Serves 36 cookies
Ingredients
I’ll venture a guess that you’ve probably made Russian Tea Cakes, or Mexican Wedding Cakes. Well, these cookies are that, but with Indian chai spice!
I’ve used whole, blanched, almonds that I ground in the Cuisinart. But I would imagine that for convenience sake you could use the equivalent amount of almond meal.
Inspired by a recipe for Chai-Spiced Almond Cookies from Epicurious, I came up with my recipe after researching several other recipes, and combined the best of them all. I’ve created my own chai spice blend as well. You’ll have more spice blend than you need, but then, I think you’ll be making this cookie again, perhaps soon!
Ingredients
1 cup softened butter (two sticks)
½ cup powdered sugar
1 ½ tbsp. chai spice blend (see below)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. almond extract
¼ tsp. salt
2 cups flour
1 cup (5 oz.) whole almonds, ground, or substitute 1 heaping cup almond meal
Powdered sugar for rolling
Directions
Directions
Place the softened butter and ½ cup powdered sugar into the mixing bowl. Cream until smooth, then add the spice blend, vanilla and almond extract, and salt. Mix until blended, then add flour and almonds. Dough should come together smoothly.
Roll into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes, until just set. The bottom of the cookie should be very pale, not brown! If your cookies are smaller, or bigger, baking time will need to be adjusted.
Remove to cooling rack. When cookies have cooled a bit, but are still warm, roll in powdered sugar to coat. Let cool completely, then roll in powdered sugar one more time to make them look real pretty!
Pro tip: I like to roll them in the second coating of powdered sugar right before I serve them, so they look very fresh. If you’re like me, and have a shaker full of powdered sugar, you can just shake sugar all over them to give them a fresh coat instead of rolling them again.
Chai spice blend
Makes about ¼ cup
1 ½ tbsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. ginger
1 tbsp. cardamom
½ tsp. cloves
½ tsp. finely ground black pepper
½ tsp. nutmeg
Blend all spices thoroughly and store in a small container.
Country:
India
Notes and Instructions
Recipe and photo credit: Linda McElroy