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Chai Spiced Snowball Cookies are tender, buttery tea cakes that are flavored with the warm spices found in your favorite Chai tea. They’re a delightfully different addition to your holiday cookie tray and sure to be a family favorite.
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So far this year, my cookie tray will include Chocolate Crinkle Kiss Cookies, Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies, Soft Red Velvet Cookies With Cream Cheese Frosting (dangerously good!), and Pfeffernusse Cookies.
History Of The Christmas Cookie Tradition
Baking holiday cookies is a beloved Christmas tradition. Whether you bake to give cookies as gifts, or as part of a cookie exchange party, or just to leave these sweet treats out for Santa and the family holiday table, baking Christmas cookies dates back to the middle ages.
It’s thought that European monks in the middle ages made small cakes that could be stored in larders using spices such as cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and nutmeg.
Later in the 1600s, Dutch settlers brought the concept of Christmas cookies to the new world. The word ‘cookie’ comes from the Dutch word ‘Koeptje’, meaning small cakes.
The tradition further entrenched itself into the culture when importation laws changed in the late 1800s to the early 1920s and German cookie cutters infiltrated the US. Recipes to use these new gadgets became popular in cookbooks. Home cooks began making Christmas cookies to give as gifts and for their family’s holiday enjoyment. Thus a tradition was born.
Ingredients Needed For Chai Spiced Snowball Cookies
- Butter – I use salted butter in this recipe and always at room temperature.
- Powdered sugar – both in the cookie and to coat the cookies.
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Almond flour – use a fine ground almond flour, not almond meal.
- Black tea leaves – you can’t make chai-flavored cookies without tea. You can use either loose tea or tear open a couple of teabags.
- Ground cardamom, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves – all the warm, delicious spices found in chai tea. It’s a lot of different spices, but this cookie is SO worth it!
- Ground black pepper and salt – yes, black pepper. It adds just a tiny bit of heat. Trust me, it’s delicious.
Steps To Make This Recipe
This cookie recipe is great to make with the kids because it’s pretty easy and they’ll love rolling the dough into balls.
- Cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla.
- Whisk together the flour, almond flour, tea leaves, all the spices, salt, and pepper.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture.
- Roll the dough into balls and bake.
- Stir together powdered sugar and cinnamon.
- Roll the warm baked cookies in the powdered sugar mixture and allow them to cool
- Finally, roll the cooled cookies in the powdered sugar mixture one last time.
Chai Spiced Snowball Cookies
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: Makes 3 dozen 1x
Description
Chai Spiced Snowball Cookies are tender, buttery tea cakes that are flavored with the warm spices found in your favorite Chai tea. They’re a delightfully different addition to your holiday cookie tray and sure to be a family favorite.
Ingredients
1 cup butter, room temperature
½ cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup fine almond flour
2 tablespoons good quality black tea leaves, very finely ground
1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
⅛ teaspoon salt
For rolling:
1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla together until fluffy.
While the butter and sugar are creaming, whisk together in a large bowl, the all-purpose flour, almond flour, tea leaves, spices, black pepper, and salt.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix on low sped until just combined.
Use a medium cookie scoop to make 1-inch balls.
Place on the prepared baking sheet 1-inch apart.
Bake in the preheated oven for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned.
Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes.
Whisk the powdered sugar and cinnamon together in a shallow bowl.
Carefully roll each cookie in the powdered sugar and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Repeat with the remaining cookies.
When all the cookies are cooled completely, roll each cookie again in the powdered sugar mixture.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 weeks or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Indian
Keywords: chai spiced snowball cookies, holiday cookies, Christmas cookies, snowball cookies, chai spice, tea cakes
