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.
- 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. - 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.
- 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! - 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. - 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.
- 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! - 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:
- 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. - 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.
Best Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Tips
Best Technique Tip
- Be mindful when melting the butter for these cookies! You don’t want the butter to sizzle, crackle, or pop. I like to chop it up into 1-inch cubes then melt it in a small sauce pot over medium-low heat. Be sure to stir the butter constantly as it melts to help prevent it from overheating.
Best Baking Tip
- I like to bake the cookies one pan at a time. I find that doing so makes the best cookies, ensuring that none of them have overly burnt bottoms or raw centers. However, to save time, you can bake two sheet pans at once. Position a rack in the upper-third position of the oven, and a second one in the lower-third position of the oven. Bake a pan on each rack, swapping their positions half way through the Bake Time.
Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Special Equipment
- a 3-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop
Ingredients
For the Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies
- ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 Tablespoon finely ground Earl Grey tea (from 3 tea bags or 4 teaspoons loose leaf tea)
- 1 ⅔ cup (7.5 ounces or 213 grams) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup tightly packed (5.65 ounces or 160 grams) light OR dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup (1.75 ounces or 50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 6 ounces (or 170 grams) dark chocolate (between 60% to 70% cacao), from whole fèves or discs OR a high quality chocolate bar, chopped into ½ to 1-inch pieces
Instructions
For the Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep the butter. In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over low heat, about 10 minutes. Stir regularly to prevent the butter from getting too hot—at no point should the butter sizzle, crackle, or pop. Once the butter has melted, remove from heat and immediately whisk in the Earl Grey tea.
- Prep the rest of the ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, combine the sugars.
- Make the cookie dough. Pour the melted butter and tea over the sugars and mix with a heatproof rubber spatula until just combined. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until just combined. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate all at once and mix until evenly distributed throughout.
- Assemble the cookies. Line a quarter sheet pan with parchment paper. Use a 3-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop to portion the cookie dough into balls, placing them next to each other on the sheet pan. Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
- Prep your pans and oven. Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper. Place the chilled cookie doughs at least 3 inches apart on the prepared sheet pans. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F.
- Bake the cookies. Bake one pan at a time for 10 minutes, or until the edges have set but the centers are still gooey. The cookies will look puffed when you pull them out of the oven, but will fall and crack into the perfect cookies as they cool. Cool the cookies on the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes, or until the edges and bottoms of the cookies have set and feel firm to the touch. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.
- Serve and store. Serve warm or at room temperature. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Notes
- Be mindful when melting the butter for these cookies! You don’t want the butter to sizzle, crackle, or pop. I like to chop it up into 1-inch cubes then melt it in a small sauce pot over medium-low heat. Be sure to stir the butter constantly as it melts to help prevent it from overheating.
- I like to bake the cookies one pan at a time. I find that doing so makes the best cookies, ensuring that none of them have overly burnt bottoms or raw centers. However, to save time, you can bake two sheet pans at once. Position a rack in the upper-third position of the oven, and a second one in the lower-third position of the oven. Bake a pan on each rack, swapping their positions half way through the Bake Time.
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.
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NO TIME TO BAKE?!
Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
This post was last updated 9/16/2020.
Laura says
I clicked on this post in my blog feed because hello, those cookies look and sound delicious! As I read along, your message really resonated with me. I happen to be torturing myself today, feeling weird about charging a friend of mine for some photo work I did for her. You are right, I take pride in all I do and work damn hard at it as well! I shouldn't feel guilty about being recognized, appreciated, and in my case today, compensated for it. Love your blog by the way, I'm from sea level but now live in CO and I suck at adjusting for altitude! Thank You.
Over The Apple Tree
thought.think. says
This looks amazing! I'll be trying this recipe soon. I love your photographs! They have such a homey and rustic feel to them. Are you still using the 50mm 1.8 lens? Do you think you can also post a picture of your food photography set up? I think it will be really interesting to see the "behind the scenes" of this blog!
michelle lopez says
Hi there,
Thanks for the kind words! Yep, I'm still using the 50 mm f/1.8 lens, but these days, I also alternate with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. I'd love to do a post on my food photography setup, but truthfully, I think you guys would be surprised to see how, uh, B-movie my production actually is. I rely a lot on very simple equipment like white or black foam boards that I got from the dollar store, and often do most of my aerial shots standing on a $10 chair from Ikea. True story. If you follow me on Instagram (@michellelo2009), I sometimes do a behind-the-scenes shot of my photography setup.
thought.think. says
I will definitely check out your Instagram! And I love how good photography can be done with simple equipment. I sometimes use stacks of books as a tripod!
Rachel @ Love, Rachel says
beautiful photos!!! they look delish.
p.s it was great meeting you last week!
Patricia Scarpin says
The cookies look delish! I'm sure all the steps are worth such great results.
