“Inspired by mugs of warm masala chai, these cookies are infused with black tea and a plethora of spices to make a treat that’s as cozy for the holidays as a big hug. If you want to make the cookie even easier, you can skip the infused butter step for a wonderfully simple spice cookie.” —Edd Kimber, 2025 contributing editor
Edd Kimber’s Chai Spice Cookies
Makes 8 large cookies
Ingredients
Tea-Infused Butter
- 7 tablespoons (98 grams) unsalted butter, cubed
- 2 black tea bags (5 grams)
Cookie Dough
- Tea-infused butter, room temperature
- ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon (125 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 3½ tablespoons (75 grams) molasses
- 1 large egg (50 grams)
- 2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons (4 grams) ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- Turbinado sugar, for rolling
Lemon Glaze
- ¾ cup (90 grams) confectioners’ sugar, plus more as needed
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- To make the tea-infused butter, add the butter to a small saucepan. Open the tea bags, and add contents to the pan. Over low heat, cook the butter until fully melted. Pour into a small bowl, and refrigerate until solid. Remove and allow to come to room temperature.
- To make the cookie dough, add the room temperature tea butter, brown sugar, and molasses to the bowl of your stand mixer, and beat together at medium speed until light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, add the egg, and beat until combined.
- Add the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper, and nutmeg to a large bowl, and whisk together to combine. Add the flour mixture to the bowl of the stand mixer, and beat together at low speed to form a soft cookie dough. Refrigerate the bowl until the cookie dough is firm, about an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal portions (about 73 grams each), and roll into balls. Roll each ball of dough in turbinado sugar. Place the cookies 1 inch apart onto the pan.
- Bake until the cookies are puffed and cracked, with browned edges, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on pan for 15 minutes. Remove from the pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack.
- For the glaze, add the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice to a bowl, and whisk until a thick but pourable glaze is formed, adding more confectioners’ sugar as needed. Drizzle onto the cool cookies. Let the glaze dry before storing in a sealed container for up to 5 days.
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