Chai-Spiced Cookies

Sense of Home Kitchen

We got an invitation to a gathering a couple weeks ago and after much thought I decided I would make these wonderfully spiced cookies to bring, along with my Cucumber, Tomato and Feta Salad.  I had the cookies baked and the ingredients purchased for the salad when my husband said to me, "that invitation is for next Saturday evening, not this Saturday".  Oh well, points for being ahead a week rather than behind, right?  I could have saved these in the freezer for next week, but then we started eating them and sharing them with friends, so now I will be coming up with something else to bring.

These cookies were created from the memory of how good my Lemon Butter Cookies were and the terrific spice in the Chai-Spiced Cheesecake recipe I tried.  I am in love with cardamon, I love its taste, smell, and even its green color; cardamon is the spice I think of when I think of chai.  I think it is funny that in India the chai tea spice is made up of whatever spices they have leftover, and for me it is spices that I specifically buy to make chai flavored recipes.  I added cinnamon to these cookies (it was not in the cheesecake recipe), but I did not want that spice to take over so I kept it to just a teaspoon.

Chai-Spiced Cookies
~Sense of Home Kitchen~

Makes 5 dozen

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamon
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter and sugar together, beat in the vanilla and eggs.  In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cardamon, cinnamon, allspice, and black pepper.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until combined.  Drop by teaspoons on a cookie sheet and bake for approximately 10 minutes until cookies are lightly browned.  Cool on rack and store in an air-tight container.


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