[email protected] is How I Cook says
Great cookies and you sound pretty great, too. Stand up and take it, girl! I say enjoy it while you can, cause you never know when it will stop! Lean in! You have a lot to offer-like these sumptuous cookies and fantastic photos.And the writing is good, too!
cecile says
2 of my favorite things – earl grey and chocolate chip cookies… can't wait to try it!
Unknown says
Omg PERFECT! I just tried to make plum tea-infused muffins last night by steeping the leaves in milk and then straining them out…but the resulting milk was nasty. Should probably start with tea that I think tastes good next time. Next time, I will try infusing butter with a tastier tea! Thanks for the tips. Also, I'm going to make a request that you absolutely don't have to fulfill, but the next time you make cookies, could you show the difference between what creaming the butter for 10 minutes vs. like, 1 minute does for the end result?
michelle lopez says
Eh, truthfully, it doesn't have to be at room temperature because you're right — the recipe calls for you to melt it, anyway. Almost all the recipes I write call for butter at room temperature, so it was out of habit that I wrote it when listing ingredients. Consider it a best practice more than anything else. :-p
deborah says
Just found your blog (looking for dutch baby recipes). Love it! As a small-time blogger with a teensy following, I say enjoy the kudos coming your way regarding your blog. Blogging, whether for pleasure or otherwise, is hard work- enjoy the recognition!
And thanks for this recipe… two of my most favorite things in one cookie? Yes please!
Trish says
Do you know if the dough is freezeable? I'm doing a cookie holiday party and want to try to start cooking in advance and freeze the dough…. Then just bake a day or two before. Thanks!
Michelle says
Yes! Instructions on how to freeze the dough is in the blog post. Do a page search for “Can I freeze Earl Grey chocolate chip cookies?”
Anonymous says
I came here looking for a cookie recipe, but I've found so much more! As a fellow blogger, I too am flippant about the work that I do. I think it's hard to feel accomplished in a creative capacity – because it's hard to measure! Thank you for being so frank!
Colleen Moyle says
OMG! I just made these cookies but added oats to make them earl grey/dark chocolate/oatmeal cookies!
SO good!
I’m in a cookie bake off competition today with some of my friends & I (as well as others) think the other woman will have to up their game!
Thanks for the recipe! Yes it requires prep but didn’t ask for too much! So worth the brown butter/earl grey infusion!!!
Thank you ❤️
Katie says
Made these with the updated recipe and they are delightful AF. New favorite and probably most delicious thing I’ve ever made.
I steeped the butter for about 2 hours bc I had to run to the grocery store, then heated the butter with tea leaves slightly before straining it to make sure it was fully melted. Perfect cookie texture, will be making a triple batch next time. Thank you!
Jo says
Great recipe and the cookies baked up spot on! 👍 I made a batch with Trader Joe’s Earl Grey de la creme loose leaf tea but for those that may not like Earl Grey tea, try a different tea like a chai spice tea or peppermint tea in your butter infusion.
Eline says
Honestly, the best cookies I have ever had! If you love bergamot/earl grey you HAVE to try these. They’re easy to make, but taste like you bought them at a super fancy bakery. Win-win!
Michelle says
Hi! Sorry if these sound like stupid questions but I just wanted to clarify, how do you steep your Earl Grey tea in butter? As you use loose leaves, do you just put it in directly or in filterbags after grinding them? Do you strain them out? And if I had to grind the leaves (loose or tea bag), how ground/fine should they be?
Hope you can answer my questions! I can’t wait to try out your recipe 😊 Thanks ❤️
Michelle says
Hi!
Re: finely grounding the tea. You want it to look like the tea that comes pre-ground in disposable tea bags! So pretty finely ground—it should be around the same size as kosher salt.
Re: steeping the Earl Grey tea. Melt the butter over low heat, about 10 minutes. Stir regularly to prevent the butter from getting too hot—at no point should the butter sizzle, crackle, or pop. Once the butter has melted, remove from heat and immediately whisk in the Earl Grey tea. There’s no need to use filters! You can pour the finely ground tea directly into the butter per the instructions in the recipe card.
Re: straining the Earl Grey tea out. There’s no need to! The recipe in the recipe card states “Pour the melted butter and tea over the sugars and mix with a heatproof rubber spatula until just combined.” Let me know if that makes sense!
Hope that helps!
Michelle says
Thanks so much for that speedy reply!! Can’t wait to try out your recipes! Wishing you all the best!
Melanie says
Hi! I’m going to make this recipe soon but there’s just a small concern about the amount of sugar. My (Asian) family doesn’t like cookies that are too sweet, and most cookie recipes contain too much sugar for us. Is it possible for me to reduce the amount of sugar for this recipe? Because I’ve tried reducing the amount of sugar but my cookies don’t turn out to be flat. If not, then are there any alternatives? Thanks in advance!
