I love using spices in my cooking, both savoury and sweet. This week I had the idea of using aromatic chai spices in a delicious sweet cookie. I took my flavour inspiration from this recipe on My Baking Addiction for the spicing in these cookies and the basic cookie recipe was from one I’ve used successfully before. Crispy on the outside and a gooey centre, these treats are best eaten warm with a cup of tea. They keep for a few days if you pop them in a sealed container…that is if they last that long!

Chai Spiced Cookies  

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 7 – 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 135g butter, softened
• 100g light brown soft sugar
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• 225g gluten free self-raising flour (I used Doves Farm)
• ½ tsp salt
  
  

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with non stick baking paper.

Microwave the butter a little to soften it, but not so much it melts. This will make it easier to mix. Add both the sugars and mix well, then mix in the egg and the vanilla paste.

Mix together the flour, salt and spices then sift in the mix a little at a time, stirring in between until it’s all combined.

Roll the mix into walnut sized balls and lay them on the baking tray. (at this stage you can freeze the mix if you don’t want to bake all of the cookies)

Bake for 7 minutes, this will give you a soft doughy cookie. If you prefer I slightly chewier cookie bake for a further 3 minutes, until the cookies start to brown a little on the edges.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool, they are really good eaten warm but you need to let them set a little before you can pick them up.