Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookies
These brown butter chai crinkle cookies are a unique take on the classic holiday crinkle cookie! Most holiday crinkle cookies are flavored with chocolate and cocoa powder. However, I flavored this crinkle cookie with the spices of the popular Indian black tea. Think: cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper. Additionally, the cookies are made with brown butter, which complements the warm flavors of the spices.
And thank you to Land O’Lakes for sponsoring this recipe! Learn more in the blog post, and thank you for supporting the sponsors that keep Hummingbird High up and running!
Why You Should Make Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookies
Now let’s talk about all the reasons why you should make these brown butter chai crinkle cookies:
These brown butter chai crinkle cookies are a unique twist on a classic, holiday cookie recipe.
Real Talk: crinkle cookies are one of my favorite kinds of cookies. Although many people consider them to be holiday cookies, I’m the kinda gal who bakes them in the middle of summer! I love the cookies’ distinctive, cracked look and soft, pillowy texture.
That being said, I’m always looking for ways to give crinkle cookies a unique twist. Especially during this time of year! Many holiday treats are flavored with chocolate and more, well, chocolate. I want my cookies to stand out from the crowd!
So these last few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with ways to make my crinkle cookies extra special. First, there were these beautiful purple ube cookies that are an homage to my Filipino American heritage. And now, I present you these brown butter chai crinkle cookies! These cookies were inspired by my favorite winter drink, chai.
What is chai?
Okay, hold the phone. What is chai? Chai is a tea beverage made by combining black tea, milk, water, and aromatic herbs and spices. The beverage originated in India, where it is known as “masala chai.”
What spices are in chai?
Contrary to popular belief, there is no “set” recipe for masala chai. But most chai contains a caffeinated black tea, milk, and warming spices like green cardamom, black pepper, and ginger. Other common spices in chai include star anise, fennel seeds, and nutmeg. However, in the United States, chai tends to contain lighter and sweeter spices. Often, cinnamon and allspice are also used.
What does chai taste like?
Again, there isn’t a standard answer to this question. It really depends on the spices your chai contains. However, if pushed, I’d say the predominant flavor of chai is cardamom. And because chai is often served with milk, I also associate a smooth, creamy taste to most chai beverages.
If you’ve never had chai before, imagine your favorite black tea topped off with milk, sugar, and spices.
These brown butter chai crinkle cookies store well.
The chai flavor of the cookies becomes even more pronounced the day after they’re made. In fact, if you’re the kind of person who likes to bake holiday cookies for presents, you’re in luck! These chai crinkle cookies deepen in flavor the longer they sit. They would work well as a homemade present delivered by mail!
These brown butter chai crinkle cookies come together quickly.
And if you’re strapped for time, I have good news: these cookies come together really, really quickly. Why? Most cookies are made by creaming together butter, sugar, and eggs in a stand mixer. However, this recipe skips the stand mixer completely. All you need are a few bowls and a rubber spatula for mixing!
The best part? Most crinkle cookies also require you to chill the dough for an hour—or even overnight!—before scooping. However, I’ve found that doing so isn’t 100% necessary for these chai cookies. So be sure to check out the Baker’s Tips below for more information!
Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookie Ingredients and Substitutions
And here’s your shopping list for the brown butter chai crinkle cookies:
Shopping List for Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookies
- Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter
- all-purpose flour
- baking powder
- ground cardamom
- ground cinnamon
- ground cloves
- ground black pepper
- kosher salt
- light OR dark brown sugar
- granulated sugar
- large eggs
- pure vanilla extract
- confectioners’ sugar
And let’s talk about key ingredients and their potential substitutions:
Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter
You need ½ cup Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter to make brown butter chai crinkle cookies.
Why You Should Use Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter In This Recipe
Real Talk: Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter is the all-purpose MVP butter I use in my recipes. To me, Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter is the standard to which I hold all other butters. It improves every recipe—baking or otherwise—that I use it in. I love it so much that I even used it while testing all the recipes in my cookbook, Weeknight Baking!
