I recently was away for a couple weeks in Hawaii, so I have a reasonable excuse for slacking on writing a new blog post!  :)  I thought I’d better get a head start on ‘Christmas’ baked goods, as the Winter season is coming real quick.  The recent cold weather just made me want to cozy up in doors with a hot cup of tea.  Based on this, I got inspired to bake some shortbread cookies infused with Chai Tea leaves!  #yum  I used a simple and easy shortbread recipe from ‘Butter’ baking book that I got from my mom last Christmas.  I just tweeked the recipe by adding in 1 tablespoon of loose Chai Tea leaves that I bought from the grocery store.  The book had a suggestion to use Earl Grey tea leaves, but I really like the spices and herbs that are in Chai Tea leaves so I stuck with that and boy did it taste good!  I opted to do some cookies with sprinkled sugar tops and some without.  Personally I enjoyed the non sprinkled tops, but in the office a lot of my coworkers opted for the sugared tops and came back for more. :)  Another easy idea would be to half dip the shortbread cookies into chocolate, mmmmm.  Definitely a recipe I’ll keep for future use.  It is SUPER easy to make and requires only 5 ingredients!

Recipe (small 1 1/2″ cookie cutter = 50 cookies)

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup icing powder
1 tablespoon chai tea loose leaves
2 1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons vanilla
granulated sugar for sprinkling (optional)

PREHEAT: oven to 350 degrees

CREAM: together butter and icing powder on medium to high speed until light and fluffy.  Then add in loose tea leaves into the creamed mixture and blend together.

COMBINE: flour to the mixture (mix on low) and blend until dough is just combined.  Lastly add vanilla to the mixture and blend.  Don’t forget to scrape down those sides as you combine the mixture!

ROLL & STENCIL: lightly flour table top before rolling out the shortbread, aim for 1/4″ thickness.  Pick your stencil and start cutting out your preferred shortbread shapes.

BAKE & SPRINKLE: for 15 minutes on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.  While the cookies are still warm, sprinkle granulated sugar over the tops then remove to cool on a wire rack.  Enjoy!

#RecipeTags
#ChaiTea
#Shortbread
#Winterbaking