Chai Sugar Cookies

Wanna know something crazy?

With all this warm weather and blinding sunshine, I should be craving grilled foods and fresh fruit, right?  But I am still craving cold and rainy weather food.  I am also craving those cold and rainy days, but that is nothing new – that is just how I am wired.  Fair skin and clouds, we are a match made in heaven.

I have been praying for tomato soup to appear in the cafeteria at the hospital.  So far, my pleas have remained unheard.  So I eat salad.  I made a stew for dinner last night.  It was in the 70’s and I was simmering a large pot of stew on top of the stove.  So what if I am acting like an 78 year old.

I am stuck somewhere between October and April.  Minus the extreme cold moments.

I am craving bread or rice pudding for dessert, not grilled fruit with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I am craving red wine, not summer cocktails.  I want to spend my afternoons baking bread and heating up the house…which would be downright unbearable in the heat this is just around the corner.  Even my wardrobe is faltering.  I can not let go of the cardigan.

These cookies are pretty much a late fall day in a bite size treat.  When you feel the need to wrap yourself in a cardigan and sit with your feet pulled up to your chest, make these cookies.  When you feel the need to pour yourself a cup of piping hot coffee on a sweltering hot day and you are silently dreaming of a cold and rainy day, make these cookies.  If you are experiencing a rainy day, literally or figuratively, make these cookies.

Tonight I will pray for tomato soup and a rainy day.  And if those remain unanswered, I’ll just eat a cookie and pretend.  Man I need to live in the northwest somewhere.

Chai Sugar Cookies

Makes about 3 dozen

Adapted from My Baking Addiction

Ingredients

2+3/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Light Brown Sugar, tightly packed
3/4 Cup White Granulate Sugar
2+1/2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
1 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
1 Teaspoon Ground Cardamom
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Allspice ( I have also used pumpkin pie spice mix when I couldn’t find allspice…totally worked)
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
2 Sticks Butter, unsalted, room temperature
1 Large Egg
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In another medium mixing bowl, whisk together brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, and black pepper.   Whisk until well combined.  Reserve and set aside 1/4 Cup of mixture to roll dough in later.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar/spice mixture until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla extract.  Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Shape cookie dough into balls ( I used a small cookie scoop) and roll cookie dough in reserved sugar/spice mixture.  Place dough balls on ungreased cookie sheet (and I prefer parchment paper lined, but it isn’t necessary) and bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to finish cooling.

Store in airtight container.