Chai Spiced Cookies

These chai cookies are incredibly chewy and slightly crisp on the edges. They are made with browned butter, brown sugar, and the star of the recipe, chai spice. They are reminiscent of chai tea with a slightly floral and peppery flavor. To bring even more drama, they are drizzled with a sweet maple glaze.

Overview

• Skill Level: Intermediate
• Technique Used: How to Brown Butter
• Component Used: Chai Spice Blend

Chai is usually associated with tea or lattes. Since I’m not a fan of tea, I’ve always avoided it. I didn’t realize that chai is simply the blend of spices used to flavor chai tea. These warming spices include a mixture of mostly cinnamon and cardamom with hints of black pepper as well as clove, nutmeg, and ginger.

I wanted to use these flavors in a cookie recipe so I decided to incorporate them into my chewy brown sugar snickerdoodles. To me, a chai cookie sounds fancy so to elevate them I’m using browned butter, brown sugar, and perfectly spiced chai. I even wrote my own recipe to make this easy homemade ingredient.

And what goes well with chai flavor? Maple! These cookies are drizzled with a sweet maple glaze for an extra cozy flavor.

What makes these chai cookies so special

• The texture: these cookies are slightly crisp on the edges and perfectly chewy in the middle.
• The flavor: chai spice flavor is a combination of warm, floral, and peppery.
• Elevated: to level up these cookies, use browned butter and add a maple drizzle.

What is chai spice?

Chai spice is a simple blend of warming spices that is traditionally used for flavoring chai tea and lattes. However, the spice blend is becoming more and more popular as a flavor in baked goods.

You can use store-bought jarred spice blend or you can make my simple homemade chai spice which calls for ground cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, clove, and black pepper.

How to make Chai Spiced Cookies

The process of making chai cookies takes a few additional steps than more basic drop cookie recipes. Browning the butter is technically an optional step but I highly recommend it. It adds incredible depth of flavor and nuttiness that you can smell immediately as you are browning. Once you smell warm browned butter, you will understand.

The other additional step is chilling the dough. Chilling the dough for as short as 30 minutes makes it easier to scoop and roll.

And lastly, adding a maple drizzle. These chai cookies are incredible even without the drizzle but I find adding the additional texture of a glaze and the flavor of maple really sends these cookies over the top. Let’s go over the process!

Brown the butter

If you are not familiar with how to brown butter, heat butter over medium-low heat in a saucepan and continue cooking until the milk fats fall to the bottom of the pan and begin browning. 

You will start to smell the butter when it is getting close to browning. It will smell nutty and then turn an amber color. You want it to be a fairly deep amber color but watch it closely because it can burn quickly. This whole process takes about 15 minutes.

After the butter is brown, remove it from the heat and let it cool while you continue with the other steps. I like to throw in an ice cube to cool it down more quickly and to replace the liquid that was lost while browning. The butter does not need to re-solidify before using it.

Combine the butter and sugar

Combine the browned butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in a bowl. The butter does not need to be fully cooled or solidified, it can still be warm. I like to use a stand mixer but since we aren’t creaming the two together it’s not essential. You can also use a hand mixer or whisk.

Add the wet ingredients

Once the butter and sugars are mixed together, add the egg, vanilla extract, and maple extract if using.

The maple extract adds an additional hint of flavor to the cookie dough but it’s not essential. There is pure maple syrup in the drizzle that goes over the baked cookies so you’ll still get that maple flavor even if you don’t use the maple extract.

Add the Dry Ingredients and Chill

Mix in the baking powder, salt, flour, and the star ingredient chai spice. Mix until combined. Scrape down the bowl and mix again until you no longer see white streaks from the flour.

Place the entire bowl of cookie dough into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. If chilling longer than 30 minutes, wrap in plastic wrap. Chilling the dough will firm it up making it easier to scoop.

Roll in the topping and bake

In a shallow mixing bowl, combine the granulated sugar with the chai spice. After chilling, scoop rounded mounds of cookie dough (about 2-3 tablespoons each) and roll in the topping until they are fully coated.

If the dough gets too sticky, place the bowl back in the refrigerator for a few minutes. Place cookie mounds onto prepared baking sheets. It is best to only scoop about 8 cookies per sheet to allow enough room for spreading.

Bake on 350°F/176°C for 12-14 minutes until puffy and the edges are set. The middle will still look underbaked. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack. Sprinkle additional leftover chai sugar over the tops if desired. Allow to fully cool before adding drizzle.

Drizzle

Make the drizzle by whisking together the powdered sugar with pure maple syrup. Add the syrup a little bit at a time until you have a thick but pourable consistency. If it’s too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add more maple syrup.

After the cookies have fully cooled, drizzle using a piping bag or fork. You can also dip the cookie into the drizzle.

Storage

Baked Cookies: Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. You can also store in the freezer for up to 3 months but I do not suggest adding drizzle if you plan to freeze the baked cookies. Drizzle after thawing.

Unbaked Cookies: After scooping the cookie dough and rolling in spiced sugar, place the sheet pan in the freezer to freeze until rock solid. Move the dough balls into a zipper bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake directly from frozen adding 2-3 minutes to the baking time. Drizzle after baking and cooling.

MORE RECIPES FROM BAKER BETTIE!

If you loved this recipe, you might like to try these other delicious spiced cookie recipes!

• Chewy Brown Sugar Snickerdoodles with Rosemary
• Crispy Gingersnap Cookies
• Old Fashioned Chewy Molasses Cookies