As a very famous Mad Hatter once said, “It’s always tea time.” And here at Brit HQ, that is certainly true! We are tea fanatics and love brewing all the crazy (and classic) flavors and using the latest tea brewing gadgets. But this week we wanted to celebrate our love for tea with our readers and give you a peek into some of the ways we take our tea, including tea in our cookies!
Pro Tip: Prep for you baking session by setting any ingredients out that should be at room temperature at least a few hours before.
1. Thai Tea Shortbread Cookies
Anyone who loves Thai Iced Tea will love these! In fact, these Thai cookies would go great with Thai Iced Tea. If you haven’t tried it, it’s a must. And if you don’t have access to unflavored Thai tea, you can order it here or just use a dark tea and blend it in a grinder or food processor with 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of cloves, 1/4 teaspoon cardamom, and 1/4 teaspoon of star anise.
Ingredients:
Cookies
– 3/4 cup (6 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature
– 2 tablespoons loose Thai tea
– 1 tablespoon water
– 1/2 cup granulated sugar
– 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
– 1/2 cup cornstarch
– 1 giant tea bag to use as a template
Glaze
– 1 cup powdered sugar
– 3 tablespoons sweet and condensed milk
– 1 tablespoons Thai tea
– 2 drops black food coloring
– 1 drop orange food coloring
Instructions:
1. Using a grinder or food processor, blend Thai Iced Tea (or homemade mix) into a fine powder and reserve for later.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a kitchen mixer, cream the butter, sugar, Thai iced tea powder and water until light and fluffy. Set your mixer to low and mix in the flour and cornstarch until just combined. Cover and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
3. Roll the dough out onto a surface dusted with flour until it’s ¼ inch thick.
4. Place a giant sized tea bag on top of rolled out dough to use as a template and cut around the shape of the tea bag with a knife. Using a straw, press a hole at the top center of each cookie. Remove the straw and blow out the little dough pieces inside so it can stamp the remaining cookies.
5. Use a spatula to place the “tea bags” onto a cookie sheet and bake for about 18 minutes, or until lightly golden. Remove cookies and allow them to cool.
6. While the cookies are baking, prepare the dipping glaze: Mix together powdered sugar, milk, tea and food colorings. Once the cookies have cooled, dip them half way into the glaze and allow glaze to harden.
7. To complete your “tea bags,” fasten a 1-inch square tag using bakers twine, loop twine through the hole in each cookie and tie off.
Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Then cream the butter, sugar, tea, and water until light and fluffy. Mix in the flours with your mixer on low until just combined. Cover and place in the fridge for 1 hour. Then roll the dough out onto a surface dusted with flour so it’s 1/4 inch thick. Place a giant size tea bag on top to use a template.
Use a knife to cut around the shape of the tea bag. Then use a straw to press a hole at the top. Remove the straw and blow out the little dough piece inside so you can stamp the other tea bags as well. Use a spatula to place the “tea bags” onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 18 minutes, or until lightly golden. Remove the cookies and allow them cool. While they are cooking, prepare the dipping glaze by mixing together the powdered sugar, milk, tea, and food colorings. Once the cookies have cooled, dip them half way into the glaze and allow them to harden.
To complete your tea bags, tie on 1-inch square tags using baker’s twine!
You could write your guests’ names on them and use them as place cards, or use them as favors at a wedding and write the bride and groom’s initials on them. The options are endless!
2. Chai Tea Sugar Cookies
This was the office favorite. What can we say—we just love sugar! This fun update will appease your sweet tooth, while adding a more interesting layer of flavor for a more refined palate.
Just like with the Thai tea cookies, to make the chai powder, blend up about 10 tea bags of chai tea in a coffee grinder or food processor.
