Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies

Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies

These Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies are infused with the floral, black tea flavor of Earl Grey tea. The Earl Grey softens the bitterness of the dark chocolate, giving the cookies a unique, scented aroma. It’s the perfect recipe for tea lovers, and those who typically enjoy their coffee and tea with a side of something sweet. The best part? Like any good chocolate chip cookie, these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies are fudgy in the center, crisp on the edges, and filled with pools of melted chocolate.

Why You Should Make Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here are all the reasons to try this Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie recipe:

This Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie is a fun, new take on a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe.

One of my favorite fancy chocolate bars is a Belgian dark chocolate bar infused with Earl Grey tea. I remember stumbling across it at a fancy San Francisco grocery store years ago and being SO intrigued by its combination of flavors. Despite the fact that the chocolate bar cost $10, I bought it anyway. And I had no regrets. I loved the way the Earl Grey melded with the dark chocolate. The Earl Grey tea really complemented the deep, dark chocolate with floral notes.

That chocolate bar has since inspired many recipes in my kitchen. Like these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies! It’s no secret that I love chocolate chip cookies. But I especially love switching up their flavors, too. So I figured it was time to turn one of my favorite chocolate bars into a chocolate chip cookie!

This Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie recipe comes together quickly.

These Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies come together quickly. In fact, making the dough for these cookies only took me 10 minutes or so, with another 5 minutes to shape the dough into cookies themselves. The most time-consuming part of the recipe came from prepping the tea and butter. But with the right tools, it should take no time at all—learn more in the FAQ section below!

These Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies store well.

The best part? The cookies’ Earl Grey flavors deepen and become stronger with time. Although the cookies were plenty delicious on the day they were made, they tasted extra aromatic the next day! Why? It’s similar to how cookie dough tastes better when it’s chilled before baking. Time gives the flour more time to absorb flavors from the butter, sugar, and Earl Grey tea in this recipe.

Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients and Substitutions

Now that I’ve convinced you to make these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies, here’s your shopping list for the recipe:

• unsalted butter
• Earl Grey tea
• all-purpose flour
• baking powder
• baking soda
• kosher salt
• light OR dark brown sugar
• granulated sugar
• large eggs
• pure vanilla extract
• dark (between 60 to 70% cacao) chocolate, preferably from baking bars, discs, fèves, or wafers

And let’s talk about some of the recipe’s key ingredients and possible substitutions:

Earl Grey Tea

You need 1 Tablespoon finely ground Earl Grey tea to make these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies.

What is Earl Grey tea?

Earl Grey is a black tea blend that is flavored with bergamot orange oil. Bergamot oranges are a special type of orange with a very fragrant, flavorful peel. This peel is commonly used in flavors and perfumes. Unfortunately, beyond the peel, bergamot orange fruit isn’t great for food, flavor, or fragrance. It’s best to stick with eating regular orange varieties.

Earl Grey tea is especially popular in England, where the tea is frequently served with milk and sugar, or even just plain lemon. It is named for Charles Grey, a British Prime Minister in the 1830s, and is said to have originated from the London tea house Jacksons of Picadilly.

Does Earl Grey tea have caffeine?

Yes! Earl Grey tea has about the same amount of caffeine as black tea (which can have really variable caffeine levels). Why? Like I said above, Earl Grey is mostly just black tea that is flavored with bergamot orange peel or essence.

Is Earl Grey tea good for you?

Yes! In general, drinking black tea has many benefits. Studies have shown that tea can help with digestion and weight loss. Some teas even have specific calming benefits that help keep up energy levels and help prevent anxiety and depression. This Wikipedia article is a good summary of tea’s health benefits.

What is the best Earl Grey tea for these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies?

Okay, the best Earl Grey tea is a pretty high bar to clear. But my favorite Earl Grey tea is this Créme de la Earl Grey tea from Townshend’s Tea Company. It has a very distinct vanilla and cream flavor that other Earl Grey teas don’t have, in addition to a sprinkling of pretty blue cornflower blossoms. These are the blue flower petals that you see on my cookies! You can also buy the cornflower blossom petals individually online from Kalustyan’s (my favorite spice store in New York City).

All-Purpose Flour

You need 1 and ⅔ cup all-purpose flour to make these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies.

Does a 1-1 gluten-free all-purpose flour work in this Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie recipe?

I’m sorry, but I don’t know. I rarely bake with those types of flour replacements because they’re expensive and my household is fortunate not to have any gluten restrictions. However, if you replace the flour in this recipe with any gluten-free alternatives, please leave a comment so I can update this post accordingly!

