Welcome to Day #2 of Cookie Week on Amy’s Healthy Baking! This week, I’m posting a few new cookie recipes on my blog that would be perfect for the holidays, and I’m also sharing some of my old favorites on both Facebook and Instagram. Be sure to check those out—other readers have been raving about them!
My mom starts every single day with a chai latte. Her habit began nearly 10 years ago when a good friend of hers from work brought in a round of drinks from Starbucks to share with everyone. The lady knew my mom hated the taste of coffee, so while the rest of the group looked forward to their cappuccinos and macchiatos, Mom still had something warm and cozy to sip.
However, Mom always drank her tea plain, without any milk or sugar, so she brought the mug to her lips very hesitantly and took a teensy, tiny taste. Then another. And another.
Before everyone else finished their coffee, my mom’s cup was completely empty!
In the beginning of her new morning chai routine, Mom always stopped by a Starbucks on her way into work. She figured out exactly how to order it to please her cinnamon-loving taste buds (“grande nonfat chai latte, no water!” because the water dilutes the spice flavor!), but that daily habit quickly added up to quite a bit of money each month.
Then Mom discovered that certain grocery stores sold the chai concentrate that Starbucks used to make their lattes, so she switched to mixing up her own in the comfort of her kitchen instead. She even bought packets of powdered chai latte concentrate to slip into her suitcase for business trips if her hotel waisn’t near a Starbucks!
So in honor of Mom—and because I’m a huge spice lover too!—today’s recipe is for Chai Spice Snickerdoodles! These buttery cookies are full of the same spices found in chai and rolled in cinnamon sugar for a fun finishing touch.
When I presented the cookies to my parents, my dad’s eyes widened and he responded, “Oh boy, these are amazing!!” and my mom tried to sneak extras when I wasn’t looking. They’re pretty dangerous cookies, in the sweetest sort of way!
This easy recipe begins with whole wheat pastry flour. Whole wheat pastry flour is ground more finely than regular whole wheat flour, so its texture is closer to that of all-purpose flour, making it perfect for these chewy cookies. Its taste is also lighter than regular whole wheat flour, and with all of the spices, you practically can’t tell that these cookies are 100% whole wheat!
The blend of ground spices in chai is very important, so today you’ll use a mix of four: ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom. They harmoniously work together to create the cozy iconic flavor of the tea. I do not recommend substituting or omitting any of these! Without any one of them, especially the cardamom, the cookies wouldn’t have that same warm chai taste.
To keep these cookies clean eating friendly, they’re sweetened with coconut sugar instead of granulated. Coconut sugar does not actually taste like coconut! It has a caramel-like flavor, similar to that of brown sugar. You can find it near the other sugars on the baking aisle, as well as online.
And now for my secret ingredient that makes these cookies taste so buttery… Butter extract! It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But it’s true—this recipe has just 4 tablespoons of butter for all 24 cookies, yet they still taste as indulgent as traditional recipes with a full cup of butter, all thanks to the butter extract! It’s relatively inexpensive, and you can find it on the baking aisle near the other extracts, as well as online. Walmart also sells a larger, less expensive bottle on their wedding aisle.
As the finishing touch, you’ll roll the cookies in a mixture of cinnamon and Truvia just before baking to give them their crunchy outer coating. Truvia is made from stevia, which is a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener that’s clean eating friendly. Just like the coconut sugar, you can find it on the baking aisle of just about any grocery store near the other sugar and sugar substitutes. Amazon sells it, too.
The cookies will spread a little bit while baking, but it’s still necessary to give them what I call a “spreading head start!” In other words, you must flatten the cookie dough to at least half of its original height before popping the trays in the oven. I also like to sprinkle a little more of the cinnamon-Truvia mixture onto their tops…
Because it makes them taste even more irresistible!
Time to go bake more!
My newly released Healthier Chocolate Treats cookbook is full of sweet and healthy recipes like these snickerdoodles! Reserve your copy here before it sells out!
| Chai Spice Snickerdoodles | | Print |
- for the cookies
- 2 cups (240g) whole wheat pastry flour or gluten-free* flour (measured correctly)
- 1 ½ tsp cornstarch
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 tbsp (56g) unsalted butter or coconut oil*, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp butter extract
- 1 cup (192g) coconut sugar
- for the coating
- 6 tbsp (80g) Truvia
- ¾ - 1 tsp cinnamon, or to taste
- To prepare the cookies, whisk together the flour and next 7 ingredients (through salt) in a medium bowl. Whisk together the butter, eggs, vanilla, and butter extract in a separate bowl. Stir in the coconut sugar. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. To prepare the coating, stir together the Truvia and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Roll the dough into 24 spheres, and place onto the prepared baking sheets. If the dough is still sticky, use a spoon and spatula to drop it into rounded scoops onto the baking sheets instead. Working with one sphere at a time, drop it into the cinnamon mixture, and roll it around until it’s completely coated. Place the sphere back onto the baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining dough. Once all of the spheres have been coated, roll them around in the cinnamon mixture again for a second coat.
- Flatten each sphere to about half of its original height, and sprinkle the tops with a little more of the cinnamon mixture. Bake at 350°F for 9-11 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
The cornstarch helps keep the cookies soft and chewy.
I highly recommend using butter instead of coconut oil for the best taste!
Butter extract is what makes these healthier snickerdoodles taste as rich and buttery as traditional recipes. You can find it on the baking aisle near the other extracts, and it’s fairly inexpensive. I highly recommend against substituting for it, but in a pinch, vanilla extract will work.
Brown sugar may be substituted for the coconut sugar, and granulated sugar may be substituted for the Truvia. If either of these substitutions are used, the cookies will no longer be clean eating friendly.