Michelle says
Ah yes, reducing sugar in cookies = puffy cookies. The sugar helps the cookies spread out during the baking process. If you reduce the sugar in almost any cookie recipe, you’ll end up with puffier/different textured cookies.
If you want to make these cookies “less sweet” (although they are already pretty well balanced—the Earl Grey and dark chocolate helps make them more bitter), I suggest using a VERY dark chocolate (between 75% to 90% cacao) instead!
Lauren says
These were by far the best cookies I’ve tasted in my life! I’m a bit biased because chocolate and earl grey is my favorite flavor combination, but this was truly something else. Thank you Michelle for writing such a clear and easy to follow recipe! Can’t wait to try more!
Liz says
I love these cookies! But is anyone else finding that they’re a little too salty? I swear I put in only a teaspoon like it says.
Michelle says
It might have to do with the salt you’re using. If you use table salt instead of kosher salt, the cookies will come out too salty since table salt has smaller granules than kosher salt and, as a result, 1 teaspoon of table salt will taste saltier than 1 teaspoon kosher salt because there’s more granules per teaspoon. Similarly, not all kosher salt brands are created equal. Morton kosher salt has smaller granules than Diamond crystal, and will also lead to cookies. You can read more about it in this Food52 article: https://food52.com/blog/16824-you-re-not-crazy-there-is-a-difference-between-morton-s-and-diamond-crystal
I always use Diamond Crystal kosher salt in my baking!
Lana says
I want to make these cookies this week and I am a bit confused about the tea, Do I make the tea and then pour it in with the butter or do I just use the earl grey tea dry and put it into the butter that way?
Michelle says
Hi,
The tea is unsteeped—you will be adding dry Earl Grey tea leaves to the dough.
Jane says
Hi there! I was wondering if you have tried to infuse the butter ahead of time? I’d like to make a large batch but tight on time, I’m wondering if I can prep the butter ahead of time.
Michelle says
I have, and I don’t recommend it! The tea leaves end up absorbing a lot of moisture from the butter (especially if steeped overnight), and the cookies come out a little dry.
Rue says
Absolutely delicious recipe! Everyone I made the cookies for loved it and asked for more! 🙂 Thank you SO much!
Merissa says
Love love love! Everything about this recipe is divine. I followed the instructions to a T and the cookies turned out great. The only deviation I made had to do with the bake – they definitely were still raw looking at the 10 minute mark so I ended up leaving them in for another 2 minutes. My husband is hella impressed! This won’t be the last time I bake them and I’m excited to try your s’mores chocolate chip cookie recipe next 🙂
Ian says
Best homemade cookies ever! Absolutely delicious. The earl grey elevates the flavor and turns the cookie into something fancy you’d find at a cafe. Instead of overnight refrigeration I did about 10 minutes in the fridge just before baking. Enjoyed it with a cup of earl grey tea. Can’t wait to make it again. Thanks for the recipe!
Emily says
This was such a good recipe! I put less chocolate, and it was amazing! I even made a few batches with no chocolate. For me, the cook time was a little off. It was more like 12-15 minutes. I am not sure the overnight in the fridge was necessary. The batch I put in for a couple hours was just as tasty!
Thanks so much for this awesome recipe!
Aly says
I’ve had this pinned for awhile & today was the perfect drizzly spring day for it! These turned out amazing- I didn’t have the patience to refrigerate overnight, but popped in the freezer for a few hours and they did just fine 🙂 thank you for the lovely recipe, going to have to get some bergamot next to take it to the next level!
Emilee says
Used gluten free 1-1 flour and turned out perfect!
Rocky says
I have made this recipe several times now and it is one of favorite cookie recipes. My favorite tea is Earl grey so I always have several different blends of loose leaf tea on hand. I had been using Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips and it’s still tasty. I just got some Valrhona dark chocolate as a gift and I am currently making these cookies with my upgrade chocolate. I have no doubts that they will be even more amazing.
Lisa says
This was amazing! I never thought about an earl gray chocolate chip cookie together and was initially worried that the chocolate would overpower the earl gray flavor but I was wrong. I couldn’t wait overnight so I just refrigerated it for an hour and it was still really good. Definitely a keeper recipe!
Catmama says
I just want to say you make me look good. This recipe is so perfected, it’s a gem. I am vegan and I veganize a lot of recipes and this one comes out fantastic. Me and my BFF since high school(we are 50 soon) bake each other cookies every year at our birthdays and ship to each other. I forget when I first made these for her but it was a long time ago and they are her favs. This year I did the feves – gorgeous. And I think your update helped me with the tea which I didn’t previously leave in- jusy steeped and essenced the butter. Leaving in- huge! You deserve serious props for this cookie contribution. I am in love with it.
For those who want to veganize:
Just Eggs for the egg
V sugar
Valrhona 66 % is already vegan