That being said, if you’ve used a 1-1 gluten-free all-purpose flour replacer in another cookie recipe and liked the results, feel free to do so in this recipe, too! These Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies are made with a pretty standard cookie dough recipe that’ll probably be pretty similar to what you’ve made in the past with the replacers.

Brown Sugar

You need ¾ cup brown sugar to make these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies.

Light Versus Dark Brown Sugar

Brown sugar is granulated white sugar with a touch of molasses to give it its signature color and flavor. Because brown sugar contains molasses, it adds more moisture to baked goods than granulated sugar otherwise would. Brown sugar is available in two varieties: light or dark. Dark brown sugar contains more molasses and is more flavorful than light brown sugar.

Although I typically prefer dark brown sugar for chocolate chip cookie recipes, it can overwhelm the Earl Grey tea flavor in this recipe. So instead, I recommend using light brown sugar for these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies. However, if dark brown sugar is all you have, go for it! Your cookies will still be plenty tasty.

Can I use coconut sugar instead of brown sugar in these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies?

Technically yes, but I don’t recommend it. Why? Coconut sugar is made from the nectar produced by coconut blossoms (not actual coconuts), which is then boiled and ground to create a granular substance with a texture similar to brown sugar. Folks like to use it as a substitute for brown sugar because its natural toasted brown color and caramelized taste is similar to that of brown sugar.

But that being said, coconut sugar has the same neutral pH level as granulated white sugar. Brown sugar, on the other hand, is slightly acidic. This acidic quality allows the brown sugar to react with the baking soda in the recipe to leaven the cookies and create their unique texture. So if you use coconut sugar in place of brown sugar, your cookies will likely have a very different texture than mine.

Eggs

You need 1 large egg to make these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies.

I don’t eat egg because of allergies and/or my diet. What can I use instead of egg?

I’m sorry, but I don’t 100% know. In general, my specialty lies in creating baking recipes with conventional ingredients. If you’re looking for an eggless or vegan pancake recipe, I suggest checking out my friends Ashlae at Oh Ladycakes and Laura at The First Mess. Both of them specialize in vegan cooking and will be able to help you out better than I can!

That being said, if you’ve used flax eggs in chocolate chip cookie recipes before with success, it’s likely they’ll work in this recipe. Similarly, if you’ve used an egg replacer (like Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer) in other cookie recipes with success, it’ll also likely work in this recipe. Why? These Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies are made with a pretty chocolate chip cookie recipe that’ll probably be pretty similar to what you’ve made in the past with the replacers. 

However, since I’ve never tried the substitutions myself, I cannot 100% guarantee the results. So if you replace the egg in this recipe with any of the options I provided, please leave a comment so I can update this post accordingly!

Chocolate

You need 6 ounces dark chocolate (preferably from baking bars, discs, fèves, or wafers) to make these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies.

Dark Chocolate versus Bittersweet and Semisweet Chocolate

In the United States, there’s no official benchmark for the “bittersweet” and “semisweet” chocolate designations. It’s up to manufacturers to determine how much cocoa to use, and percentages will vary greatly from brand to brand. Technically, both bittersweet and semisweet chocolate are considered dark chocolate… but you never know. Because of this, I advise you to ignore these bars and stick with a dark chocolate that lists its cocoa percentage.

Okay, what chocolate did you use to make these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies?

For these cookies, I used Valrhona’s Caraïbe 66% dark chocolate fèves. You can buy them online and/or at select Whole Foods Market locations.

Wait, what are chocolate fèves? Are they the same thing as chocolate baking discs and wafers?

Chocolate fèves are a fancy pastry school term for a flat, bean-shaped disc of chocolate. When baked in a cookie recipe, the fèves don’t hold their shape (similar to how chocolate chips typically do) and instead melt into puddles. These puddles give your cookies thin layers of chocolate throughout every bite. The most prominent maker of chocolate fèves is one of my favorite chocolate makers, Valrhona Chocolate. 

Unfortunately, as much as I love Valrhona chocolate, their chocolate fèves can be hard to find at your average grocery store. I typically buy Valrhona products online at Amazon, King Arthur Baking Company, or Valrhona’s online store. But if you don’t want to buy online, rest assured that other chocolate makers make similar products. Notably, Guittard Chocolate Company makes chocolate wafers. These wafers are similar to fèves, but more circular in shape. I’ve seen Guittard chocolate wafers at select Safeway, Target, and Whole Foods stores.

