Chai Tea Cookies with White Chocolate Chunks

Enjoy a moment of cosy bliss with every bite of these Chai Tea Cookies! With chewy edges and soft middles, the cookies are infused with spiced chai tea and packed with creamy white chocolate chunks. They’re finished with a chai glaze for extra deliciousness and are best enjoyed with a hot mug of milky chai tea.

This post is kindly sponsored by Whittard of Chelsea. I only recommend products I personally love, use and trust!

RECIPE AT A GLANCE

TASTE

The spiced chai tea adds a wonderful warmth and cosiness to the cookies. Using brown butter brings a nutty, caramel depth to the dough and the white chocolate chunks add pops of creamy sweetness throughout.

TEXTURE

Crisp and chewy on the outside, soft and gooey in the middle – these chai tea cookies are seriously moreish!

SKILL

Chai tea cookies are simple and easy to make. There’s nothing fussy about this recipe.

SERVES

You’ll get 12 chunky cookies from this recipe.

Ingredients To Make Chai Tea Cookies

• Unsalted Butter: First we brown the butter to release a nutty, caramel flavour before combining it with the other ingredients. It completely transforms the cookie dough and is an extra step that’s worth taking!
• Whittard Spiced Chai Tea: The chai tea leaves infuse the brown butter with flavours of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cardamom and black pepper. You can swap for a different chai tea if needed, and if you only have chai tea bags, just break them open and use the leaves inside.
• Light Brown Sugar: Brown sugar adds a hint of molasses to your recipe, resulting in a subtle caramelised flavour. It also gives the cookies an extra moist and gooey texture inside.
• White Caster Sugar: Contributes sweetness and gives the cookies chewy edges.
• 1 Whole Egg and 1 Egg Yolk: Using eggs at room temperature helps them incorporate into the recipe more easily, and adding an extra yolk adds extra richness to the recipe.
• Vanilla Extract: Enhances the overall flavour with a subtle vanilla aroma. Try and use vanilla extract rather than essence if you can for an all-natural strong flavour.
• Self-Raising Flour: Binds the ingredients together, gives the cookies structure, and a thicker texture from the raising agent in the flour.
• Salt: A pinch of salt helps to balance the flavours and enhances the white chocolate flavour.
• White Chocolate Chunks: Adds sweetness and a creamy texture, complementing the other ingredients perfectly. Plus is a cookie a cookie without chocolate chunks!?
• Chai tea glaze: a simple mix of milk, icing sugar and chai tea – perfect for drizzling over your cookies!

Let’s Talk About Brown Butter in Cookies

What is brown butter? Essentially, it’s butter that has been heated and melted in a saucepan until the milk solids turn a gorgeous golden brown colour. This releases a rich, nutty, caramel-like flavour that will elevate your cookie dough from “tasty” to “wow that’s delicious!!!”. The flavour of brown butter pairs perfectly with the comforting aroma of spiced chai tea in these cookies. It’s an extra step that’s definitely worth taking!

To flavour these cookies with spiced chai tea, I steeped the tea leaves in the brown butter and then strained the mixture to remove the tea leaves. This means we get all the cosy flavour of the chai, without needing to add any extra liquid to the cookie dough.

Decorate the Cookies With this Chai Tea Glaze

The chai tea glaze couldn’t be easier to make – it uses only 3 ingredients (milk, chai tea and icing sugar) and takes less than 10 minutes. Perfect for whipping up as a little decorative touch for your cookies. You can drizzle the chai tea glaze onto the cookies with a spoon, pipe it on top like I did, or dunk the cookies to half coat them instead – it’s up to you!

Quick Recipe Success Tips

• Brown the butter: When making the brown butter watch it closely as it can easily burn and have a bitter taste. It helps to use a stainless steel saucepan so you can see the colour of the butter, as soon as it looks golden and has small brown flecks, remove from the heat.
• Chill the cookie dough: Chilling the rolled chai tea cookies before baking stops them from spreading out too much, resulting in thick and chunky cookies.
• Underbake the cookies for the best texture: For gooey, soft chai cookies, it’s best to take them out of the oven when they still look underbaked. They will continue to cook as they cool down on the baking tray, so be careful not to overbake them!

Chai Tea Cookies with White Chocolate Chunks

Infused with spiced chai tea and packed with white chocolate chunks, these soft and chewy cookies are the ultimate comfort treat!

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Prep: 20 minutes minutes

Cook: 10 minutes minutes

Chilling Time: 1 hour hour

Total: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 12

Ingredients

For the chai cookie dough

• 170 grams Unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons Chai tea leaves I used Whittard Spiced Chai Loose Leaf Tea
• 150 grams Light brown sugar
• 100 grams White caster sugar
• 1 Egg room temperature
• 1 Egg yolk room temperature
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
• 260 grams Self-raising flour
• 0.5 teaspoon Salt
• 150 grams White chocolate

For the chai glaze

• 1 tablespoon Milk
• 1 teaspoon Chai tea leaves I used Whittard Spiced Chai Loose Leaf Tea
• 40 grams Icing sugar

Instructions

To make the chai cookie dough:

• Start by browning the butter. Measure the butter into a saucepan and place over a medium heat. Stir until the butter has melted.
  170 grams Unsalted butter
• Add the chai tea leaves. Continue to heat for another 4-5 minutes, swirling the pan occasionally, until the melted butter is foamy on top, a golden amber colour beneath and has a nutty aroma. Be careful not to overheat as otherwise the butter with burn and turn bitter.
  2 tablespoons Chai tea leaves
• Strain the chai-infused brown butter through a sieve into a mixing bowl and leave to cool for 10 minutes.
  
• Now, mix in the brown and white sugars until well combined.
  150 grams Light brown sugar, 100 grams White caster sugar
• Mix in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract.
  1 Egg, 1 Egg yolk, 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
• Fold in the flour and salt until the mixture comes together to make a thick cookie dough.
  260 grams Self-raising flour, 0.5 teaspoon Salt
• Chop the white chocolate into smallish chunks and fold into the dough.
  150 grams White chocolate
  
• Scoop up heaped tablespoons of cookie dough and roll into balls, placing them on a lined baking tray as you go. You should be able to make 12 cookies from this recipe.
  
• Cover the cookies with clingfilm and place in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan) and line two large baking trays with baking paper.
• Place 4-5 cookies on each baking tray, leaving at least 8cm of space between each, so the cookies have room to spread a little.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden and firm around the edges. The middle should look pale and underbaked. Leave to cool on the baking tray while you make the chai glaze.
  

To make the chai glaze:

• Pour the milk into a mug and add the chai tea leaves. Heat in the microwave for 20-30 seconds until steamy and piping hot. Stir the milk then place in the fridge to cool for 5 minutes.
  1 tablespoon Milk, 1 teaspoon Chai tea leaves
• Strain the infused milk into a mixing bowl and add the icing sugar. Mix together until you have a smooth icing. If the icing is too thick, mix in a drop more milk.
  40 grams Icing sugar
• Either pipe or drizzle the glaze on top of the cookies and allow to set.
  
• Meanwhile make yourself a warm cup of chai tea, then tuck in and enjoy!

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