Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodles

I hope you all have a wonderful and magical Christmas, if you celebrate, or a wonderful and magical Tuesday if you don’t.

This holiday season I made some cookies to give as gifts.  I quadrupled the recipe below so that I’d have a lot of dough and what I didn’t end up baking off I’ve stored (already scooped) in the freezer.  (I only doubled the spice mix and made sure to pour out a little at a time into a separate bowl for rolling the dough in the spice mix so I wouldn’t contaminate it all with raw egg, I’d recommend doing this even if you’re just making the single recipe so that you can save the spice mix for something else since you won’t use it all for one batch of cookies.)  At this time of year when plans are in flux it’s nice to have some cookies that you can just bake when company arrives and serve hot cookies to friends, neighbors, or even Santa.

These Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodles are a great remix of the traditional cinnamon-sugar snickerdoodles.  And they have the stamp of approval from traditionalist Dad.  Despite major skepticism the first time I made this (and some grumblings about why I can’t leave well enough alone), he deemed these better than traditional snickerdoodles.  I consider that a success!  I hope you all enjoy them just as much.

Chai-Spiced SnickerdoodlesChai-Spiced Snickerdoodles

Makes about 1 1/2 dozen

Adapted from Bake Me Away

  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cloves
  • 1 3/4 tsp cardamom
  • couple grinds of fresh black pepper
  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar (divided)
  • 2 large eggs

Combine spices in a small bowl and set aside.

Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt and 1 tsp from the spice mix.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter and 1 1/4 cup of sugar together until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Slowly add in the dry ingredients mixing with a spatula until just incorporated.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and scoop dough onto parchment (you can go ahead and space them really close together to fit as many as possible on one pan).  Refrigerate cookie dough for about an hour, or stick in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes to firm up.

Mix in the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar into the spice mix.Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodle

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Remove cookie dough from the fridge/freezer.  Roll balls to make them smooth and then roll them in the sugar-spice mixture (I recommend just pouring a little of the spice mixture at a time into a separate bowl so you don’t contaminate all the mix just in case you don’t need it all).  Place coated cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes (you may need to rotate halfway through depending on your oven).  The tops will crack a little and will just begin to get some color on the edges.  Remove from oven and slide cookies on their parchment paper onto a cooling rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container for several days (if they last that long).

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5 thoughts on “Chai-Spiced Snickerdoodles

  1. Hi, Lauren. Thanks to Marian, I’m now getting your posts. I enjoy your comments a lot. Yesterday at Christmas dinner, I mentioned to your cousin David that you had just posted a recipe for Chai Snickerdoodles. Like your dad, he is suspicious of fooling with a trusted recipe. I’ll try them soon and see how he likes them….

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