Do I really need to use fèves?

If there’s one thing I want you to take away from my blog, it’s this: don’t skimp on chocolate. Most grocery store brands—even the ones that offer products specifically made for baking—contain all sorts of additives like paraffin wax and palm oil. These ingredients compromise the flavor and texture of your results. I’ve stopped using chocolate chips in 90 percent of my recipes, and my baked goods have tasted so much better as a result. 

What other chocolate do you recommend besides fèves?

If you can’t find fèves, I also recommend Guittard Chocolate Wafers (which are more readily available in most major supermarkets). If you’re on a budget, I recommend chopping up a Trader Joe’s Pound Plus bar or Ghirradelli baking chocolate bars instead of chocolate chips. Chop up the chocolate into fairly large ½- to even 1-inch chunks. Doing so helps give you big chocolate puddles throughout the cookie. 

You can see the full list of the best chocolate for chocolate chip cookies in this post about the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe.

How To Make Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here are the basic steps to make Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies from scratch:

First, prep the butter.

1. First, melt the butter. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
   Place the butter in a small sauce pan and cook over medium-low heat to melt. It’s important to cook the butter gently and ensure that no water evaporates whatsoever. Otherwise, your cookies will turn out dry! At no point should the butter sizzle, crackle, or pop—lower the heat if that starts to happen.
   
   
2. Infuse the butter with Earl Grey tea. (Work Time: <1 minute)
   Once the butter is melted, remove the pan from heat. Immediately stir the Earl Grey tea into the butter. Set everything the whole thing aside to allow the tea to steep into the butter as you prep the rest of the ingredients.

Then, make and chill the cookie dough.

1. Make the cookie dough. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
   The cookie dough comes together really, really quickly. First, whisk together the dry ingredients. Then, mix together the infused butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients, then the chocolate. That’s it!
   
   
2. Next, scoop the cookie dough into cookie dough balls and prep for chilling. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
   The fastest and easiest way to portion cookie dough is with a cookie dough scoop. Most cookie recipes work best with either a 3-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop (my personal fave for cookie recipes!) or a 4-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop. Use the scoop to portion the dough into cookie dough balls, placing the cookie dough balls on a lined sheet pan as you go.
   
   
3. Chill overnight.
   Once you’ve scooped the cookie dough onto the pan, loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate in the fridge overnight. Chilling the cookie dough overnight will strengthen the cookies’ otherwise subtle Earl Grey flavor. Alternatively, you can freeze the cookies for baking later. Check out the FAQ below for more information!

Finally, prep and bake the cookies.

1. Prep the cookies for baking. (Prep Time: <5 minutes)
   Before doing anything else, line two sheet pans with parchment paper. Take the cookies out of the refrigerator and place them on the sheet pans at least 3 inches apart. Then, position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat it to 350℉. Leave the cookies out at room temperature while the oven preheats. Doing so thaws the cookies slightly and will ensure that they spread properly when baked!
   
   
2. Bake the cookies. (Bake Time: 10 minutes)
   You need to bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges and bottoms of the cookies have set and feel firm to the touch. The centers should still look a little doughy—that’s totally normal, I promise! It’s the secret to perfectly chewy centers.

Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ

FAQ: Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients

Do I use looseleaf Earl Grey tea or Earl Grey tea from a teabag to make these cookies?

You can use either looseleaf Earl Grey tea or Earl Grey tea from a teabag to make these cookies! Truthfully, Earl Grey tea from a teabag is much easier to work with. It already comes pretty ground up! All you need to do is snip a couple of bags of Earl Grey tea open and measure out the 1 Tablespoon needed for these cookies. It takes approximately 3 tea bags to get 1 Tablespoon of ground Earl Grey tea.

However, I am loyal to my Earl Grey tea—Créme de la Earl Grey tea from Townshend’s Tea Company. Unfortunately, Townshend’s Tea only sells this tea as looseleaf tea. As a result, I had to do some extra work to grind the tea for this recipe. See more information below.

Like you, I’m using looseleaf Earl Grey tea for my cookies. How do I grind it up?

There are a handful of tools that you can use for the task:

• A manual spice grinder. Manual spice grinders are typically operated with a crank—simply place the ingredient in the grinder, and turn the crank to grind it. This is the one I own. It’s technically exclusively for black peppercorns, but I just use it for whatever spice I want because I’m a rebel without a cause, I guess.
  