And when it comes to baking, I also prefer to use unsalted butter. Doing so allows you to control the amount of salt in the recipe. It ensures that you don’t end up with a baked good that’s overly salty or umami!
Note that you will be browning the Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter for this recipe.
What is brown butter?
Brown butter is made by cooking butter until the water in it evaporates. Once it does, you’re left with a speckled, amber-colored liquid with a rich flavor and a wonderfully nutty aroma. Although brown butter is typically used in recipes in liquid form, it can be chilled back to a solid form like regular butter.
How to Use Brown Butter
You can use brown butter in both savory and sweet recipes. Traditionally, brown butter is used with ingredients that go well with nutty flavors. In desserts, brown butter is often used in traditional chocolate chip cookie recipes, brownie recipes, and even loaf cakes with “strong” flavors like banana or pumpkin.
How to Make Brown Butter
To brown butter, melt the butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium heat. Swirl the pan occasionally to help the butter melt evenly. Keep a heatproof rubber spatula nearby to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan occasionally to help prevent the milk solids from sticking and burning. Depending on how high the heat is and how cold your butter was to begin with, browning butter can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. To speed up the process, you can slice the butter into smaller pieces to melt it faster.
As the butter melts, the mixture will begin to foam. It can be a little difficult to see what’s going on at this point, so use a heatproof spatula to push the foam to the sides of the pan as best as you can to help you see the color underneath. If you’re having trouble seeing the color of the butter, use a spoon to scoop a small amount of the butter onto a white plate to see its color more clearly. The color of the butter will progress from a bright lemon yellow to a golden tan and finally to a dark amber brown. The longer you cook the butter, the darker and more flavorful it will be. However, note that there’s a fine line between toasted and burnt. There’s no salvaging butter once it’s burnt! So be sure to watch it like a hawk as it browns.
Once you’re satisfied with the color of the butter, immediately remove the pan from the heat. Pour the brown butter into a clean bowl or liquid measuring cup to prevent it from cooking further.
How to Store Brown Butter
Once cooled, transfer the brown butter to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
What are the flecks in my brown butter? Is that normal?
Yes! Brown butter is typically spotted with dark golden flecks; these are browned milk solids. Some folks pour brown butter through a fine-mesh strainer to discard these milk solids. However, I like to keep them in for extra flavor. You do you.
Chai Spices
You need 1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground cloves, and a pinch of black pepper to make brown butter chai crinkle cookies.
That’s a lot of spices. Do I really need all of them for these crinkle cookies?
Yes! Chai is known for its use of multiple spices. But don’t worry—if you don’t have all the spices I mentioned on hand, you can swap some of them out! I mentioned earlier that there is no “standard” recipe for chai. Although most chai contains cardamom, the rest of the spices are flexible. You can swap out the cinnamon, cloves, and even black pepper for other spices like allspice, nutmeg, and white pepper.
Can I replace the spices with chai tea for drinking?
Yes! If you don’t have spices on hand but have tea, you can use the tea in place of the chai spices. But if you do, I recommend that you grind the tea (similar to how you would grind whole spices) before using in this recipe. Use a spice or coffee grinder to grind the tea into a fine texture. You can see a similar technique used in my recipes for Earl Grey Chocolate Chip Cookies and Lavender Earl Grey Cookies.
I only have cardamom pods/cinnamon sticks/whole cloves/whole peppercorns. Can I still use them to make these crinkle cookies?
Yes! Whole spices are not a problem. In fact, I sometimes even recommend them. Why? Freshly ground spices tend to be more flavorful than the pre-ground stuff you can buy at a grocery store!
So yes—feel free to use whole spices for these chai crinkle cookies. However, you’ll need to grind the spices before using in the recipe.
Brown Sugar
You need ½ cup light OR dark brown sugar to make brown butter chai crinkle 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 is my personal preference. Because it contains more molasses, I find it to be more flavorful. For these cookies, I encourage you to use dark brown sugar. The dark brown sugar really complements the brown butter and chai flavors of the cookies.
