Saturday, October 18, 2008

Chai Shortbread Cookies

These little cookies are spiced with cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper to remind you of chai tea. I'm not a fan of plain shortbread or sugar cookies - I need something to make it interesting and these fit the bill perfectly. I found the original recipe in Cooking Light Magazine (December 2007). I decided they needed more spices and so I doubled the amounts called for in the recipe. I have been very happy with the results. One caution - make sure your pepper is finely ground and don't use more than 1/8 tsp ground pepper. It really sticks out if you get too much or the pieces are too large. If you aren't sure how much spice you like, you can half the amounts shown here and work up from there to your taste.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup powdered sugar
10 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tbs ice water
  • Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups and level with a knife. Whisk together flour and next five ingredients (through pepper). Place sugar and butter in a medium bowl and beat with mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until combined (mixture will appear crumbly). Sprinkle dough with 1 tbs ice water, toss with a fork. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a log about 6 inches long. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and chill about 1 hour, or until very firm.
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Unwrap dough logs. Cut each log into 18 slices using a serrated knife. Place slices 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Cool on pans for 5 minutes before moving to cooling racks, allow to cool completely. Makes 36 cookies. Each cookie is 55 calories (3.2 g fat).



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