Pillowy soft Chai Spiced Cookies are deliciously fragrant and soft. Infused with cozy and warm chai spices, these easy chai cookies are a wonderful fall cookie recipe to try.
If you’re interested in more easy fall cookie recipes, you have got to try my Pumpkin Pie Spiced Cookies without Pumpkin Puree, and these Soft Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Table of Contents
🍪 Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Quick to make.
- Only 15 minutes of chill time.
- Can be made gluten-free.
- Lunch box friendly.
- Can be made with a pre-made chai blend.
A warm batch of chai spiced cookies that are perfect for fall. These cookies turn out slightly puffy with a soft and chewy texture that melts in your mouth, especially when dunked into your tea or coffee!
This easy chai spiced cookie recipe is perfect to make at the start of your week as they make great lunch box fillers for school and work.
Can you make these chai cookies using a pre-made chai blend or concentrate? Although I haven’t tried this myself, if you would like to, I recommend using 1 ½ tablespoons of your favorite powdered chai blend instead of the individual spices.
If you would like to add a glaze or icing, try whipping up a quick mixture of icing/confectioners sugar with milk or water and a touch of vanilla extract for delicious vanilla chai cookies.
To make these into dirty chai cookies, either add a touch of instant powdered coffee into the cookie dough when the spices are added.
Or make a glaze/icing using the same method as above for the vanilla glaze but instead add instant coffee.
📋 Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
All purpose flour - is also known as pain flour in Australia. To make these gluten-free chai cookies, use a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend for baking, using the same quantity, which is 1 ½ cups (225g).
Chai spices - if you would like to use a pre-made chai blend, substitute the individual spices for 1 ½ tablespoons of your powdered chai blend. However, this recipe has not been tested using a pre-made chai blend.
Unsalted butter - to substitute with salted butter, use the same quantity and do not add the additional ¼ teaspoon salt to the recipe.
Brown sugar - not dark brown sugar. Measure your brown sugar by lightly packing it into your measuring cup or weighing it using kitchen scales.
🥣 Step By Step Instructions (with photos)
How to make these easy chai cookies from scratch in 8 easy steps!
There is a full and detailed recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step one: To a medium-sized mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and all the spices. Whisk until well combined. Set aside.
Step two: In a large mixing bowl, add softened butter to the bowl, and using electric hand beaters, beat butter for a few seconds until it turns creamy.
Step three: Add brown sugar and beat with the butter for 1 minute until light and fluffy.
Step four: Beat through the egg and vanilla until well combined.
Step five: Add half of the flour mixture and beat until just combined. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until a crumbly dough forms.
Step six: Gather the dough together using your hands to form a ball of dough. Transfer the dough to the refrigerator to chill for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 180ºC (356ºF) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Step seven: To form cookies, scoop up 2 tablespoons of dough, or weigh out 40g (1.4oz) per cookie and roll it into a smooth ball. Place onto the lined sheet and flatten it down slightly using the palm of your hand into a thick disc.
Step eight: Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the tops look set with slight cracks and the edges are lightly golden.
💭 Tips For Recipe Success
- Before starting, bring your butter and egg to room temperature. This ensures they emulsify properly with the rest of the ingredients.
- You will need to bring the dough together using your hands after beating in the flour.
- Only flatten the cookies, halfway, like a thick disc, not completely flattened. The cookies do spread slightly and puff up.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes before transferring them to the wire rack. They're delicate when still warm.
⏲️ Storage Instructions
Store these cookies in an airtight container, at room temperature, for 4-6 days.
To freeze baked chai cookies:
- Allow them to cool completely.
- Place them on a baking sheet, not touching each other, and pop them into the freezer to freeze until solid.
- Transfer to a freezer-friendly sealed container, with layers of parchment paper between any layers. Or place them into freezer zip lock bags.
- Label them with the date and what they are.
- Freeze for up to 3 months.
To thaw baked cookies:
- Remove them from their container/bag and onto a plate at room temperature for several hours until defrosted.
- Or thaw them in the fridge, still in their container/bag, overnight.
- Warm them up if desired in the oven or microwave.
