These are thick, soft chai sugar cookies filled with warm spices and topped with a festive eggnog and nutmeg glaze. They’re quick and easy to make, perfect for sweater weather!
If you love baking with warm chai spices, check out my chai shortbread and chai Dutch apple pie, too.
These soft-baked chai sugar cookies are similar to snickerdoodles, filled with a mix of cozy cinnamon and cardamom with a handful of other warming spices. The glaze is just sweet enough with hints of nutmeg. The story goes that these are Taylor Swift’s favorite cookies, and they’re quickly becoming one of mine, too! Here’s why:
- Easy to make. I love recipes when I can drop the dough right on the cookie sheet! These drop cookies require zero chilling, and no rolling or cutting. Just mix up the sweet, spiced cookie dough, and it’s ready to bake.
- Sweet, warming spice. Chai flavor is a little more complex than, say, pumpkin spice, even though it shares similar ingredients. The addition of cardamom makes chai spice super aromatic, sweet, and spicy. If you love a chai latte, wait until you’ve baked it into a cookie!
- Perfect for chilly weather. There’s something about these chai sugar cookies that makes me want to wrap myself in a soft knit sweater and listen to Folklore on repeat. They’re perfect for fall baking, and I’ve been loving them in the wintertime, too. I swap the milk in the glaze with eggnog for a festive season version.
Ingredients You’ll Need
The dough for these chai sugar cookies is like a cross between my chewy brown sugar cookies and my favorite classic soft sugar cookies. These cookies are made with white sugar but with an extra egg yolk for richness, along with chai spices and a few other key ingredients.
Check out my notes here, and scroll to the printable ingredients list in the recipe card after the post.
- Butter – Brought to room temperature.
- Sugar and Honey – Granulated sugar and honey for extra sweetness. You could substitute the honey with more sugar or maple syrup if needed.
- Egg – You’ll need one whole egg plus one egg yolk.
- Flour – I recommend all-purpose flour.
- Baking Powder – Check the expiration date so you know it’s fresh!
- Cornstarch – The “secret” ingredient that makes homemade sugar cookies ultra-tender.
- Spices – These chai sugar cookies use a warming mix of ground cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, allspice, and cloves. If you have pumpkin pie spice, use it in place of the individual spices and simply add in cardamom. You can also buy a ready-to-use chai spice blend from the grocery store.
- Icing – I frost these sugar cookies with a simple icing made from powdered sugar (be sure to sift out any lumps), whole milk (or egg nog), and ground (or fresh) nutmeg.
This is a quick reminder to take your butter out of the fridge ~30 minutes before you get started on your cookies! Softened butter is easier to cream with the sugar, and the dough comes together much more smoothly. Then, follow the steps below. Refer to the recipe card for the printable directions.
- Mix the dry ingredients. First, take out a bowl and whisk together the flour, baking powder, cornstarch, spices, and a pinch of salt.
- Beat the wet ingredients. Next, cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl. Add the egg, egg yolk, and honey, and mix until that’s combined.
- Make the dough. Now, gradually beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients to form the dough.
- Portion the cookies. Use a medium cookie scoop to drop portions of dough onto a lined baking sheet. Then, gently press the tops of the cookies to flatten them, just a little.
Bake. Bake at 350ºF for 12-14 minutes until the sugar cookies are golden brown at the edges and just set in the center. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes and then move them to a wire rack. They’ll need to cool completely before you frost them.
- Make the nutmeg icing. When you’re ready to finish the cookies, whisk powdered sugar with nutmeg and your choice of milk or eggnog.
- Ice the cookies. Once the frosting is smooth and spreadable, spread it over each cookie. Sprinkle on a little nutmeg, and voila!
Recipe Tips
- Baking times vary. The exact time it takes these chai sugar cookies to reach soft-baked perfection depends on your oven, so check them at the earliest suggested baking time and go from there. These cookies are ready to come out when they’re set in the middle and golden at the edges.
- Don’t overmix the cookie dough. Too much mixing overdevelops the gluten in the cookie dough, leading to dense, tough sugar cookies. Mix until the wet and dry ingredients just come together.
- Adjust the consistency of the icing. If your icing looks a bit thick, thin it out with extra liquid, like milk or eggnog. If it’s too thin, add more powdered sugar, a little at a time, to get it to the right consistency for spreading.
How to Store
- At room temperature. Store these chai sugar cookies airtight for up to 5 days at room temperature. You can keep them in the fridge, but I suggest that you bring the cookies back to room temperature for serving.
- Freeze. Keep the frosted or unfrosted sugar cookies frozen airtight for up to 2 months. Thaw the cookies at room temperature.
Description
These thick, soft chai sugar cookies are filled with warm spices and topped with a festive eggnog and nutmeg glaze. Perfect for fall and winter baking!
- 10 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Icing:
- 1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 tablespoons whole milk or eggnog
- Cookies: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, ginger, and cloves.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2 – 3 minutes. Add in the egg, egg yolk, and honey, and mix for 30 seconds until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Turn the mixer to low speed and gradually add in the flour mixture until just combined.
- Using a medium (2-tablespoon-sized) cookie scoop, portion out the dough onto the prepared baking sheet, gently pressing the scoops down to flatten slightly.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until the cookies are just set and the edges are golden brown. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Icing: In a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, nutmeg, and milk (or egg nog). Icing should be thick, but spreadable.
- Spread each cooled cookie with about a teaspoon of the icing just over the center, leaving the edges of the cookie free of glaze.
- Sprinkle with a bit of fresh nutmeg if desired.
Notes
- Store airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days. Freeze airtight for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature.
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