A high altitude tested, no spread recipe for soft vanilla sugar cookies flavored with fall spices, then iced with vanilla bean icing. These chai spice sugar cookies are warm and cozy, and perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday baking.
You might also love these maple leaf sugar cookies, Christmas tree sugar cookies, and snowflake sugar cookies.
This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that I may make a small commission if you purchase a product using those links. This in no way affects my opinion of those products and services. All opinions expressed on this site are my own.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
No Spread Sugar Cookie Recipe. I really can’t say enough good things about the sugar cookies themselves. With flecks of real vanilla bean and cozy fall spices, the flavor of the cookies is just wonderful, with a delicious balance of sugar, butter and vanilla that’s not too sweet. They’re soft, flaky and tender, and they hold their shape beautifully when they bake. They are my go to cutout cookie recipe every time I want to make decorated cutout cookies for the holidays.
Soft, not Crunchy. These chai spice sugar cookies stay soft for days after baking, too. And even though the vanilla royal icing dries and crusts over on the surface, it stays soft underneath for a cookie that everyone will love.
Cozy Chai Flavors. Chai spice mixes typically include cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and sometimes star anise. There’s so much warmth and coziness in these spices, and they come together beautifully in these delicious fall cookies.
Simplified Decorating Technique. With an easy recipe for royal icing, you can quickly ice your cookies by simply dipping the cookies in the icing. There are no piping bag skills required to get beautiful results on your iced sugar cookies.
High Altitude Tested. While I develop everything on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet, today’s sugar cookie recipe will work great at any altitude with no adjustments needed.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Flour. All-purpose flour gives the cookie dough structure and strength.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens the dough, while the fine texture makes a more tender cookie than if you used granulated sugar. You’ll also be using powdered sugar for the icing.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Spices. A blend of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom and vanilla extract adds warmth and flavor to these chai spice sugar cookies.
- Butter. Makes a rich, tender buttery cookie.
- Milk. Moistens the dough to bind it together. While most sugar cookie recipes use an egg for moisture, the egg will make the cookies spread, while the milk will not.
- Meringue Powder. A necessary ingredient in royal icing, to help the icing dry and set.
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, powdered sugar, salt and spices until combined.
- With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.
- Add the vanilla and the milk, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray bits of flour. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Roll and Cut the Dough
- Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness between 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick.
- Use any size/shape cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can, placing the cut cookies 2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can. Using a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, you should get around 3 dozen cookies.
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes. Chilling the cut cookies helps to ensure they don’t spread and hold their shape perfectly while baking.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake one pan of cookies at a time, keeping the other pan refrigerated until needed. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 11 1/2 – 12 minutes. The tops should be a very pale golden with no dark browning, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely before icing. Sugar cookies are delicate when warm, so handle with care.
Ice the Cookies
- In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and meringue powder.
- Add the vanilla and water, and whisk until smooth.
- To ice the cookies, hold a cookie by its edges and dip the top of the cookie in the icing. Lightly shake off the excess icing, then set it right side up to dry.
- For embossed cookies (like the turkey, leaves and acorns in the photographs), just very lightly dip them so the icing only catches on the raised portion of the design, but doesn’t get into the cracks and grooves. This way, the design will be beautifully highlighted by the icing.
- Let the icing set and dry for about an hour. If you like, lightly sprinkle the cookies with cinnamon sugar for a sparkly finish.
Storing and Freezing
- Freezing the Dough: To make the dough in advance, wrap the disks of dough in plastic wrap, label them, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for 3-6 months. Frozen dough should be thawed overnight in the refrigerator. Then take the dough out of the fridge about 1 hour before you’re ready to roll out the dough. It should still be cool to the touch when you roll it out, but pliable enough to roll without too much difficulty.
- Storing the Baked Cookies: The baked cookies should be cooled completely then stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If you won’t be frosting and decorating them immediately, freeze the cookies in an airtight container for 3-6 months.
- Storing the Iced Cookies: Iced chai spice sugar cookies should be dried completely for at least several hours, before storing in a single layer in an airtight container.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t have a food processor, you’ll need a large bowl and a pastry cutter. In the bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Scatter with the cold butter pieces and use the pastry cutter to cut the butter in until very finely cut and evenly distributed. Drizzle with the vanilla and milk, then use your hands to work the liquid into the dry ingredients until it forms into a soft dough.
