Tea Sugar Snickerdoodles

Ever since I started working in Savory Spice Shop’s test kitchen, my recipe repertoire has expanded ten-fold. Not all of the recipes we test are fabulous and we only publish the really good ones. But there are definitely a handful that are just plain great. These are the ones that I know I’ll keep making over and over again at home.

This is one of those recipes: A simple butter and sugar cookie rolled in a sugar that’s mixed with your choice of ground tea, herbs or spices. The prep couldn’t be simpler; you don’t even need a mixer. You just need a little imagination when it comes to how you want to flavor the cookies.

Shantelle works as a spice merchant at Savory Spice Shop’s Platte Street store in Denver, Colorado. She also works with me once a month in Savory’s test kitchen. This mouthwatering cookie is Shantelle’s fabulous recipe that I adapted ever so slightly by making few different tea-inspired sugars to roll the cookies in: Chai, Lavender and Spearmint. In each case, I used ground spices or herbs mixed with white granulated sugar to create tea sugar of sorts. My Earl Grey Tea Sugar recipe would also make a great rolling sugar for these cookies.

According to Shantelle, the dough freezes very well, so you could make big batches to bake later. But when my niece and I made these the other day, we ate all the remaining dough while the rest of the cookies were baking. Oh, well. I know I’ll be whipping these up again soon.

Happy cooking and sipping!

Tea Sugar Snickerdoodles

 (Adapted from Savory Spice Shop’s recipe for Snickerdoodles Done Right.)

Makes 1 to 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

For the cookies:

¼ cup butter, at room temperature

½ cup loosely packed brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of kosher salt

For the tea sugar:

¼ cup granulated sugar

*Plus one of the following:

• Lavender: 4 teaspoons dried lavender flowers, ground
• Spearmint: 4 teaspoons dried spearmint, ground
• Chai: 3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice + 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

*Consider making all three of the various rolling sugars to have a batch (or more) of snickerdoodles with different flavors to choose from.

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, combine butter and sugars. Using a stiff spatula, stir and paddle the ingredients until uniformly combined. Add egg and whisk rapidly until combined into butter mixture.

2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking power and a three-finger pinch of salt. Fold flour mixture, in a few batches, into butter mixture until completely incorporated.

3. In a small, shallow bowl, stir together ingredients for the tea sugar until spice is uniformly distributed into sugar.

4. Scoop out teaspoon or tablespoon size pieces of dough (depending on the size cookie you want to end up with) and roll each scoop in the tea sugar. Place them about 2 to 3 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. If you want them uniform, press each one down with a flat-bottomed pint glass or measuring cup.

5. Bake at 350 degrees until cooked through and edges are golden, about 10 to 15 min. Sprinkle with more sugar as they cool, if desired.

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