start with 1 table spoon water, add more dams needed fir the consistency you’d like, I made mine thin and dipped the tops of the cookies in, you can also leave it thicker it you just want to drizzle it over the tops with a spoon.
If I’m decorating with royal icing, can I add more spice to the cookies themselves?
Absolutely, you can add as much as you like.
Are these sweet enough to do without icing? I have some stamp cookie cutters, and I don’t want to cover the design with icing. Should I add more sugar?
These cookies are great on their own, without icing. If you prefer your cookies on the sweeter side (like grocery store cookies these might not be sweet enough) you can try baking 1 cookie to test it, you then could add more sugar if desired. I have not baked them with more sugar but don’t think an additional 1/2 cup powdered sugar will effect the baking.