I have always loved butter cookies. A good butter cookie is tender, just a little crumbly and melts in your mouth. The flavor should be buttery (obviously) with just the right amount of sweetness. They are a total classic.
Today’s butter cookies are warmly spiced with a combination of cinnamon, all spice, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom and vanilla. You are going to love the warm flavors in these chai butter cookies, especially when they are paired with a big mug of coffee or hot cocoa.
Let’s get started…
Begin by gathering 1 1/8 cups of salted butter at room temperature, 1 large egg yolk, 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 2 2/3 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of all spice, 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg.
Start by combining 1 1/8 cups of room temperature butter with 1 cup of confectioners sugar, an egg yolk, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract in a large bowl. The butter should be soft enough that your thumb will easily leave in an indent, but not so soft that your thumb pushes through the butter.
Use an electric hand mixer to beat the ingredients until they are fluffy, light and pale yellow in color.
To combine the dry ingredients, you can either whisk them together in a separate bowl or place them in a mesh sifter and sift them directly into the bowl with the butter mixture.
Use a flexible silicone spatula to combine the ingredients. At first, it may appear that the dough is too dry, but keep mixing, if you weighed the flour, it will come together. If you did not weigh the flour, there is a chance that you may need to add just a tiny splash of milk to bring the dough together. Only do this when you are absolutely certain that the dough is too dry.
Once the dough is combined, it needs to be refrigerated before you can roll it out. Place two long strips of plastic wrap on your counter and scoop half of the dough onto each piece. Tightly wrap the dough and transfer it into the refrigerator for about an hour or until the dough feels fairly firm to the touch.
Once the dough is chilled, leave 1 portion in the refrigerator and unwrap the other portion and transfer it onto either a floured surface or a large sheet of non-stick parchment paper. You can roll this dough out with a floured rolling pin or between two sheets of non-stick parchment paper, whichever you prefer.
Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch thickness (depending on how thick you want your cookies) and use a cookie cutter or biscuit cutters to cut out your cookies…
Transfer the cut out cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet. They can be placed about 1/2 inch apart as they are about to be chilled again, which will prevent them from spreading much during baking.
Transfer the baking sheet into the freezer and preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
While the cut out cookies are chilling and the oven is preheating, begin rolling and cutting the second portion of dough. If the dough feels too stiff to roll out, let it sit for a few minutes and try again.
When your oven is preheated to 325 degrees and the chilled cut out cookies feel firm to the touch, bake them on the center rack of the oven for about 10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are just beginning to turn very lightly golden brown.
Notes:
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- Be sure to freeze each batch of cut out cookies until firm before baking them or they will spread and loose their shape
- Do not over bake these cookies or they will dry out
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Once the cookies are baked, transfer them onto cooling racks. They are fabulous both warm and at room temperature and glazed or plain.
If you want to glaze them, you can melt down some white chocolate or combine some confectioners sugar with a splash of vanilla extract and whole milk until you have a “drizzle-able” consistency. Give the cookies a drizzle or dip their tops into the glaze and then sprinkle them with chai spice or pumpkin spice or apple pie spice… whatever spice combination that you love.
These cookies are so fabulous. Tender, buttery and full of the best warm, comforting spices.
You are going to love these beautiful chai butter cookies….
Chai Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/8 cups of salted butter (255 grams/18 tablespoons), room temperature
- 1 cup of confectioners sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 2 2/3 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoons of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of all spice
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
- white chocolate, melted (optional garnish)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine 1 1/8 cups of room temperature butter with 1 cup of confectioners sugar, an egg yolk, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- Use an electric hand mixer to cream the ingredients together
- In a separate bowl, sift 2 2/3 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of all spice, 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
- Add the dry ingredients in with the creamed butter mixture and mix until fully combined
- Place two sheets of plastic wrap onto the counter and divide the dough between the two sheets
- Wrap the dough tightly in the plastic wrap and chill the dough in the refrigerator for about an hour
- Working with one portion at a time, unwrap the dough and place it onto a lightly floured surface
- Roll the dough out to between 1/8-1/4 inch thickness
- Use cookie cutters to cut your desired shapes and transfer the cut out cookies onto parchment lined baking sheets
- Place the cut out cookies into the freezer while you preheat your oven to 325 degrees
- Repeat the process with the second portion of dough
- Once the oven is preheated, bake the chilled cookies for between 10-12 minutes or until their edges are just lightly golden
- Transfer the cookies onto cooling racks
- Glaze or drizzle, if desired and enjoy
- Store leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature
