Island Tea Recipes

There is certainly nothing wrong with a basic snickerdoodle, but sometimes we love a little bit more zip. If you do a search on Chai Snickerdoodles a number of recipes will come up, but we've increased the amount of the classic chai spices in this recipe and incorporated some of them right into the dough. This layering of spices both inside and out enriches the cookie flavor. We also added a bit of fresh ground black pepper, often found in chai blends. Pepper brings out the other spices, while barely adding a perceptible flavor of its own. Add more if you like pepper, or less if you don't.

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tbsp ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
1 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour (if using whole wheat, we recommend spring wheat or pastry flour)
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, combine sugar and spices; remove 1/2 cup of this mixture and set aside in a small, shallow bowl.Add butter to bowl and cream with sugar and spice mixture until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, add vanilla extract. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, cream of tartar and baking soda. Add to sugar mixture and stir until fully incorporated.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in reserved sugar-spice mixture. Place on baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between balls to allow for spreading. Bake for about 12 minutes, until edges are firm to the touch, but not quite browned. Cool for a minute or two on the baking sheet, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Tip: Chilling dough will make it easier to handle. Mix one day and bake the next, or shape into balls and freeze for later use. Baking from frozen just requires an extra minute or two.