This recipe comes to you a bit out of order on my recipe list. In fact, I just made them this past weekend. But they’re so good that I cannot wait.

When I lived in Raleigh, I worked at a coffee shop called The Morning Times. Still probably the best coffee shop I’ve ever been in. Best Americanos I’ve ever had. We also made our own chai tea. It was a mixture of tea and spices, the one which I remember the most being ginger. I spent lots of time peeling and grating ginger for that tea, but it gave the end result such a nice bite.

These cookies are basically sugar cookies filled with all the spices that make chai tea so warm and autumn-y and delicious. They’d probably be really awesome with a cup of tea. They’d also be perfect for a holiday party. Not hard to make at all. I promise. And so festive and flavorful.

Chai Snickerdoodles
makes about 36 cookies
adapted from My Madison Bistro

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups granulated sugar, divided (that means you’ll need part of it at one time in the recipe and the other part later, just fyi!)
1 cup/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature (I always use unsalted butter unless noted, also fyi)
2 large eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon, divided
1 1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/2teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom. Set aside.

With a mixer, cream 1 1/2 cups sugar and butter on medium speed. Add eggs, 1 at a time, until mixed.

Reduce speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until just combined, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as needed.

In a small bowl, mix the remaining ¼ cup sugar with 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon.

Scoop up tablespoons of dough and roll them into balls. Roll the balls in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are just getting brown on the edges, a little crispy on top, and not really gooey in the middles. Cool on racks.