I have recently gotten into chai and I feel very late to the game. I mentioned in my pumpkin cookies with chai icing recipe that I don’t love intense chai but chai spice adds such delicious depth of flavor that cinnamon alone doesn’t give. Don’t get me wrong, a traditional snickerdoodle is one of the best treats on earth, but sometimes it’s fun to change it up a little bit!
Chai Spice is a combination of allspice, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom. These flavors work in tandem to envelop the mouth in a warm and spicy flavor perfect for fall and the holidays! Typically chai is used in drinks that include milk or coffee to aid in their spice flavor. In this case, the gentle vanilla of the cookie and the sugar balance the spice flavor in the chai. As I mentioned in my last chai post, start small with chai spice and slowly add to drinks or cookies because of everyone’s unique flavor profile. When I first tried chai spice, I was overwhelmed by the flavor that the barista had added to my drink; it was very cardamom forward, but over time and testing quantities, I have grown to love the taste.
How to make Snickerdoodles?
Snickerdoodles origin dates back 1891 when Cornelia Campbell Bedford developed the recipe for the Cleveland Baking Powder company. The classic cookie is a sugar cookie type cookie rolled traditionally in a mix of cinnamon and granulated sugar. Snickerdoodles are one of my favorite cookies. They have such a delicious balance of sweet, spicy and the granulated sugar exterior is just too good. I personally think of them as a year-round cookie because I have never met a snickerdoodle that I don’t love, but I tend to make them more in the fall and the Christmas season. A few years back I developed one of my favorite holiday cookies – the Gluten-Free and Vegan Chocolate Snickerdoodle. Every year I make a variety of cookies for neighbors and friends and each year snickerdoodles are included in a variety of forms. This year, the chai snickerdoodles will make their debut.
Let’s start bake chai snickerdoodles!
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Gluten-Free and Vegan Chai Snickerdoodles
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 42 cookies 1x
- Category: cookies
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: cookies
Description
A spicy take on the traditional snickerdoodle but made gluten-free and vegan. Snickerdoodles are one of the best cookies of the season. These cookies are sweet, soft and full of rich chai spice flavor.
Ingredients
Cookie:
- 1 cup of vegan butter
- 1 1/4 cups of granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons of chai powder
- 4 tablespoons of water (for the flax egg)
- 1 teaspoons of flax meal (for the flax egg)
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 cups of dairy free milk
- 3 1/4 cups of gluten-free flour (I suggest Bob’s Red Mill 1:1)
Sugar Coating:
- 1 cup of sugar
- 2 teaspoons of chai powder
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 350°f and in a small bowl combine your water and your flax meal
- In a bowl using a stand mixer palette attachment or a hand mixer cream your vegan butter and your sugar until creamy
- Next add in your vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chai spice
- Add to your dough your dairy-free milk and your flax egg, combine until the dough starts to form
- Lastly add in the gluten-free flour until the dough is soft and starts to form a large dough ball (dough should not be wet, but slightly sticky and easy to pinch)
- In a bowl combine your sugar and chai powder
- Pinch and form 1-2″ balls, using your palms to form them into a circle
- Place and roll in the sugar/chai bowl and coat the entire ball of dough
- Combine until all the dough is formed into cookies covered in sugar and place cookies on a baking sheet 1-2″ apart
- Bake for 10 minutes until the cookies are cracked but the center is cooked through
- Place on a cooling rack and let cool, repeat baking until all your cookies are baked
Notes
I like to make a batch of cookies and prepare all the dough balls and cook around 20 cookies then put the rest of the prepared dough balls in a baggie in the freezer for future baking.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
Keywords: gluten free and vegan chai snickerdoodles, gluten free snickerdoodles, vegan snickerdoodles
Snickerdoodles are full of flavor
The cookie itself in these cookies have chai powder in them, flavoring each bite from the inside out. I think this makes all the difference in the cookie itself, the chai flavor gives spice and sugar balance from the cookie to the exterior. Each bite is a sweet and spicy perfect balance that aids to the soft nature of this cookie. My favorite way to enjoy a sugar cookie is with a cup of warm team – extra points if it is snowing outside!
Try out this gluten-free and vegan chai snickerdoodle recipe this holiday season! Tag me if you give it a try and enjoy each deliciously sweet and spicy bite!
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