I don’t have brown sugar. Can I use granulated sugar instead?
Yes, with reservations. Although granulated sugar works in place of the brown sugar in the cookie recipe, your cookies will likely be missing some of the butterscotch flavors you would get if you used brown sugar.
How To Make Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookies
Here are the basic steps to make brown butter chai crinkle cookies from scratch:
First, brown the Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter.
- Brown the butter. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
Depending on how high the heat is and how cold your butter was to begin with, browning butter can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. I like to brown the butter first to give it time to cool slightly while I prep the rest of the ingredients for the cookies. This also helps prevent you from accidentally scrambling the eggs in the dough (which can happen if you add butter that’s too hot).
Next, make the brown butter chai crinkle cookie dough.
- Prep the rest of the ingredients. (Prep Time: 5 minutes)
Once you’ve browned the butter, prep for this recipe is fairly easy! Simply measure out all the ingredients. That’s it! - Make the brown butter chai crinkle cookie dough. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
Making the cookie dough is also easy. First, whisk together the flour, spices, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Then, mix together the sugars, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the brown butter, then the dry ingredients. That’s right! You don’t need your stand mixer for this recipe. - Assemble the brown butter chai crinkle cookies. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
Use a 4-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop to portion out the dough quickly and evenly. In the recipe, I instruct you to scoop the dough balls directly into a shallow bowl of confectioners’ sugar. That’s because the dough will be fairly soft! Scooping it directly into the sugar helps prevent your hands from getting too messy.
However, if you find that the dough is *TOO* soft and difficult to work with, no worries! Simply refrigerate the dough for an hour before scooping and baking.
Finally, bake the brown butter chai crinkle cookies.
- Bake the brown butter chai crinkle cookies. (Bake Time: 12 minutes)
The chai crinkle cookies need 12 to 15 minutes in the oven. When done, the edges should be set. However, the centers will still look a little soft. That’s normal! In fact, that’s the secret to a perfect cookie with a chewy center.
Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookies: Recipe FAQ and Troubleshooting
FAQ: Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookies Recipe Troubleshooting
Help! My cookie dough was too sticky. It was hard to assemble the cookies. What did I do wrong?
Don’t panic! You probably didn’t do anything wrong. The cookie dough can come out too soft if the brown butter was still too warm. While it won’t be an issue to bake them as is, the cookies can be a little difficult to assemble with overly soft dough. Simply cover the bowl with the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. After 1 hour, check the dough. It should now be easier to work with!
Help! My brown butter chai crinkle cookies came out patchy. They don’t look anything like yours! Instead, they absorbed a lot of the confectioners’ sugar while baking and have big tan spots. What did I do wrong?
Ah, yes. To get the signature crinkle cookie look, you need to coat the crinkle cookie dough in a LOT of confectioners’ sugar. Like a lot, lot. Every inch of surface area should have a thick coating of sugar. This is the secret to the classic crinkle cookie look!
FAQ: Storing Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookies
How To Store Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookies
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Can you freeze brown butter chai crinkle cookies?
Yes! You can freeze brown butter chai crinkle cookie dough.
To freeze the cookie dough, follow the instructions to scoop the cookie dough into balls. However, don’t drop them into the confectioners’ sugar! You won’t freeze them coated. Instead, scoop them onto a lined quarter sheet pan. If you’re not planning on baking them right away, there’s no need to space the dough apart.
Loosely wrap the sheet pan with plastic wrap and freeze for 1 hour, or until the cookie dough balls are solid. Place the frozen cookie dough balls in an airtight container or zip-top bag. Freeze for up to 3 months.
When ready to bake, there’s no need to thaw the dough balls! Simply place on a lined sheet pan to thaw slightly as you preheat the oven. Then, once the oven is preheated, toss each cookie dough ball in the confectioners’ sugar. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the edges have set but the centers are still soft.
