you're making mealtime meaningful.
Known as “Miss Americana,” Taylor Swift is all over the news these days, which I’m not complaining about. With her busy touring schedule and constant new music releases, I can’t imagine Miss Swift is cooking or baking for herself but when I stumbled upon her one lone recipe for Chai Sugar Cookies, I knew I had to make it.
Taylor Swift originally posted photos of these cookies back in 2009, mentioning they tasted like “Christmas in September.” After fans flooded the comments asking for the recipe, she then posted the full recipe on her Tumblr blog. For the base sugar cookie recipe, she credited Joy The Baker then added her own flair of chai tea spices and glaze.
Like I mentioned, this recipe is not far off from a typical sugar cookie recipe so the process is very straightforward. The secret ingredient is added at the very end, which is a full tea bag of chai tea. I had to make sure I wasn’t supposed to make a cup of tea and pour it in but nope — you put the actual leaves directly in the dough. I wanted an extra taste of fall so I also added a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg.
While these were chilling and baking, I made a simple glaze and wanted to continue this chai theme so I sprinkled some more tea leaves. Taylor has written to bake these for 9ish minutes, at 9 minutes they come out nice and chewy and if you want them more of a shortbread texture, I would suggest 11-12 minutes.
These cookies had the perfect hint of sweet earthiness and fall flavor in every bite. I suggest these with a hot cup of chai tea and maybe playing her cozy album Folklore. And just like Taylor signs off on her recipe, “Happy Baking!”
Taylor Swift's Famous Cookie Recipe
Yield(s): Yields 12 cookies
15m prep time
12m cook time
1h inactive
you're making mealtime meaningful.
For Dough
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tea bag of chai leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon of sugar, for topping
For Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1/2 tea bag of chai tea leaves
For Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350℉. In a large bowl, combine butter, oil and sugar; cream until smooth.
- Add in powdered sugar, egg, vanilla extract and tea leaves until well combined.
- Sift in remaining dry ingredients: flour, salt and baking soda; stir in until well combined.
- Allow dough to chill for one hour.
- On a lined cookie sheet, place 12 1-tablespoon dough drops evenly. Press dough flat and sprinkle sugar on top. Bake 9-12 minutes.
For Glaze:
- In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, milk, cinnamon and tea leaves. Add more milk or powdered sugar until desired consistency.
- Allow cookies to cool and drizzle with icing. Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Taylor Swift