  
• An electric spice grinder. One of my secret weapons in my kitchen is this electric spice grinder by Cuisinart. It is specifically made for grinding herbs and spices, and it is an absolute BEAST. It is so much less work than a manual spice grinder—I can have things like nutmeg, tonka beans, and cinnamon sticks fully powdered in less than 5 seconds. However, it doesn’t have the best ratings on Amazon. Why? The spice grinder bowl has a tendency to get stuck. Just make sure to store the machine disassembled and it shouldn’t be a problem!
  
  
• A coffee grinder. If you don’t own a spice grinder, you can use an electric coffee bean grinder to grind the lavender petals and/or the Earl Grey loose leaf tea. Just be sure to clean it thoroughly to rid it of its coffee flavors! Be sure to check out the section below on how to clean the coffee grinder before using for this recipe.
  
  
• A mortar and pestle. In a pinch, a mortar and pestle will do the trick. However, this is definitely the most labor intensive route of all the options.

I don’t have Earl Grey tea. Do I really need it to make these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies?

Errr… yes, you need Earl Grey tea to make Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies. In a pinch, you can technically omit the Earl Grey tea and end up with some pretty good chocolate chip cookies. However, your cookies won’t taste anything like Earl Grey tea unless you made them “bakery-style” with ingredients like bergamot oil or bergamot orange zest, too. See more information in the “Variation: Bakery-Style Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies” section.

FAQ: Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Techniques

Do I really need to melt the butter on the stovetop? Can’t I melt the butter in the microwave instead?

No, you don’t need to melt the butter on the stovetop. I just recommend doing so because it’s easier to see what’s going on! But yes, in a pinch, you can melt the butter in the microwave. Just be especially careful when doing so. Microwave the butter on low at intervals to prevent it from getting too hot. At no point should the butter sizzle, crackle, or pop. You don’t want any water to evaporate from the butter at all, or you’ll risk your cookie dough turning out too dry.

I recommend stopping the microwave process when the butter is 80% to 90% melted. At that point, there will still be a few small, solid pieces left. But no worries! Simply stir the butter with a fork until the pieces melt, too.

I’m way too impatient to wait for my cookies. Do I really need to chill the Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie dough overnight?

You technically can bake the cookies right away and end up with pretty tasty cookies. However, I don’t recommend it. Why? Your cookies probably won’t taste that much like Earl Grey tea, defeating the point of the recipe completely!

The recipe instructs you to chill the cookie dough overnight to allow the other ingredients in the recipe to absorb the flavor and oils from the Earl Grey tea. Even with this chilling period, you end up with pretty subtly-flavored Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies. So without the chilling period, you’ll end up with even more faintly-flavored Earl Grey cookies.

If you want to make strongly-flavored Earl Grey cookies WITHOUT the chilling period, head to the section underneath the recipe titled “Variation: Bakery-Style Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies“. I talk about specialty ingredients you can use to bring out the Earl Grey tea flavor in these cookies.

FAQ: Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Troubleshooting

Help! My Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie dough feels really dry. The dough was too dry to hold together when I scooped the cookies. What did I do wrong?

Okay, there are several things that could be responsible for dry Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie dough:

You overheated your butter.

Throughout this blog post, I repeatedly stress the importance of melting the butter gently. If you melt the butter too quickly or over too high of a heat, too much water will evaporate from the butter! And less water in the butter means that your dough will turn out drier.

How do you know if you’ve overheated your butter? First things first, listen to the butter as you melt it. At no point should the butter sizzle, crackle, or pop. Those noises indicate water is evaporating from the butter.

Second: did your butter remain a pale yellow color, or did it start to darken and turn brown slightly? If the latter, it means that water has evaporated from the butter and you’ve started to make brown butter. While that’s a desired result for some recipes (like these Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies or S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookies), you don’t want that for these Earl Grey ones.

You steeped the butter and Earl Grey tea together for too long.

In the recipe, I instruct you to melt the butter, then add the Earl Grey tea. I then instruct you to prep the rest of the ingredients by whisking the dry ingredients together, and organizing the sugar, eggs, and extract. Doing so will take around 2 to 3 minutes. That’s just enough time for the Earl Grey tea to begin steeping the butter with its flavor, but not so much time for the Earl Grey tea to absorb a significant amount of liquid from the butter.

However, something came up while you were in the middle of the recipe. So you figured you’d leave the butter and tea together for now, and come back to it later. Besides—a longer steep means a stronger Earl Grey flavor, right? That doesn’t seem so bad.