To freeze chai cookie dough:
- Follow the recipe up to forming the cookies, still chilling the dough for 15 minutes.
- Form the cookies as per the recipe instructions and place them onto the baking sheet, with a small gap between each cookie disc.
- Refrigerate for 1 hour or until solid.
- Place the solid cookies in freezer zip-lock bags or into a freezer-friendly sealed container, labeled with the date and recipe name.
- Freeze for up to 3 months.
To bake frozen cookie dough:
- Remove the cookies from the container/bag and onto the parchment paper-lined baking sheet, leaving a small gap between each cookie.
- Sit them on the counter at room temperature while you pre-heat your oven according to the recipe instructions.
- Bake cookies per the recipe method, adding a further 1-2 minutes to the baking time as the cookies were partially frozen.
💬 Recipe FAQ's
Yes! I’ve made these chai cookies gluten-free and they turned out great. I recommend you use a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend for baking, using the same quantity, which is 1 ½ cups (225g).
Yes! Substitute all of the individual spices in this recipe for 1 ½ tablespoons of your favorite powdered chai blend or powdered concentrate. However, this recipe has not been tested this way. I suggest you play around with the quantity of the chai blend and add more or less based on your flavor preference.
Yes! Using coconut oil instead of butter in these chai cookies works great. Simply substitute the butter for ½ cup of softened coconut oil, not solid or melted, and follow the recipe instructions as normal, creaming the coconut oil with the brown sugar until light and fluffy.
Yes! Easily substitute the brown sugar for coconut sugar using the same quantity, which is ¾ cup. The weight will be different as the coconut sugar won’t be lightly packed like the brown sugar.
If you enjoy this recipe, please consider leaving a ⭐️ star rating and a comment review below. I love to hear what you think and it's much appreciated. Thank you! Your email address will not be published. Sam x
Recipe Card
Chai Spiced Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (225g) all purpose flour, scoop & leveled
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt, or Kosher salt
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 100 g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ¾ cup lightly packed brown sugar, not dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- To a medium-sized mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and all the spices. Whisk until well combined. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, using either electric hand beaters or a stand mixer with the paddle attached, add softened butter to the bowl.
- Beat butter for a few seconds until it turns creamy.
- Add brown sugar and beat with the butter for 1 minute, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Add egg and vanilla, and whisk for 20 seconds until well combined.
- Add half of the flour mixture and beat until just combined.
- Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until a crumbly dough forms.
- Turn off the beater and gather the dough together using your hands to form a ball of dough.
- Transfer the bowl with the dough inside to the refrigerator to chill for 15 minutes. TIP: if your bowl is too large for the fridge, wrap just the dough in cling/saran wrap and chill in the fridge.
- While the dough is chilling, preheat oven to 180ºC (356ºF) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.
- Remove the dough from the fridge.
- To form cookies, scoop up 2 tablespoons of dough, or weigh out 40g (1.4oz) per cookie and roll it into a smooth ball.
- Place onto the lined sheet and flatten it down slightly using the palm of your hand into a thick disc.
- Repeat with remaining cookie dough, leaving a small 3cm (1-inch) gap between each to allow for slight spreading.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the tops look set with slight cracks and the edges are lightly golden. TIP: the cookies may still look undercooked on top but they'll firm up and set while cooling on the baking sheet.
- Remove and cool cookies on the sheet for 10 minutes.
- Gently transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Enjoy!
- Store in a sealed airtight container, at room temperature for 4-6 days.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published in January 2018. It was republished in December 2022 with new images and helpful information.
Lauren says
These are delicious!!! I’ll admit I use plain white flour and brown sugar...but so crisp and spicy. Yum! I don’t form into balls, just slice and place on tray and they’re perfect.
Samantha says
Hi Lauren! I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed these cookies! I think using regular flour and brown sugar would have made these so so delicious, even more like a bakery style cookie! Great idea slicing them up, even bigger cookies to enjoy! 🙂
Nar says
It looks so tasty, can’t wait until I try it!
Samantha says
Hi Nar, thanks so much! I hope you enjoy these, super yummy!