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These Chai Chocolate Chip cookies are loaded with chai masala spices and melty dark chocolate chunks. These cookies are soft and fudgy with crisp edges. Similar to my cozy chocolate chip cookies this recipe is easy to prep in 15 minutes and it mades a TON of cookies. It freezes well so make a double batch to enjoy during to holidays with a cup of Homemade Hot Chocolate.
As soon as the weather starts to cool down even a little bit, I’m making these Chai Snickerdoodles, Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. They make your home smell warm and cozy as they bake and all of these recipes make a ton cookies. You can give them as gifts or keep an emergency stash in the freezer!
Ingredients You’ll Need for Chai Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chai Masala – A mix of ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, allspice, and freshly ground black pepper gives these cookies all the flavors of a cup of chai.
- Butter – Instead of creaming the butter with the sugar, it’s first melted to give the cookies a soft and fudgy middle.
- Sugar – A mix of brown and white granulated sugar is essential to a soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie.
- Chocolate – I love to use chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips because they leave more pools of melty chocolate. Dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate will work perfectly here.
For the rest of the ingredients, please refer to the recipe index card below!
How To Make Chai Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Whisk dry ingredients and spices together in a medium bowl then set aside.
- Make the cookie dough – To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat together melted butter, brown and white sugar until fluffy, add eggs then vanilla extract. Pour in the flour mixture all at once, cover with a clean kitchen towel then continue mixing until you don’t see any more speckles of flour. Pour in chocolate and mix one more time.
- Chill cookie dough for at least 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit then line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Scoop out cookie dough onto a prepared baking sheet, leave a good amount space in between each one because these cookies will spread as they bake.
- Bake for 7 – 8 minutes or until they are light to medium brown. Sprinkle with salt then repeat with remaining cookies.
Tips and Tricks
- Make cookie dough in advance – You can make the dough and store in the fridge for up to 2 days tightly wrapped with plastic wrap.
- How to freeze cookie dough – Form cookie dough into balls, place on a sheet pan then freeze until very cold, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a freezer-safe bag. Keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you’re ready, bake from frozen.
Recipe FAQs
Chai literally translate to “tea”. The spice mixture that’s in chai is called “chai masala”. If you wanted to make a cup of chai it would also include black tea, with these cookies it leans on the spices often found in the tea like ground cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves and allspice.
This depends on the recipe and what kind of texture you’re going for. For this recipe, you’ll use melted butter to give the middles a soft and fudgy texture while still keeping the exterior crisp.
Because we are using melted butter it won’t cream the same as if you are using softened butter. Your butter/sugar mixture should look fluffy after 3 minutes of beating with a mixer. It might look a little grainy, but that’s totally fine, as long as it you mix for the recommended amount of time.
More Holiday Recipes
Desserts
Chai Snickerdoodles
Holiday
Fluffy Gingerbread Rolls
Desserts
Alfajores (Peruvian Style)
Desserts
Homemade Mint Milano Cookies
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Chai Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Stand-up Mixer fitted with the paddle attachment
- 1 Medium cookie scoop
- 2 Sheet pans lined with parchment paper
Ingredients
Dry Mix:
- 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Wet Mix:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 12 ounces dark chocolate chunks
Instructions
- To a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, allspice, black pepper and salt together. Set aside.
- To the bowl of a stand-up mixer with the paddle attachment (you can also do this with a hand-mixer or by hand in a medium/large bowl), add the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat together until nice and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, until combined. Pour in the vanilla extract and beat once more.
- In one batch, add the flour. You will probably have to lift up the head part of your mixer to be able to add it all at once. Cover the mixer with a clean kitchen towel and turn it on low speed. Mix until the flour is mostly combined and then increase speed until you no longer see any flecks of flour. Pour in the chocolate chunks and mix one last time. Transfer the dough to the fridge to chill for an hour or up to 2 days.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out balls of dough. If it’s super chilled, you may need to push some dough into the scoop so it’s nice and compact and then release the lever. I like to add all the balls of cookie dough to a sheet of parchment versus scooping dough, as I bake.
- Transfer 6 to 7 balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them a part because these do spread. Place in the oven and bake for about 7 to 8 minutes. If the dough is super cold, it may need up to 10 minutes to bake. They should be light to medium golden brown. Sprinkle with a few pinches of salt upon exiting the oven. Repeat until you’ve baked all the cookies.
- To freeze, add the cookie dough balls to a baking sheet and stick in the freezer until very cold, about 20 minutes and then transfer to a freezer-safe plastic bag.
Notes
Tips and Tricks
- Make cookie dough in advance – You can make the dough and store in the fridge for up to 2 days tightly wrapped with plastic wrap.
- How to freeze cookie dough – Form cookie dough into balls, place on a sheet pan then freeze until very cold, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a freezer-safe bag. Keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you’re ready, bake from frozen.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Arrowhead mills 1:1 gluten free. I’ll be trying it with some of your other recipes, i’m a newly diagnosed celiac!
I’ve made this recipe twice now, subbing a 1:1 Gluten free blend and they come out amazing! I am flabbergasted that i have the self control to throw half in the freezer but its so nice to be able to grab a few out when we want a cookie!
Oh that’s wonderful to hear. What brand of gluten-free flour blend are you using? Just curious!
These are SO GREAT! Thank you so much for the RAD inspired recipe!! You are one of the few people who’s choc chip cookie recipe bakes TRUE to how you intended and your pics look! We ate them warm and help but use foul language to punctuate HOW EFFING YUMMY they are! 🙂 Making this a fall tradition in my single Mom home! Your blog is brilliant, your work is amazing, you rule! If you’re promoting your book, hit me up, I’m an Exec Producer of a radio show and I also book talent on other radio shows in both L.A., S.F. and nationally! Love your vibe! 🙂 xx, @crissycrissybobissy
Something about the texture of these cookies looks just perfect. Also, I just love the photos on your site. Especially love all the cookware and “props”— always so classy and so beautiful!
Masala-chai spices in a cookie batch? What a great idea! I love the vibrant chocolate chips and soft doughey-ness of each cookie. Also, I am in TOTAL fall mode–pumpkin spice EVERYTHING FOR ME!!!
These cookies are soooooo delish!!!! Gone in less than a day!! Love how u add tips and explanation for y u do things ( in the original cc cookie recipe). Thanks!!
Ok…. it’s a hit! I’m having them with tea, my mother in law with water & my son just shoveling in. I was afraid the spices might be too much for him but it’s very mild, tasty.
And by the way….was looking for an apple pie recipe and this recipe distracted me! I was craving chocolate chip cookies anyway. But I bought a bunch of apples to make a pie. I’ll continue my search now thank you.
Thank you for this. I’m going try it and see how my 12 year old likes it. And as for Thanksgiving… I like classics but like to mix up a new dessert, change up my cranberrry sauce, try a new veggie.
These Chai Chocolate Chip Cookies sound so interesting yet SO good… I can’t wait to try them!! Thanks for sharing love!
x Sabrina
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