And while I am usually in favor of this kind of critical thinking in the kitchen, unfortunately, it doesn’t work for these cookies. While you end up with a stronger Earl Grey flavor, the tea leaves have a tendency to absorb too much liquid from the butter. You’ll end up with a dry Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie dough.

Oh, shoot. It sounds like I messed up my Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie dough by overheating the butter and/or steeping it for too long. How do I fix it?

Luckily, we can fix the issues I described above!

First things first—you’ll be able to tell if your cookie dough is too dry after adding the dry ingredients to the butter, sugar, and eggs. If at this point you think it’s too dry, add 1 large egg yolk. Then, add the chocolate.

The egg yolk will add moisture to the cookie dough. However, your cookies will come out slightly cakier—in both texture and appearance—than mine. You may also need to add 1 to 2 minutes of extra Bake Time to the recipe.

Help! My Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie dough feels SUPER greasy. The dough feels too loose to scoop. What did I do wrong?

Don’t panic! We can fix this pretty easily. 

If your dough feels greasy and loose, it’s likely that you used butter that was still too hot to meld with the rest of the ingredients. To fix the issue, simply place the entire bowl of cookie dough in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Doing so will help the dough firm up. After 10 minutes, check the dough. If it still feels too loose, give it another 5 to 10 minutes in the fridge. However, I don’t recommend chilling it for longer—doing so will harden the cookie dough too much and make it really hard to scoop!

Help! My Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies spread way too much. They look much thinner and more brittle than yours. What did I do wrong?

Ah. First things first, scroll up and read the preceding question and come back. Now—did you skip the chilling period and bake the cookies right away, when the dough felt super greasy and loose? If so, that means that the butter was still too hot from being melted. Butter that’s too hot causes the cookies to spread out way too much in the oven, creating thin and brittle cookies.

Alternatively, if you chilled the cookie dough and your cookies still came out too thin and brittle, you may have an ingredients issue. It’s likely that you used way too much sugar by accidentally packing in too much in the measuring cup. See the next question below for more info on how to properly use measuring cups!

Help! My Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies came out too puffy. They didn’t sink after baking and don’t look flat like yours. What did I do wrong?

Okay, there are several things that could be responsible for overly puffy cookies:

You didn’t measure your ingredients properly.

If you used cup measures as opposed to weight measures, there’s a larger chance your cookies will come out puffy. Why? As weird as this sounds, there’s a LOT of variation in how people use measuring cups. Like, somebody who scoops ingredients into a measuring cup and packs it down as they go will have a cup that has way more ingredients than somebody who simply scoops the flour into a cup and levels it off as its filled. This is why bakers love measuring by weight with a digital scale instead—it’s much more reliable and completely eliminates any inconsistencies.

While these variations aren’t a big deal for many recipes, they can be a big deal for cookies. Specifically: if you pack a heavy cup of flour, your cookies will come out too puffy. They won’t fall and sink in the same way as mine did.

So to fill a measuring cup properly, you need to first set the measuring cup on a flat, level surface like your kitchen counter. Spoon the ingredient into the measuring cup until it forms a small mound within the cup. Use a butter knife or bench scraper to level off the mound so that the ingredient is flush with the top edges of the measuring cup. If you’re measuring a dry ingredient that has a tendency to clump or get packed down (like flour, confectioners’ sugar, or cocoa powder), give it a quick whisk in its container first. Then, scoop the ingredient into the measuring cup as I described.

You didn’t let the cookie dough thaw slightly before baking.

In the recipe below, I instruct you to place the chilled cookie dough balls on lined sheet pans, THEN preheat the oven. It usually takes 10 to 15 minutes to preheat an oven. During this time, the cookie dough balls will thaw slightly and start to come to room temperature—this is a good thing! If you bake them straight from the fridge while they’re still cold, the cookies tend to stay puffy and don’t sink as much. However, this slight thawing period during the oven preheating process ensures that the cookies will fall flat when baked.

FAQ: Storing Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies

How To Store Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies After Baking

After baking, the cookies can be stored in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Can I freeze Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies?

Yes! You can freeze the Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies cookies in the following ways:

1. Freeze the UNBAKED Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies.
   Follow the recipe instructions to make the cookie dough and scoop them out into cookie dough balls. Place the cookie dough balls in a small sheet pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 1 hour, or until the cookie dough balls are frozen solid. Transfer the cookie dough balls to a zip-top bag and freeze for up to 1 year.
   
   To bake the frozen cookie dough balls, follow the recipe instructions to preheat the oven and arrange the cookie dough balls on a sheet pan. There’s no need to thaw the cookies beforehand—you can bake from frozen. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges have set but the centers are still gooey.
   
