Warning!
This chai spiced shortbread is an amazing little cookie. I will get to them in a minute, but first…a trip to CVS. About two weeks ago, I was having the mother of all allergy attacks. As we were out of medication and Dave is the best, he went to CVS to hook me up.
As you may know, some allergy and cold medications aren’t just for the sniffles anymore. You may remember this from a number of episodes from either Justified or Breaking Bad. Well, Dave looked at several boxes checking to see if they had been tampered with, and found an unsullied box.
Or, so he thought.
I opened the box, shook out the tabs, and 3 dropped into my palm. There should have been 5. Um, what the what? I have some questions:
- Who’s stealing just 2 tabs per box?
- When do they have time to open box, remove pills, and carefully tape the box shut?
- Who brings tape to a robbery?
- Are they stealing the tape, as welI? Someone check the tape aisle!
My questions go answered. Plus, I guess Dave’s skills at checking med boxes is right up there with L.A. knowing how to have some decent Fall weather (it will be 90 degrees this Saturday…sigh). No worries.
He’s good at other things.
On the other hand, it’s ridiculous when one is required to be good at box-checking when their best friend is home sick. Again, no worries. I took the pills and recouped with a cup of hot tea and some chai spiced shortbread. These cookies warm you up with the peppery notes of cardamom and the warming effects of cinnamon. I dipped them in a cardamom-cinnamon glaze to double-up on flavor. Get crazy and dip them in a chai tea latte for that triple chai effect.
Me? I’ll enjoy them while sitting in front of a high-powered window fan…’cause if I can’t have Fall weather-wise, I will most definitely have it in my snack.
Recipe for Cardamom Cinnamon Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
4 teaspoons water
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of cardamom
Recipe for Chai Spiced Shortbread
Recipe for Chai Spiced Shortbread inspired by the kitchn
- 1 heaping teaspoon orange zest
- ⅓ cup sugar, 67 grams
- ½ butter, room temperature, 113 grams
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1¼ cup flour, 151 grams
- ½ teaspoon cardamom
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon anise, crushed in a grinder
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- Combine flour, cardamom, cinnamon, anise, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Place sugar and orange zest in a mixer bowl. Smash the sugar and zest with the back of a spoon until the sugar becomes moist and fragrant.
- Add softened butter to the bowl. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add flour mixture and mix until just combined.
- Place dough between two pieces of parchment paper, roll ~1/3in thick and freeze for 10-15 minutes. There's no need to flour the parchment.
- Use an 11/2 inch square to cut out cookies. Re-roll scraps and repeat process.
- Place cookies on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.
- Remove cookies and let cool on rack.
- Glaze cookies, if desired (See Notes).
- Store cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
just happened upon your blog via foodgawker – your photos are beautiful!
also noticed that you don’t have the butter in the list of ingredients for this recipe – just thought you would like to know it is missing.
Tammy! Thanks so much for your compliments and the heads up on the recipe mistake. I’m on it! Happy Baking!
I love anything spiced with cardamom. The ingredients sound like they make a perfectly spiced and delicate cookie! I’ll add them to my Christmas baking list!
Please do, Emily. They’re quite fantastic and keep very well in the frig and freezer. Happy Baking!
These cookies are so pretty! I have the dough in the freezer chilling as I type…I re-read the instructions several times, but I didn’t see the step where the flour mixture is added it to the butter. I figured it was added after creaming so that’s what I did : ) just thought you should know…Cheers!
Faye recently posted…Maple Bacon Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie Bars with Pecan Shortbread Crust
Oh my goodness, Faye. I must’ve been sleep deprived when I posted this recipe. So many mistakes! Thanks for the heads up, though. You’re very kind. I love these cookies and I think you will too. Let me know how they turn out. Happy Baking!
Ha, no worries at all. LOVED them! I am sharing the recipe for my Creative Cookie Exchange post with a few modifications. Thanks again for sharing this great recipe!
Faye recently posted…Maple Bacon Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie Bars with Pecan Shortbread Crust
Hello Ms. Mondo! Looks delish. But. . . Half a cup of butter or half a stick? Guessing cup, but want to make sure.
I was so tickled to come across this recipe for chai cookies. I’m not sure why, but for quite a long time, ever since the chai flavor began becoming popular nationwide I assumed it was a hot flavor as in heat from chili peppers, Tabasco, and so forth, you get the idea. I don’t do heat in my food. Well last winter I arrived at an area supermarket and it was a cold and damp just plain miserable day and thankfully the supermarket had their “coffee counter” (whatever they call it), some little pretend coffee shop in the grocery store open. Since I have to eat gluten free I couldn’t have any of the goodies but when looking at the hot beverages I noticed a chai tea. I thought, what the heck, I’ll give it a try. WOW….WHERE have you been all my life is how I felt. All that time wasted in having the wrong impression of this spice. Since then I’m enjoying it anyway I can. Now I will be making these for others as listed and I’m going to try a gluten free flour substitution mix, most likely one from King Arthur Flour and see how they do gluten free for me. I do have one question however. I see you have listed as the yield as 8. I’m assuming you mean 8 servings. I’m hoping you mean 8 servings and not 8 cookies. What I need to verify is the quantity of cookies. Is it only 8 cookies and if not, if its 8 servings, what’s this total. I have no clue how many cookies in a serving. thanks