Fall Cookies: Chai Spiced Shortbread

Hey, friends. Welcome back to my blog!

I’m a bit ill right now, as I’ve come down with a bout of I-cannot-stop-eating-all-the-fall-food-itis. Maybe you’ve heard of it. 🙂

Seriously, though, since we have been back from the cruise, I just want to eat all the seasonal items! Pumpkin, maple, cinnamon, these cranberry-walnut jar cookies – you name it – I want it! I almost bought pumpkin-apple ravioli today at the store, though I had enough control to put it back on the shelf at the last minute – LOL.

On theme with scarfing down all the autumn delicacies, I wanted to share with you a fantastic tutorial for chai-spiced fall cookies! I love this recipe for a seasonal treat that is a bit more unique than traditional pumpkin-flavored-everything (no shade though, I still love pumpkin, too).

The only thing that might top the taste of these subtle fall cookies is the adorable royal icing finish. I’ll walk you through how to shape the cookies into cute fall items (leaves, acorns, etc.) and decorate them with a sweet, colorful icing! Talk about a fantastic fall delight!

Let’s get to it! (I’m practically drooling already.)

 

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Gather The Following Ingredients To Make Your Chai Fall Cookies:

Cookie Ingredient List

• 3.5 cups flour
• 2 cups room temperature butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2.5 tsp cardamom
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cloves
• .5 tsp black pepper
• fall cookie cutters (here are the cute ones I used!)
• parchment paper
• rolling pin
• plastic wrap

Icing Ingredient List

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• .5 cup pasteurized liquid egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla
• food coloring (I like to use these gels for the best saturation and easiest mixing)
• silicone/washable piping bags and a #3 tip

Like my mug? I found it in the clearance at Jo-Ann Fabric, but here and here are some similar designs online!

Chai Fall Cookies Video Tutorial:

Here’s my quick video tutorial showing how to bake and decorate your tasty autumn treats!

Chai Fall Cookies – Baking:

First, preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

After prepping your kitchen, cream together the room-temperature butter and brown sugar until fluffy, or about 3-5 minutes. Add in the vanilla extract, and mix again!

Next, sift together the flour, cardamom, cinnamon, salt, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and pepper. Add this mixture to the wet ingredients and combine with a spatula. Yum – your kitchen will smell so enticing after utilizing all of these aromatic spices!

Then, once a rough dough forms, dump the entire mixture onto a piece of plastic, shape it into a brick, and wrap tightly. Let this rest in the freezer for 30-45 minutes. You want it to be very firm before moving on, otherwise, the butter will start to melt, subsequently ruining the shortbread texture at the end.

After the dough has chilled, hit it with a rolling pin to flatten and warm it slowly (I learned that tip from the Great British Bake-Off). Finish rolling out the dough on parchment paper until it is about 1/2 inch thick.

If the dough is too warm (you can tell because it will leave a very oily residue on your hands, stick to the work surface, and be very stretchy), cover the dough as-is (without reforming the shape) and place back in the freezer for 15-20 minutes to firm up again.

Next, using the fall cookie cutters, carefully stamp out the autumn shapes and lay them on the baking sheet. (I used the leaves, acorn, and pumpkins, so my decorating tutorial below will address these shapes.) If the dough begins to stick to the cutters, stretch (instead of pulling away from the dough easily), or feels very oily, put it back into the freezer for a few minutes until firm again.

It’s important to keep the butter in the dough cool, and this can be tricky in a warm kitchen! If your dough seems to warm up rapidly, make sure to work away from the oven or any other heat sources.

Finally, place the filled cookie sheets in the freezer for 5 minutes and then transfer directly to the preheated oven. This step allows the cookies to firm up once again and hold their shape better in the oven (that way, your pumpkins will actually resemble the fun fall gourd and not lumpy circles!)

Bake for 18-25 minutes (depending upon the size). The cookies should look “tanned” and the edges will be darkened.

Let your fall cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, and then remove them to a wire rack to finish cooling. After about two hours you are safe to ice the cookies without any melting issues.

Chai Fall Cookies – Preparing The Royal Icing

First, beat the egg whites on high until they become foamy. Be patient; it’s important to achieve the correct consistency in order that the icing sets correctly. Make sure that you are using pasteurized eggs/egg whites so that you don’t risk contracting any food-borne illnesses- yuck!

Once the egg whites peak, add in the powdered sugar on low (otherwise, be prepared to clean sugar off of every surface in your kitchen!)

