Cookies

[Linda I LIght]

I know we tried this topic a couple of months ago but I just had a pre-Christmas baking day with a friend, we tried a few recipes to see if they were ones that we wanted to repeat for the holidays. I found this recipe for "Chai Tea Cookies" and they are a great spice cookie( you might have to like cardamon, but my friend never tasted it before and loved the cookies), but I thought I would share the recipe with everyone. If anyone tries them please give me your feedback.Thanks, Linda

Chai Tea Cookies

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cardamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup NESTEA Unsweetened Instant 1oo% Tea
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs coarse or 2 tsp granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degreesF. Lightly grease baking sheets ( I didn't, I just used nonstick ones)
Combine flour, cardamon, ginger and salt in small bowl. Beat brown sugar, granulated sugar and butter in small mixer bowl until combined. Beat in Nestea, egg and vanilla until creamy.
Gradually stir in flour mixture. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle with corse sugar.
Bake for 9 to 10 minutes or until centers are set and edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

[Beth]

How much do you taste spice, and how much do you taste the tea? I like spice cookies, but 1/4 cup of instant tea sounds weird to me. Not that I don't like tea, I've probably downed a gallon on some summer days.

[Natasha]

Thanks, Linda, I think I will make these for my mother (a real tea jenny if ever there was one!).
I think the tea will lend a different flavor without being overpowering. I make pumpkin tea muffins once every couple of years - in the fall, of course - and they have a hint of tea flavor, but not too much. That recipe uses hot tea, though, and I will try using hot tea for this one too. I will definitely let you know how it turns out.

[Linda I LIght]

In response to Beth's questions: The spice flavor is noticable but definately not overpowering, the tea is not detected as such but creates a unique taste. Give them a try and you will be very pleasantly suprised.
To Natasha: Let me know how your variation works and please post your recipe for the pumpkin tea muffins, they sound GREAT.

[Beth]

Linda, I found myself thinking about these cookies as I was pouring some iced tea today. I think the tea/spice combination would be interesting as long as the tea flavor wasn't too strong. Thanks for sharing something different.

[Mamasue]

Oh, my....I love Chai tea...have a cup just about every night! Also cardamon is one of my favorite spices as most of you know, so I am making a copy of this recipe and will try it real soon. I may take Natasha's idea and use hot tea because I don't have or use NESTEA tea. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

[Natasha]

Hi!
Well, I made these today. I gave a batch to my mother and she really liked them. I should mention that she is not only a tea freak, but a chai tea freak! We all enjoyed them, in fact - they are unusual-tasting but good, provided that you like spiced tea, I think. I ground the cardamon fresh, which means that they had quite a tang to them (in a good way).
One thing I should mention - I needed to add much more flour than the recipe called for. I know this wasn t because I used cooled regular tea, because the dough was runny from the getgo (more like cake batter). But I just added more flour as needed, and it turned out fine. The cookies turned out quite puffy and smooth on top - how about yours?
Thanks again, Linda! Pumpkin tea muffin recipe coming up shortly...
Mamasue, you really should try these!

[This message has been edited by Natasha (edited 10-12-2000).]

[Mamasue]

Natasha,

I am going to try to bake these this weekend and wondering if I could use cooled chai tea in place of NESTEA or regular tea. Do you think that it would make the cookies too spicy? I have chai tea bags and also Oregon liquid chai tea that you add equal milk to. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[Natasha]

Good morning, Mamasue!

I think that if you add chai tea instead of regular, you might find the cookies a bit too spicy. At least I think I would, since they were already quite spicy. But I do like the idea! What about using chai tea and just slightly decreasing the 1 tsp of cardamon in the batter?

[cookingmonkey]

I made these as well and ended up adding a lot more flour. I got the same results as posted above. I was wondering if perhaps the recipe calls for the actual powder granules rather than the liquid tea. (I used ginger tea because it was all i had.) I think perhaps I will try it with the powder rather than the liquid this weekend. The cookies came out alright, but I thought the spices could be a little stronger in flavor. I think the addition of so much flour really muted them. Any thoughts from those who tried them?

[Grace]

I don't know, but the way I read the recipe was that it called for Nestea INSTANT tea - not brewed tea, which I translated to mean the powder, not a 1/4 cup of liquid tea. Like when you add instant coffee granules to some cakes, etc. I'm sure that's why you all had to add extra flour....

But these cookies look good - I may try them soon myself!

[Linda I LIght]

When I read the recipe I took it to mean instant tea as well, so I picked up the Nestea instant and they were great, but bumpy not smooth on top. I think maybe with the liquid tea you do need to addd more spices as well as flour. Thank you all for being so adventerious and trying these.

[Mamasue]

I made these cookies today before I read all the posters after my reply and was disappointed. As I was making these cookies I said to myself, I wonder if the recipe was read wrong and the NESTEA should be powder. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif Sure enough that was my problem and now I will diffenetly try the recipe again and experiment with a powdered chai tea instead of the liquid chai tea which I did. The cookie had a good flavor with the chai tea; also less cardamon but the batter had the consistency of pancake batter and looked like pancakes after they were baked.

I learned my lesson here and will try again....sorry Linda. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

[This message has been edited by Mamasue (edited 10-13-2000).]

[Natasha]

DUH! Do I feel stupid! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/redface.gif Can you tell that I have never bought instant powdered iced tea?

Mamasue,
I hope I didn t mislead you! Sorry you were disappointed. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/frown.gif As I said in an earlier post, my dough was too runny even before the tea ever came into the picture...anyway, hope you enjoyed the flavor of the cookies and will experiment again! I plan to keep making them with liquid tea and will just adjust the flour and spices as needed.

[This message has been edited by Natasha (edited 10-13-2000).]

[Natasha]

Hmmm, I think you're right about the powder vs. prepared tea. But my dough was very runny even before I added the tea, so even if I had used powder, I probably would still have needed some extra flour. I will have to experiment some more, I guess. Another thing I may do next time is add some more spices to the batter.

[Missi]

Natasha--
Could you post the pumpkin tea cookie recipe??? I think I'd like to try those as well.

I think I will try these Chai cookies now some of you have worked out the kinks in the recipe!!!!!!! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[cookingmonkey]

Ok so i tried these again. However, instead of usung the Nestea, I added real Chai tea that you brew with milk. I decreased it from 1/4 cup of tea to 2 TB of the chai and omitted the spice from the flour mixture (god forbid I actually follow a recipe http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif ) I did, however, end up adding 1/4 tsp more cardamon because I think it is a wonderful spice and highly under used. Well, they were worth the second try. They turned out so good, while baking in the oven, they woke my SO up and drew him into the kitchen! Thank you so much for posting a great and very different recipe.

[Mamasue]

Natasha dear...you did not mislead me. I read the recipe the same way you did and thought it was liquid NESTEA. But I will try these again with the powdered chai tea that I also love which is manufactured by Trader Joe's (this one you add water to and is delish). For the cookies though I will just use the powder and 1/2 tsp of cardamon (fresh grounded). http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif