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.
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.