Finally, mix in the vanilla extract (on high power), for about five minutes, or until thick. You want the icing to resemble the consistency of honey; if you run the back of a spoon through the icing, it should take a few seconds before it begins to fill itself back in.

Next begins the fun; pour about half of the icing into one bowl, and, then, half of what is remaining into another. Keep the rest set aside for later.

Start with the large bowl of icing, and add red and yellow food colorings to make a pumpkin-orange color. In the smaller bowl, add blue and yellow coloring gel to make green, for the stem of the pumpkin!

Adjust the colors as necessary; if you add too much food coloring, use some of the white icing we set aside to lighten the color. Now, let’s get to decorating those fall cookies!

Chai Fall Cookies – Decorating With Royal Icing

First, we use a thicker consistency to outline the cookies; this is the icing we made at the beginning of these steps.

Insert the #3 tip (or similar small size) in the piping bag until it is in as far as it can go, and snip off any extra bag material, if necessary. You may also choose to use a coupler, which will allow you to interchange the tips/bags quickly. Here is a diagram from the Kootek Piping Bag Amazon listing:

If you watch the video, you’ll notice I’m using plastic baggies because they are smaller, which means the camera has a better view of what I am doing. That way, you can better see the decorating method! However, in my everyday baking, the silicone piping bags are much easier to use, and they are reusable so you eliminate unnecessary plastic-waste, and save money in the long run!

Scoop some orange icing into your prepared piping bag and outline the border of your pumpkin cookies, like you would pipe frosting onto a cake. It is easier to hold the tip of the bag up a bit and let the icing fall out onto the cookie, instead of dragging it along.

Once the pumpkin outlines are finished, add just a few drops of water to the orange icing in the bowl and mix. Try to aim for the consistency of shampoo. This will “flood” the inside of the cookie and make a nice smooth layer of icing. (If you add too much water, mix in a bit of the thicker icing. We set aside the white icing before, and this works great for “fixing” mistakes.)

Add this thinner icing to your bag. Pinch the tip to keep it closed and “smoosh” the bag around a bit to make sure the consistency is even. Then, fill the inside of the cookie. Use a toothpick to smooth any holes or clean up any leakage. Refer to my video above for a visual tutorial!

Next, fill another piping bag with the green frosting, and use it to add a small stem to the top of your pumpkin. Let dry.

Once the icing has hardened slightly (30 minutes or so), you can go back and add more details. I like to add a little curly-cue vine attached to the stem, for example.

Second, add a small amount of orange icing to the green, and combine to make a warm brown color. Use this to decorate the tops of your acorns. This will also make a great color for the stem of your leaves, later!

Then, add more red food coloring to the orange, mix, and put in your piping bag. You can also mix more yellow into the orange and put it in another bag. Make as many color variations in each consistency as you’d like! In fact, if you want a very bright leaf, use some of the white icing set aside and made a “new” color altogether. You don’t have to stick to fall colors; make green leaves or even crazy purple leaves! Just have fun with it.

Using the red, orange, and yellow (or whatever colors you choose) bags, outline and flood your leaves. You can feel free to get creative with the color mixtures on each leaf. Some I outlined in red and then flooded with orange and yellow. For others, I did the opposite. In the photo below, I outlined part with red and the top with yellow; then, I flooded it in with orange! Remember, in nature all the leaves are unique, so don’t stress too much about making them perfect. Use the toothpick to swirl the colors together and fill in any holes.

 

Finally, add a brown stem as decoration, and your leaves are finished!

To finish your last fall shape (the acorns), add some white icing to your brown and mix to create a lighter shade. You can even use plain white icing to make a small “reflection” on the nut of the acorn, adding some depth. Be artistic with it and have some fun!

Let this icing air dry uncovered for a full 24 hours. Don’t put them in the refrigerator. Once the icing is fully hardened (after the 24 hours) you can feel free to stack them as I have shown below; then, cover and store at room-temp for a few days! The icing is pretty hearty once it is set.

 

Printable Recipe:

Enjoy Your Chai Fall Cookies!

Thanks so much for reading!! Leave me a comment and let me know what you thought of these cookies. If you are still in the mood for fall desserts, check out my Mason Jar Cranberry Walnut Cookies!

And feel free to take a peek at my budget-friendly fall decorating guide for tips, tricks, ideas, and even a link to my tutorial for making a cheap pumpkin platter to display all your baked goods at your next fall gathering!

One, last thing: don’t forget to find me on Instagram so we can keep in touch, and enter your email below to receive notification of my next blog post!

I hope you all have a good autumn!

XOXO,

P.S. Pin one of these to remember this recipe for later!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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