Cherry Chai Cookies (Vegan)
A wonderfully delicious cookie with a crispy exterior and chewy interior, showcasing the irresistible flavors of tart cherry and chai. This easy bake is dairy-free, egg-free, and perfect for a special occasion or weekend treat.
These cookies are inspired by Starbucks’ Cherry Chai Latte and pack a tasty punch with cherry and chai flavors. They mix together a cherry cookie dough made with tart cherry powder and a chai cookie dough that has a cozy blend of warm spices. Finished off with sprinkles of cherry sugar and chai sugar, these cookies turn out crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and full of flavor. They’re super fun to make and absolutely delicious!
What you will need:
Cherry powder and warm spices are a must for this recipe. I purchased my cherry powder – Food to Live Organic Cherry Powder – from Amazon. The rest of the ingredients needed for this recipe can easily be found at your local grocery store. From time to time, cardamom has been difficult for me to found. If you can not find it locally, it can be purchased at Amazon.
- all purpose flour
- baking soda
- baking powder
- cane sugar
- vanilla extract
- plant based butter with salt
- plant based yogurt
- chai mix – ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves
- cherry powder
How to:
These cookies require two separate cookie doughs – cherry cookie dough and chai cookie dough – to achieve their lovely look and taste. It is a perfectly paired mashup that tastes very similar to the Starbucks Cherry Chai Latte.
Let’s begin with the cherry cookie dough. Combine the flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a small bowl. Whisk the ingredients together and set the bowl aside. Place the butter and sugar in a medium bowl. With a hand-held mixer, blend the sugar and butter on high speed for 2 minutes. To the butter mixture, add the vanilla extract, yogurt, and cherry powder. Blend the mixture on high speed for another minute. Add the dry ingredients to the cherry mixture. Blend on medium speed just until no more flour is seen. Set the cherry cookie dough aside.
To prepare the chai cookie dough, start by adding all of the dry ingredients to a small bowl – flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Whisk the ingredients to combine and set the bowl aside. To a medium bowl, add the butter and sugar. Using a hand-held mixer, blend the sugar and butter on high speed for 2 minutes. To the butter mixture, add the yogurt and vanilla extract. Blend on high speed for another minute. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Blend on medium speed just until no more flour is seen.
The rolling sugar should be prepared before assembling the cookies. The cherry sugar is a simple combination of cane sugar and cherry powder. The chai sugar is a combination of cane sugar, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
To form the cookies, start by scooping one tablespoon of cherry cookie dough and rolling it into a ball. Then, scoop one tablespoon of chai cookie dough and roll that into a ball as well. Bring the two cookie dough balls together and roll them into a single cookie dough ball. Roll the cherry portion of the cookie in cherry sugar and the chai portion in chai sugar. Place the formed and sugared dough ball on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat this process until all the cookies have been formed and rolled in sugar. Finally, place the cookie dough balls in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare two cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper. Once the oven has reached the desired temperature, remove the cookie dough balls from the refrigerator. Arrange 4 to 5 cookie dough balls on a the pan, making sure to leave enough space for them to spread. Gently flatten each dough ball to about one-third of its height so that it is approximately 2.5 inches in diameter. Sprinkle a little extra cherry sugar over the cherry dough and chai sugar over the chai dough. Make sure to place the remaining cookie dough balls back into the refrigerator between batches.
Bake the cookies for 12 minutes. These cookies benefitted from some reshaping as they came out of the oven. To achieve this, you can use a large glass, a spatula, or a cookie ring. I used a large cookie/muffin ring and I did my reshaping as soon as the cookies came out of the oven. Allow the cookies to rest on the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.
Alright, let’s get started. Please make, bake and enjoy!
Cherry Chai Cookies (Vegan)
Ingredients
Cherry Cookie Dough
- 2 tbsp / 30 grams plant based yogurt – room temperature
- 4 tbsp / 56 grams plant based butter with salt – room temperature
- 1 cup / 120 grams all purpose flour
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup / 100 grams cane sugar
- ½ tbsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp + 1 tsp cherry powder – I used Food to Live Organic Cherry Powder
Chai Cookie Dough
- 2 tbsp / 30 grams plant based yogurt – room temperature
- 4 tbsp / 56 grams plant based butter with salt – room temperature
- 1 cup / 120 grams all purpose flour
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup / 100 grams cane sugar
- ½ tbsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp ginger
- ½ tsp cardamom
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp cloves
Cherry Sugar
- 2 tbsp cane sugar
- ½ tbsp cherry powder
Chai Sugar
- 2 tbsp cane sugar
- ¼ tsp ginger
- ¼ tsp cardamom
- ⅛ tsp cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp nutmeg
- 1/16 tsp cloves
Instructions
Cherry Cookie Dough
- To a small bowl, add the flour, baking soda and baking powder; whisk to combine and set aside.
- To a medium bowl, add the sugar and butter. With a hand-held mixer, blend the butter and sugar together on medium high speed for 2 minutes. Add the yogurt, vanilla extract and cherry powder. Continue blending on medium high speed for another minute.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Continue blending with the hand-held mixer on medium speed just until no more flour can be seen. Set the bowl aside while you prepare the chai cookie dough.
Chai Cookie Dough
- To a small bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; whisk to combine and set aside.
- To a medium bowl, add the sugar and butter. With a hand-held mixer, blend the butter and sugar together on medium high speed for 2 minutes. Add the yogurt and vanilla extract. Continue blending on medium high speed for another minute.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Continue blending with the hand-held mixer on medium speed just until no more flour can be seen.
Cherry Sugar
- To a small bowl, combine the cherry powder and cane sugar; set aside for rolling later.
Chai Sugar
- To a small bowl, combine the cane sugar, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; set aside for rolling later.
Forming the Cookies
- Have a parchment lined pan ready. We are going to form the cookie dough balls, roll them in sugar and then place them in the refrigerator for one hour before baking them.
- To make each cookie, you will need one tablespoon of each cookie dough. Scoop 1 tbsp of cherry dough and roll it into a ball. Scoop 1 tbsp of chai cookie dough and roll it into a ball. Press the two dough balls together and roll it into one cookie dough ball. Dip the cherry portion into the cherry sugar and dip the chai portion into the chai sugar. Place the prepared cookie dough ball onto the prepared pan. Repeat this until you have formed all of the cookie dough balls.
- Place the formed cookie dough balls in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare 2 cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper. Once the oven reaches temperature, remove the cookie dough balls from the refrigerator. Place 4 to 5 cookie dough balls per cookie sheet. Flatten each dough ball by about 1/3rd (about 2.5 inches in diameter) and sprinkle a little more sugar on the cookies (cherry sugar over the cherry dough and chai sugar over the chai dough).Keep any unbaked dough balls in the refrigerator between batches.
- Bake the cookies for 12 minutes. These cookies benefitted from some reshaping. This needs to be done as soon as they come out of the oven. You can use a large glass, or spatula to accomplish this. I used a large cookie/muffin ring. Allow the cookies to rest on the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.
