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SUUUP! Here we are staring at this beautiful plate of Masala Chai Chocolate Chip Cookies.
I’m in big-time fall mode, cooking up as many things as I can for Thanksgiving. This year I really want to BRING IT. But oddly enough, I’m kind of a classics girl when it comes to Thanksgiving. I want classic Thanksgiving. Classic pumpkin pie sounds nice! I kinda don’t like too many crazy twists.
Are you in the twists, weird interesting Thanksgiving foods?
OR,
Are you a classic Thanksgiving foods human?
Leave a comment below.
If you’re a classics, maybe I’ll do a whole post on making suuuuper fluffy potatoes. Maybe I’ll try and make the BEST classic Thanksgiving stuffing everrrr.
It would actually be fun content to create either way!
OK, let’s talk about these cookies because these scream fall. My friend, Matt, works in one of those hip cool communal workspaces in New York and he texted me a few months ago and was like CHAI CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES.
Apparently a baker drops off chai chocolate cookies to his workspace and he was obsessed wit them. I though the sound of chai in chocolate chip cookies sounded AMAZING…so here we are.
These are wonderfully spiced, super chocolate-y and the texture is so good.
Basically these are my cozy chocolate chip cookies but with spices. That’s it really!
Let’s talk about Chai Masala/Chai/Masala Chai!
I won’t take credit for knowing this info. It all came from my friend Tara O’Brady. But she really broke it down for me.
Chai literally translates to tea. So if you say, “I’m having chai tea,” you’re basically saying “tea” twice.
When referring to the spice mixture that’s in chai, it’s called “chai masala.”
Chai Masala is the spice used in spiced tea. It’s similar to pumpkin spice–it doesn’t imply that there’s pumpkin inside.
With these cookies, it’s called Chai Masala because it doesn’t have any tea inside, but instead leans on the spices often found in the tea. Does this make sense?
These Chai Masala Chocolate Chip cookies are so delicious and perfectly spiced. All those spices work wonderfully with dark chocolate chunks.
Chai Chocolate Chip Cookies + A Question?
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.
I’m gluten free, so I adapted this and it turned out GREAT!!
For the flour: 1 cu. oat flour; the rest all purpose GF by Cup4Cup. (I wouldn’t do ALL Cup4Cup, or the cookies might turn out mealy. I’ve found this to be a great GF flour when it’s not the only flour)
For the sugar: I have sugar phobia, so I did maple sugar as a substitute for the brown sugar plus 1 TBLS. honey. Maple sugar is a great brown sugar substitute, but it can make for a drier consistency–hence the honey. I did use white sugar as recommended. It’s okay to live a little 🙂 🙂
These turned out with great texture and flavor!
I baked one sheet and will freeze the rest of the dough for later.
Ooo! Thank you for the tips and suggestions! I will give them a try!
I made this recipe because I was in a Fall baking mood and testing some recipes for the holidays. I see exactly why there are such great reviews for this recipe because they are good! I brought some of the extras to work and my coworkers all loved them. I will definitely keep this recipe in my arsenal especially for Fall.
Wow! Just made these using vegan butter (were a dairy free home) and theyre easily my favorite cookie now. Theyre so spicy and sweet I can’t get enouvh
So, the second i put the scooped batter in the oven, it flattened like a pancake and morphed into 1 giant cookie. Once they came out of the oven, they were so flat that they were falling through my drying rack. I think it was because the recipe calls for melted butter instead of whole sticks. Other than that, they tasted amazing haha.
definitely shouldn’t have done that despite using melted butter. did you chill them for the recommended amount of time?
Amazing!! To me, they taste like a perfect cross between a Christmas cookie and a chocolate chip cookie! These have officially landed in the “you cannot make these for a long time, they’re too good” category in my house!!
DELICIOUS!
This recipe looks fabulous. Can I add canned pumpkin and rolled oats? I’m not sure how I would add in the additional ingridients without messing up the cookies. Thank you.
unfortunately i have no idea. i didn’t test it that way. i have a feeling that would completely mess up the ratios in the cookie.
Tasty! It’s like gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies rolled up in one.
Noticing that your chips look exceptional (large pastilles and Dark!) and I’ve discovered I have strong feelings about which chips I prefer – please share which brand these chips where, thank you so much! Just discovered your blog and I love it!
Hi! This is my first time on your blog and I’ve already looked at 5 recipes in 5 minutes. Very excited!! Loving it!! I’ve never made a chai drink from scratch but have always wanted to. It just seems so daunting. But these cookies make me want to whip up a batch of them however not without serving some special chai tea with it. Something that competes with a chai latte at your favorite local coffee shop. If you have that or know a good recipe for it, please let me know! Very excited to try this. All the best to you. And thank you!
There’s a recipe in my book for homemade chai! It’s not hard at all but it does require some spices (all of which you can reuse!)!