   
2. Freeze the BAKED Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies.
   Individually wrap any leftover chocolate chip cookies in two layers of plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. The aluminum foil will prevent the cookies from absorbing any other flavors or odors in the freezer. When ready to serve, transfer to the refrigerator to chill overnight. Rewarm in the microwave or in the oven at 350°F for 5 minutes before serving.

Variation: Bakery-Style Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okay, you made these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies but felt like the Earl Grey flavor was too subtle. You want something bigger and bolder that screams Earl Grey.

Let me tell you this first—you’re my kind of person. And I have a solution for you, too. Try making this recipe “bakery-style”.

Hold the phone. What are “bakery-style” Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies?

Good question! In general, I started focusing my recipes to be as accessible to as many people as possible. That meant skipping specialty, hard-to-find equipment and/or ingredients. But the truth is that you can get even better results if you DO take the time to source the right equipment and/or ingredients. And when you do, you end up with a baked good that’s worthy of being sold at a bakery.

So what does that mean for this Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie recipe? To make these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies taste even MORE like Earl Grey, you need some specialty ingredients:

• Bergamot oil OR Earl Grey extract
• Fresh bergamot orange zest

What’s bergamot oil and where can I find it?

Recall that, in the ingredients section on this blog post, I talked about how Earl Grey tea is flavored with bergamot orange oil. Without it, Earl Grey tea would just taste like, well, black tea.

So to enhance the Earl Grey tea flavor of these cookies, it’s worth investing in some bergamot oil. Bergamot oil is made from oil squeezed out of bergamot orange rind and zest. Using it in this recipe will concentrate the cookies’ Earl Grey flavor and make it much more intense. Simply replace 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract with 1 teaspoon bergamot oil.

You can buy bergamot oil online on Amazon. Just watch out—bergamot oil is also frequently sold as an essential oil for perfuming houses. So make sure that the bergamot oil you buy is food-grade and NOT theapeutic grade. I recommend this bergamot oil by LorAnn. I have many of their extracts and oils and think they’re great quality.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to source bergamot oil, you can try sourcing Earl Grey extract.

What is Earl Grey extract and where can I find it?

Earl Grey extract is similar to vanilla extract; however, instead of imparting the recipe with vanilla flavor, it imparts it with Earl Grey. Cool, right?

The downside to Earl Grey extract is that it tends to be artificial and made in a food lab. While it will make your chocolate chip cookies taste more like Earl Grey, it won’t be as flavorful as the bergamot oil route. So instead, I suggest replacing the 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract in the recipe with 2 teaspoons Earl Grey extract.

While Earl Grey extract is cheaper than bergamot oil, it can be trickier to find. I occasionally see food grade bergamot oil at fancy herb and spice stores and food co-ops; however, I rarely see Earl Grey extract anywhere. That being said, you can find it online on Amazon. However, aside from that one brand, they don’t have too much variety—most of their offerings are for bergamot oil.

Wait, what about fresh bergamot orange zest?

Ahh yes. Do you live somewhere awesome like California, where produce is abundant and you can get anything you want? If so, you may have access to fresh bergamot oranges! If you do, this is your best bet in making these Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies taste more like Earl Grey! There’s no need to source bergamot oil or extract when you have access to the real thing.

Simply buy one fresh bergamot orange for use in this Earl Grey chocolate chip cookie recipe. Before making the cookies, use a microplane to zest the bergamot orange over the bowl of granulated sugar needed for this recipe. Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar—this will infuse the sugar with oils from the zest. Proceed with the recipe as directed, using this sugar and zest to make the cookies.

More Earl Grey Recipes

• Earl Grey Panna Cotta
• Lavender Earl Grey Cookies
• Lemon, Lavender, and Earl Grey Mini Cakes
• London Fog Tea Cake
• Strawberry Earl Grey Homemade Peeps
• Sweet Cream Biscuits with Earl Grey Whipped Cream

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• Any Time You Need ‘Em Slice-And-Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups
• Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chocolate Chipless Cookies
• Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Gianduja Chocolate Chip Cookies
• My Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake Recipe
• S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookies
• The Easiest Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever
• The Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, Elevated
• Vegan Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

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• Black Halva Snickerdoodles
• Black Tahini and Dulcey Chocolate Chip Cookies
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• Dulcey White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
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• Lavender Earl Grey Cookies
• Monster Brookies
• My Best Snickerdoodle Recipe
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This post was last updated 9/16/2020.