Ingredients:
– 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/4 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 cup vanilla sugar
– 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
– 4 ounces unsalted butter (at room temperature)
– 1 egg (at room temperature)
– 2 tablespoons chai tea powder
Instructions:
1. Using a grinder or food processor, blend chai tea into a fine powder and reserve for later.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a kitchen mixer, cream together your wet mix of butter, brown sugar and vanilla sugar (get the recipe here!). Mix on medium-high until fluffy and light in color. Add in egg and mix in completely, then add in 2 tablespoons chai tea powder and mix in completely.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry mix of flour, baking soda and salt. With your kitchen mixer set to low, slowly incorporate into the wet mix until combined. Don not over mix!
4. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for about 2 hours or in the freezer for 20 minutes. Then roll out onto a floured surface.
5. Using tea themed cookie cutters, cut out your cookies and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with a little vanilla sugar and left over chai tea powder.
6. Bake for 11-13 minutes depending on the thickness of your cookie and allow to cool.
No vanilla sugar? No problem! We will be sharing recipes for infused sugars next week, but just to get you going, here is a little home-hack on how to make your own vanilla sugar. Buy some whole vanilla pods, cut open the pods, scrape out the beans, and put both inside a jar filled halfway with sugar. Then fill the jar all the way to the top with sugar and put on a lid. Allow the sugar to absorb the vanilla for at least 24 hours before using it. Refill the sugar as you use it; the beans and pods will remain fragrant and infuse your sugar with vanilla flavor for a really long time. That’s it! Simple, huh? Now you know: You never need to go out and buy pre-made vanilla sugar!
Now, back to the cookies. Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Then cream together the butter, vanilla sugar, and brown sugar. Mix on medium-high until fluffy and light in color. Now add the egg. After that has mixed in completely, add in the 2 tablespoons of chai tea powder. Mix until completely blended. Next up, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in separate bowl. Add it slowly into the wet dough mixture with the mixer on low. Mix until just combined; do not over mix!
Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for about 2 hours, or in the freezer for 20 minutes. Then roll it out onto a floured surface. Use cute tea themed cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes. Place your cookies on a greased cookie sheet and sprinkle them with a little vanilla sugar and chai tea powder. Bake for 11-13 minutes, depending on the thickness of your cookie. Allow to cool before having the most adorable tea party ever.
3. Green Tea Coconut Cookies
Green tea powder has a very distinctive flavor and people either love it or they hate it. We loved this version with the addition of the toasted coconut. Just know that these cookies aren’t as sweet as the other two recipes.
Ingredients:
– 1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)
– 3/4 cup coconut oil
– 1 tablespoon green tea powder
– 1/2 cup powdered sugar
– 1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut (for the dough)
– 1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut (for the topping)
– 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Using a kitchen mixer, cream together butter, coconut oil, green tea powder and powdered sugar until smooth. Add shredded coconut and flour until just combined. The mixture should be a little crumbly but should still stick together.
2. Roll the dough into balls a little smaller than golf balls. Press into coconut flakes and cover either half of each dough ball or the whole dough ball with the coconut flakes, according to preference. (Or bake plain and top with powdered sugar once dough balls are cooled).
3. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes and allow to cool completely. Dust powdered sugar on any plain dough balls and serve.
Begin by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Cream together the butter, coconut oil, green tea powder, and powdered sugar until smooth. Then add the shredded coconut and flour until just combined.
The mixture will be a little crumbly but should still stick together. Roll the dough into balls a little smaller than a golf ball and press into coconut flakes before placing on a greased cookie sheet. We only dipped half of the dough balls into the coconut flakes, just in case some of the guests coming to our tea party didn’t love coconut. Bake for 10-15 minutes and then allow to cool completely. Now dust powdered sugar on any dough balls you didn’t bake with coconut flakes.
Now it’s time for our tea cookie tea party! We couldn’t decide which cookies we liked best, so we made all three!
These sugar cookies in the shape of tea kettles just proves our theory once again that everything is cuter in miniature.
After drinking tea and eating tea cookies, a caffeine buzz might make you start to agree with the Mad Hatter when he says, “We’re all mad here.”
Did you try baking any of these? Which one was your favorite? Talk to us in the comments below!