I’ve had all these cookie cutters for years, collecting them here and there at various local craft stores like Michael’s, Joanne’s and Hobby Lobby. You can find similar 2 1/2 inch fluted or scalloped round cookie cutters or biscuit cutters on Amazon. For the smaller embossed cookie cutters, look for fall pie crust cutters or embossed cutters that have a spring loaded plunger. This allows you to press the design onto the cookie, and easily releases it from the cutter. These types of cutters are typically smaller, for mini cookies that are about 1 1/2 inches.
You need the meringue powder for your icing to be successful. You can find meringue powder at your local Walmart, Michael’s, Joanne’s and Hobby Lobby, as well as on Amazon.
You Might Also Like
Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!
Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
Iced Chai Spice Sugar Cookies
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Food Processor or Pastry Cutter
- Rolling Pin and Cookie Cutters
Ingredients
Cookies
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¾ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp ground cardamom
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup whole milk
Icing
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tbsp meringue powder
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 3 ½ tbsp water
- 1 tbsp cinnamon sugar, for decorating
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- In your food processor, pulse the flour, powdered sugar, salt and spices until combined.
- With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.
- Add the vanilla and the milk, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
- Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray bits of flour. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Roll and Cut the Dough
- Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness between 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick.
- Use any size/shape cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can, placing the cut cookies 2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can. Using a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, you should get around 3 dozen cookies.
- Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes. Chilling the cut cookies helps to ensure they don't spread and hold their shape perfectly while baking.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake one pan of cookies at a time, keeping the other pan refrigerated until needed. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 11 1/2 – 12 minutes. The tops should be a very pale golden with no dark browning, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely before icing. Sugar cookies are delicate when warm, so handle with care.
Ice the Cookies
- In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and meringue powder.
- Add the vanilla and water, and whisk until smooth.
- To ice the cookies, hold a cookie by its edges and dip the top of the cookie in the icing. Lightly shake off the excess icing, then set it right side up to dry.
- For embossed cookies (like the turkey, leaves and acorns in the photographs), just very lightly dip them so the icing only catches on the raised portion of the design, but doesn't get into the cracks and grooves. This way, the design will be beautifully highlighted by the icing.
- Let the icing set and dry for about an hour. If you like, lightly sprinkle the cookies with cinnamon sugar for a sparkly finish.
Notes
- Making the Dough without a Food Processor: If you don’t have a food processor, you’ll need a large bowl and a pastry cutter. In the bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Scatter with the cold butter pieces and use the pastry cutter to cut the butter in until very finely cut and evenly distributed. Drizzle with the vanilla and milk, then use your hands to work the liquid into the dry ingredients until it forms into a soft dough.
- Storing the Baked Cookies: The baked cookies should be cooled completely then stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If you won’t be frosting and decorating them immediately, freeze the cookies in an airtight container for 3-6 months.
- Freezing the Dough: To make the dough in advance, wrap the disks of dough in plastic wrap, label them, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for 3-6 months. Frozen dough should be thawed overnight in the refrigerator. Then take the dough out of the fridge about 1 hour before you’re ready to roll out the dough. It should still be cool to the touch when you roll it out, but pliable enough to roll without too much difficulty.
- Storing the Iced Cookies: Iced cookies should be dried completely for at least several hours, before storing in a single layer in an airtight container.
Tried these tonight and wondering where I went wrong. I’m in NOCO, similar elevation as Denver.
The dough was very dry and kept crumbling apart. After chilling for 20min, it just cracked apart when trying to roll it out. Added several more teaspoons of milk to try and salvage it as I cut cookies.
Couldn’t get the cookies to brown on top at all. Baked for 13min total trying to get some color. Texture is very dry/chalky and flavor is okay. Will try icing them to see if that helps.
Any advice? TIA!
Sounds like your measurements were wrong somewhere – either not enough liquid or too much flour. Be sure you’re measuring your flour correctly, by fluffing it up into the canister first, lightly spooning it into your measuring cups, then leveling off the top. Never use the measuring cup to scoop the flour, which will pack too much in. Also, these cookies are not meant to brown. See my original vanilla sugar cookies post, which this recipe is based on, for more tips: https://curlygirlkitchen.com/perfect-vanilla-sugar-cookies-no-spread-recipe/
Hi there! I don’t have a food processor, but I do have a standing mixer. Would that still work for the recipes you have that use a food processor?
It may work, although I’ve never made the dough with my mixer. When I don’t want to dirty my food processor, I just make it by hand with a pastry cutter to cut in the butter, and then use my hands to work in the liquid.
Do you happen to have a gluten free version of this cookie? It sounds amazing! Thanks!