Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodles

Tags

baking, chai, chewy cookies, cookies, crisp cookies, fall, recipes, snickerdoodles

So, it’s fall, I hear…  It is cooler here in south Texas than it was a couple months ago, but not exactly sweater weather (mid-80s, anyone?).  That said, I have brought out my hoodie for the occasional slightly chilly morning or evening.

Chai is always something that makes me think of fall and winter.  Doesn’t it seem weird to drink it in early summer, or is that just me?  I actually stopped ordering chai lattes a few years ago because they began tasting too sweet.  Turns out that maybe that’s just at a certain large coffee franchise…last week, I tried a sip of my friend’s chai latte at a local coffee shop, and liked it!

I guess that sip is what inspired these cookies.

The main flavor of snickerdoodles is cinnamon, which is often one of the contributing spices to chai tea.  Throw in some other spices found in chai, and voila! Chai in cookie form.  What’s not to love?

I went back to said coffee shop armed with a few of these cookies, ordered my own chai, and success!  This activity is totes appropes for sweater weather.

Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodles
snickerdoodles adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Martha Stewart
spice mix adapted from Whole Foods

Deb says to bake two sheets with the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, but for me and the oven I was using, one sheet in the middle worked best.  I was able to fit 16 cookies on a sheet, but they were on the smaller side.  Obviously, if you make yours bigger, space them further apart.

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 3/4 teaspoons ground cardamom
a couple pinches of black pepper

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus more if needed
2 large eggs

Combine the spices in a small bowl and set aside.  Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and 1 teaspoon of the spice mix.

In a mixer at medium speed, cream together the butter and 1 1/2 cups of the sugar until fluffy.  Scrape down the sides, then beat in the eggs.  Add in the sifted dry ingredients in manageable amounts and beat until dough is combined.  Chill in the fridge for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Combine the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar with the spice mix.  Scoop a small amount of dough with a cookie scoop or a spoon.  Roll into a ball and coat it in the sugar/spice mixture.  Repeat and place the dough balls about two inches apart.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes, rotating the sheet at the halfway point.  The tops should crack a little bit, and the cookies as a whole should be chewy in the middles and crispy on the edges.  Store in an airtight container!

Tip: if your cookies turn out too crunchy, put a slice of bread in the cookie container! The cookies will absorb its moisture, so remove the bread when it’s stale. I learned this from my dad many years ago. :)

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