When rolling the cookie dough in the cinnamon-Truvia mixture, it sometimes doesn’t stick very well. As long as you sprinkle extra on the tops of the cookies just before baking, it’ll be fine.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
I’ve tried this and they came out hard and cakey. I did make quite a lot of substitutions (flax egg, half the sugar, creamed butter and didn’t roll them in cinnamon sugar) so could that be the problem? I don’t have an egg allergy, but just wanted to try egg substitutes in baking ????. I’m also quite lazy to melt the butter because they pop a lot in my microwave. However, the taste was amazing. Would love more recipes with butter extract!
One more thing is how do you get rid of cookies with underbaked middle? Like its basically kinda grey, wet and soft in the middle of the cookies. Also I just realised I commented twice… Please delete my first comment.
I’m so honored that you tried another one of my recipes Sue! Unfortunately… Those modifications are definitely what caused your cookies to turn out hard and cakey. The biggest culprit was only using half of the sugar! In many cookie recipes of mine, including this one, sugar contributes to the “wet” or “liquid” ingredients. By using only half, the balance of wet to dry ingredients is way off… Which means your cookie dough was probably too dry… Which means your cookies would’ve turned out cakey and hard, rather than soft and chewy.
Using creamed butter, rather than melted, would’ve contributed to this as well. Melted butter is a liquid, whereas creamed butter is still solid. However, since you said your butter pops a lot in the microwave, I’m guessing you actually used margarine — not butter! Margarine does pop and explode in the microwave, whereas butter should not. If you’re using margarine, then melt it in a pot over the stove instead to avoid those pops (and messes!) in the microwave. 🙂
When you’re asking about cookies with a gray, wet, and soft middle, is that how a recipe of mine turned out? Or was it someone else’s recipe?
Finally, I do have more recipes that use butter extract! You can find them here. I’d love to hear what you think if you try any of them!
Thanks for the reply Amy! It was from your pumpkin sugar cookies (I made no modifications to it). This does occur sometimes when I’m tryIng others’ recipes too. Here’s an example of what it looks like.
It’s my pleasure Sue! I think the easiest thing to try first would be to bake the cookies longer. If it happens a lot (as in nearly every time you bake cookies!), then it might actually be that your oven isn’t functioning properly, runs cold, or something like that. Do your other baked treats (muffins, brownies, cupcakes, etc!) also turn out underdone?
I did make them longer, but it became more burned and harder (the gray part didn’t go away too). This also happened the first time I made your original sugar cookies but didn’t the second time (they were so good they became my favorite recipe from your site). Other than cookies, I’ve also tried your microwave brownie recipe and it didn’t turn out good (the oven option was under cooked). My biscuits (the American one) from other sites didn’t work well too. But other than those, everything is fine.
I apologize for always spamming you with these ????. I’m just really curious whether this happens a lot to others too. This is why I wanted to personally text you instead of commenting here. ????
Hey Amy! It’s a regular oven and is electric. There are five rack position notches and I usually put it at the third or fourth.
For the brownie part, it was more molten lava cake ish rather than cakey or fudgy to be more specific (this was after they cooled )
I see! If almost all American cookie recipes aren’t working in your oven, not just my recipes, then it does sound like it’s an issue with the oven rather than the recipes… Especially because this doesn’t happen to most of my readers and followers. 😉 How long did you bake my microwave brownie recipe for? Did you go based off of time or off of looks (seeing as I gave directions about both!)?
Also, do you mind me asking where you’re located and what kind of oven you have (gas, electric, regular, convection / fan-assisted)? (And it’s a regular oven, correct? Not a countertop toaster?) Inside of your oven, where is the oven rack positioned: the top, middle, or bottom third of your oven?
I live in Malaysia. It’s a regular oven though I do use the air fryer sometimes (I use ovens mostly for cookies, but I used the air fryer for the brownie so that might be the problem? But it’s fine with another one of your brownie recipe and other baked goods. The oven is also fine with those). The oven is positioned in the middle.
I actually referred “American biscuits” to the one you eat in the south with gravy ????! Not to be confused with British biscuits (known as cookies to Americans).
Thanks for sharing Sue! I don’t own an air fryer, so I have no idea how my recipes turn out when made in one. That could definitely be part of the problem! Is your oven gas or electric, and is it regular or convection / fan-assisted? How many different rack position notches are there inside?
I don’t know how but the comment ended up being up there! So please refer to that
No worries whatsoever Sue! That’s really helpful to know about your oven (being a regular electric and using the third or fourth notch position out of five in total). The rack position can often have an effect on how things bake, so I’m starting to wonder if that’s part of the issue!
If you use the fourth or fifth notch, the baking pan will be hotter at the bottom, meaning the bottoms of things will bake faster (or develop a hard bottom crust or even burn!), while the tops of things won’t bake quite as quickly. If use use the first or second notch, the reverse is true — the tops of things will bake faster (or develop a crisp top crust or possibly burn!), while the bottoms of things won’t bake as quickly.
So for something like cookies or biscuits, where they’re not very tall (compared to a loaf of bread or a bundt cake, for example!), I’d recommend using the third (aka middle) notch for the most even baking. With the third notch, the baking pan should be just about centered in your oven, so it should be heated equally from the top and bottom, which should hopefully eliminate some of those issues that you’ve experienced!
Does all of that make sense? 🙂 Also, did you have any other questions I forgot to answer? I got a little distracted with my nerdy oven explanation! 😉
Thank you so much Amy! You’ve been extremely helpful. I don’t think I have any questions at the moment but I’ll definitely seek advice from you next time! You’re a lifesaver!
It’s my pleasure, Sue! I’m always happy to help! 🙂 If you think of anything else, please don’t hesitate to ask!