Best Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookie Tips
Best Ingredient Tip
- Most baking recipes instruct you to sift confectioners’ sugar before using in the recipe. Confectioners’ sugar tends to clump when stored; sifting removes these lumps. However, you don’t need to sift the confectioners’ sugar for these chai crinkle cookies. Why? I find that the lumps in the confectioners’ sugar help coat the cookies more thoroughly. The lumps also break up into interesting crinkles when baked!
Best Technique Tips
- The brown butter needs to cool slightly before being added to the rest to the ingredients. Why? I instruct you to add the brown butter to a mixture made of the sugars and eggs. If the brown butter is too hot, you might accidentally scramble the eggs! To prevent this from happening, brown the butter first. Once it’s brown, immediately pour it into a liquid measuring cup to prevent it from cooking further. Place the measuring cup on a wire rack to allow it to cool more efficiently. While it cools, measure out the rest of the ingredients for the cookies. Doing so should take around 5 minutes, giving the butter enough time to cool slightly.
- In the recipe, I instruct you to scoop the cookie dough with a 4-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop. I then instruct you to drop the dough balls directly into the confectioners’ sugar and toss to coat. Don’t skip this step! If you drop the dough onto a sheet pan without coating them first, it’s likely that they’ll stick to the sheet pan. If you don’t plan on coating them immediately, I recommend chilling the dough for an hour first. Chilling the dough will make it easier to work with.
Best Styling Tip
- Coat the cookies generously with confectioners’ sugar. I mean it. Every inch of the cookie dough ball should be covered in a thick coating of confectioners’ sugar before baking. Uncoated areas show up as “bald spots” on the cookies, ruining their crinkle effect. Additionally, the cookies will absorb some of the confectioners’ sugar as they bake. So err on the side of caution and cover them with a THICK layer of confectioners’ sugar!
More Crinkle Cookie Recipes
More Brown Butter Recipes
- Birthday Cake Blondies
- Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce
- Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups
- S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookies
- The Easiest Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever
More Holiday Cookie Recipes
- Buttered Rum Shortbread Cookies
- Caramel Stuffed Brownie Cookies
- Dulcey White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
- Flourless Chocolate Cookies
- Lavender Earl Grey Cookies
- Neapolitan Cookies
- Peppermint Bark Oreos
Get the Recipe: Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
For the Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookies
- ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 ¾ cup (7.85 ounces or 223 grams) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- pinch of ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup tightly packed (3.75 ounces or 106 grams) light OR dark brown sugar
- ½ cup (3.5 ounces or 99 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (3 ounces or 85 grams) confectioners' sugar
Equipment
- a 4-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop
Instructions
For the Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookies
- Prep your oven and pans. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Brown the butter. In a light-colored saucepan, melt the Land O Lakes® Unsalted Butter over medium-low heat, swirling the pan occasionally, until it starts to foam. Use a heatproof rubber spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan occasionally to prevent the milk solids in the butter from burning. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the butter smells nutty and is amber with dark flecks at the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat and immediately pour the brown butter into a liquid measuring cup. Set it on a wire rack to cool while you prep the other ingredients.
- Make the cookie dough. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, and kosher salt.
- In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla until combined. Slowly pour in the brown butter while mixing continuously. Gradually whisk in the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Coat the cookies. Place the confectioners' sugar in a medium, shallow bowl. Use a 4-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop to portion the cookie dough into balls, dropping them directly into the bowl with confectioners' sugar. Toss until the cookie dough balls are completely and generously coated. Place the cookie dough balls at least 3 inches apart on the prepared sheet pans.
- Bake the cookies. Bake one pan at a time for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges have set but the centers are still soft.
- 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
- Most baking recipes instruct you to sift confectioners’ sugar before using in the recipe. Confectioners’ sugar tends to clump when stored; sifting removes these lumps. However, you don’t need to sift the confectioners’ sugar for these brown butter chai crinkle cookies. Why? I find that the lumps in the confectioners’ sugar help coat the cookies more thoroughly. The lumps also break up into interesting crinkles when baked!
