chai snickerdoodles;
A spicy new take on a classic cookie: the snickerdoodle! Take everything you love about a melt-in-the-mouth sweet cinnamon sugar snickerdoodle, and add chai spices to the mix to make these chai snickerdoodles. Instead of pure cinnamon sugar—don’t worry, there’s plenty of cinnamon still—we add flavors like black tea, cardamom, and ginger into the mix. The spices hit up front but then mellow out as you continue to eat a cookie…or two…or three!
This recipe for chai snickerdoodles is one of @innkeepercaroline‘s exclusive subscriber recipes, and let me tell you, every recipe of hers I’ve tried has been a hit! I made a few minor tweaks (adjusting the spices slightly), but that was about it. She has so many nummy recipes, so I highly recommend subscribing if you want more delicious recipes! If you’re not in the mood for paying for content, then check out her public-facing page. Her day-to-day videos on her work at an inn are fascinating and somehow also really relaxing!
When it comes to these chai snickerdoodles, I found the recipe to be pretty foolproof. It does have canola oil in the dough, which I don’t see a lot of for cookies, but it adds tenderness to the final cookie and makes the dough a dream to handle.
This dough works great baking immediately or even from refrigeration for up to 4 days.
secret to success
Caroline left a note on the chai snickerdoodles that you can easily double the recipe. I did, even though it was the first time trying the recipe, which is a little daring for me. But it came out great! I wanted to make a double batch so we could have a few to snack on, but also bring them to holidays. So I made one batch of dough, but only baked off half immediately. The other half I stored in the fridge covered by plastic wrap and baked off 4 days later—still came out perfectly!
I do wait to roll the chai snickerdoodles in the cinnamon sugar mixture right before baking. Not sure it would make a difference to store them in the fridge pre-sugared, but I didn’t want the moisture of the cookies to affect the classic snickerdoodle sugar dusting. I admit I doctored the cinnamon sugar mixture just a tiny bit by adding a pinch of ginger. It adds a little extra tangy kick and further reinforces all the chai spices inside.
Add a pinch of ginger to the cinnamon sugar mix that you roll the cookies in. It adds a little extra kick up front!
secret to success
When it comes to the chai spices in these chai snickerdoodles, we’re using a mix of black tea, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Chai itself is a versatile spice blend and can also use other spices like cloves or star anise, or sometimes even pepper or fennel. Chai spice blends are notoriously varied and depend on personal preference.
I have a chai tea I love and was sorely tempted to use that, but I don’t know the exact ingredient ratios and figured it was best to stick to the original recipe (mostly). The blend of spices here complements the sweet cookie well and keeps it from being overly sweet.
Chai spice blends are notoriously varied and depend on personal preference. The below ratios seem to work great to complement the sweet cookie.
secret to success
Of course, if you’re feeling adventurous, you could tweak the spices to suit your taste. Even if you sub a chai tea blend for the black tea, I would still add additional spices to make sure the cookies get a full and robust chai flavor profile all throughout.
secrets to success;
Want all the best tips and tricks to make this recipe a success? Check out the blog post above to find out more!
more recipes;
Looking for other fall favorite recipes? Check out these delicious options~
- This apple butter tart is a beautiful twist on a pumpkin pie, but uses apple butter instead of pumpkin. Bonus points if you want to make your own slow cooker apple butter!
- No fall table is complete without at least one of the 5 best holiday pies! So many options to choose from…will you pick classic apple pie or an apple pecan streusel pie? Or a decadent s’mores french silk pie?
- The perfect sweet side dish to any Thanksgiving table is sweet potato soufflé! Crunchy nuts, sweet, sweet potatoes, and a brown sugar topping that’s to die for!
innkeeper chai snickerdoodles;
Ingredients
Chai Snickerdoodles
- ½ cup butter softened, 1 stick (113g)
- ½ cup canola oil (113g)
- ½ cup brown sugar (108g)
- ½ cup powdered sugar (60g)
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp vanilla
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour (300g)
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp cream of tartar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 black tea bag
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ginger
- ⅛ tsp cardamom
- ⅛ allspice
Coating:
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 F (176°C) and adjust a rack to the middle.
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together ½ cup butter, ½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add ½ cup canola oil, 1 egg, and ½ tsp vanilla. Mix to incorporate. It's ok if a little chunky at this stage.
- Add in 2¼ cups flour ~½ cup at a time, and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Add the remaining ingredients: ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp cream of tartar, ¼ tsp salt, tea from 1 black tea bag (cut and emptied into the bowl), ½ cinnamon, ¼ tsp nutmeg, ¼ tsp ginger, ⅛ tsp cardamom, ⅛ tsp allspice. Mix on low until incorporated.
- Make the cinnamon sugar by adding ¼ cup each of white sugar and cinnamon and mixing until combined.
- Using a cookie scoop or two spoons, drop balls of dough into the cinnamon sugar and roll to coat. For large cookies, make ~17 balls, otherwise makes ~30 heaping Tbsp cookies
- Place the dough balls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes for large cookies, 8-10 for regular sized. Let cool.
1 Comments
Laura
January 20, 2026 at 7:31 am
Great variation on snickerdoodles. The chai goes so well.
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