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Get the Recipe: Brown Butter Chai Crinkle Cookie Recipe

These brown butter chai crinkle cookies are a unique take on the classic holiday crinkle cookie! The cookies are flavored with brown butter and chai spices like cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper.
(5 stars) 20 reviews

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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