- The brown butter needs to cool slightly before being added to the rest to the ingredients. Why? I instruct you to add the brown butter to a mixture made of the sugars and eggs. If the brown butter is too hot, you might accidentally scramble the eggs! To prevent this from happening, brown the butter first. Once it’s brown, immediately pour it into a liquid measuring cup to prevent it from cooking further. Place the measuring cup on a wire rack to allow it to cool more efficiently. While it cools, measure out the rest of the ingredients for the cookies. Doing so should take around 5 minutes, giving the butter enough time to cool slightly.
- In the recipe, I instruct you to scoop the cookie dough with a 4-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop. I then instruct you to drop the dough balls directly into the confectioners’ sugar and toss to coat. Don’t skip this step! If you drop the dough onto a sheet pan without coating them first, it’s likely that they’ll stick to the sheet pan. If you don’t plan on coating them immediately, I recommend chilling the dough for an hour first. Chilling the dough will make it easier to work with.
- Coat the cookies generously with confectioners’ sugar. I mean it. Every inch of the cookie dough ball should be covered in a thick coating of confectioners’ sugar before baking. Uncoated areas show up as “bald spots” on the cookies, ruining their crinkle effect. Additionally, the cookies will absorb some of the confectioners’ sugar as they bake. So err on the side of caution and cover them with a THICK layer of confectioners’ sugar!
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Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule
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.
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These are amazing! I used a smaller scoop just because preference but they’re so easy to make! They come together so quickly and the brown butter & chai combo is fantastic. Also this recipe made me realize that I’ve always under-sugared the outside of my crinkle cookies, great tip!
I think these might be my new favorite cookies! The tip about using a light colored pan to make the brown butter was super helpful and definitely made that step less intimidating. Once the butter is done the rest of the cookies came together pretty quick! They’re going to be a great addition to my holiday cookie boxes!
Tasty cookies! They made my kitchen smell amazing and are the perfect flavor of chai!
These cookies are amazing!! My mom is a chai connoisseur and absolutely loved these cookies! If you grew up in an Indian family and live off of Chai like most of us do, please try this recipe, you will not be disappointed. It will now be a staple in our holiday cookie baking!
This is a great snacking cookie – they’re BIG and delicious! I made them kind of spur of the moment; I wanted a treat, and all of the spices were stocked in my pantry.
The cookies came together quickly and easily, no real mess or fuss, though you will use 2 bowls and a small pan. And Michelle’s not kidding: make sure you coat the cookie dough balls in confectioners’ sugar; you’ll think you’re using too much but I promise the more you use, the better the crinkle turns out.
Baking notes:
* Michelle’s instructions for browning butter are among the most clear I’ve seen, so I think they’d be super helpful if it’s a new recipe step for you.
* I didn’t have a 4-tablespoon scoop, but I did have a 3-tbsp scoop, and that cut the cooking time down by a smidge but still made big cookies.
* I made the recipe using a kitchen scale for measuring the flour and sugars.
* I used a very finely ground black pepper, which I think worked really well.
This was really good! I flattened the balls out just slightly when I baked them and the consistency was perfect – crunchy on the edges and soft in the middle. A good amount of spice too!
I forgot to mention – the dough was quite sticky when I first made it so I chilled it in the fridge for a couple of hours and it was really easy to handle after that.
One of my go-tos! Thank you for sharing this!
What would you recommend as a substitute for the AP Flour for it to be gluten free? Trying to make this for someone with a gluten sensitivity 🙂
Hm, I would try a commercial GF AP flour replacer, like Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF flour or King Arthur Baking Company’s version.
These. Are. AMAZING. Despite my own mishap of completely forgetting to add the brown butter until *after* the flour mix was already in, they are SO DELICIOUS. Please please please do yourself a favor and make these! 😀