The weather changed ever so slightly this week; there's a briskness and nip to the air that even in the sunshine leads our thoughts to tea. A hot cup of tea is an essential cold-weather ritual for many of us, and what is tea without a cookie?
Of course, many of us drink tea year-round, not just in cold weather, but we've been indulging in the afternoon ritual of proper tea and small cookie a little more frequently this week.
Here's an easy recipe for a little cookie good with tea or milk, whipped up quickly in the bowl of your food processor. These cookies are rather literal and Amelia Bedelia-esque in that they really contain tea leaves, which are ground fine with the flour and give them a rich yet delicate flavor. With the buttery crunch of a sophisticated shortbread, these are dangerously addictive.
Fortunately, this is an icebox cookie. This means that the dough can be frozen for months and just a couple cookies sliced off and baked at a time - perfect for sweet-toothed singles and unexpected guests.
Try making them with other kinds of tea, too - orange spice, masala chai and green tea have all worked well, although Earl Grey seems to suit them best.
This batch size just fits into my 4-cup KitchenAid food processor.
Earl Grey Tea Cookies
makes 2 dozen1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon Earl Grey tea leaves*
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon water
1/2 cup unsalted butter
Preheat oven to 375°F. Pulse together all the dry ingredients in a food processor until the tea leaves are pulverized.
Add vanilla, water, and butter. Pulse together until a dough is formed. Form the dough into a log onto a piece of wax or parchment paper. Wrap the paper around and roll the log smooth. Freeze now, or chill for at least 30 minutes.
When chilled, slice the log into 1/3 inch thick pieces. Place on baking sheets and bake until the edges are just brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.
*One would think that expensive loose leaf tea would be best in this recipe. But I've actually gotten the best flavor with tea from cheap bags that I've ripped open. I think the leaves are more fine and flaky.
Related: Recipe: Best Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
(Image: Faith Durand)
(Originally published October 10, 2006)
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Comments (37)
these sound delicious! i've been looking for new cookie recipes and i'll make these this week.
When I think of cool weather and hot drinks, I think of hot cocoa, not tea. Tea is an all-occasions drink to me. A replacement for coffee in the afternoons, so that I won't wear a hole into my stomach lining from too much coffee. :D
That said...OMG I want to make these cookies. They sound scrumptious. Icebox cookies are near and dear to me because that's all my grandmother would make (and subsequently send us home with). I think I have some earl grey tea bags instead of loose at home (my most favorite tea). I'll report on my own results when I make them this week.
These sound so good! I made chocolate truffles once with a smoky Russian tea and have been meaning to cook more with tea ever since - I will definitely try these.
Update: I was inspired by this recipe to make a batch of shortbread with tea - delicious! Faith, I think you're right that tea from a bag works better than loose tea for baking; that's what I used and it was just the right consistency. Click on my name to go to my post about these cookies.
Whoops, sorry, that was the wrong link - that was the last one in my clipboard - here is the link to my cookie post: http://tinybanquet.blogspot.com/2006/10/shortbread-menagerie.html
I tried your recipe because the cookies look so yummy on the photo, sadly mine turned out completely flat and very greasy. I followed your recipe very closely and the dough looked ok, now I'm wondering, where I might have made a mistake. Any ideas?
I made these and they are delicious. We are going to make them as favors for my son's wedding. Hopefully we can freeze the cookies and they will still be great. Do you think they would keep frozen for 1 month?
Lorna, yes I think they would do fine. Just wrap in as many layers as possible!
To Caroline: did you chill them long enough? Not chilling enough would make them flat. Did you use butter?
Could these be made vegan with a butter-like spread, or do they require butter?
I have made these before and found them quite addictive! Thanks a lot for reminding me... now I have to summon the willpower to resist making a batch!
I call shenanigans! Look at that uniform scalloped edge! You used a cookie cutter, didn't you?
LOL!! Nice catch squidlette - I absolutely did. I forgot this recipe amendment: Can roll out and use cookie cutters too.
When not trying to take pretty photos I just slice em off. They get thinner that way. I am going to try my mandoline next time I make them; the thinner they are the better.
I made these once with an orange spice tea for lack of earl grey-delicious and easy!
I use this exact recipe only doubled, but I always use less salt. Caroline, try putting parchment paper on the cookie sheet, that might help get rid of the grease. And I always chill mine for an hour. No one has mentioned having issues cutting them yet, but I had problems the first time I made these, so now I use waxed (unflavored!) dental floss. Just slide it under the dough and cross it the ends on top and pull. That way you don't smoosh the top of the cookies.
these look lovely.
Could you please post this recipe with instructions which don't require a food processor? I lost mine in a break up and I think it is unfair that my ex could make these so easily.
These were really nice! I added a bit more tea for more oomph in my second batch, and there is a lot of room for tweaking however you like them. New freezer staple.
thank you so much for this recipe!!! i've tried it with 3 different teas, earl grey, first of course, chai, and a rose black tea from gypsytea.com (aka Turkish Delight cookies, powdered with conf.sugar), and with all organic ingredients...They were all delicious...!
and yes they came out a little too buttery the first time, so i decreased a tbsp of butter and a little less confectioner's sugar (i wanted to taste more of the cookie, less sweet), and they were perfect.
this recipe is very versatile...love it.
Okay, I tried this as a chai tea cookie without a food processor. And I had some real problems getting the mix to turn into a dough. I had to add 3 more tsps of water to get it to bind. I think I also made my cuts too thick - the edges where its thin are the tastiest.
I think next time I'm going to try creaming the sugar and butter together before adding the flour... Has anyone else tried making this without all the machines?
I just made this by hand. Soften the butter on the counter and mush wet ingredients and sugar (and tea sitting in the water for more flavour) with hands, then add the remaining dry.
Unfortunately my cookies came out greasy. I was wondering what I can do next time to prevent this from happening. Perhaps, instead of using butter I could use eggs? Would that prevent my cookies from becoming greasy? If so, what would be a good ratio?
Do you guys think i can do this in my Magic Bullet??
When I make them, i think i'm going to try my Earl Grey Lavendar.
Just put together a batch of these cookies and they're chilling in the freezer. I don't own a food processor so I just used Twining's Earl Grey tea bags and the leaf was very fine so i doubt the food processor could have pulverised it further? And I also substituted the sugar for castor sugar so there wasn't a grainy texture (again, lack of food processor) and cut back on the butter as recommended by a few people :) And will be baking on a greaseproof sheet to help soak up a bit of the butter. And worth try to use a buttered string to cut them so that the shape is somewhat biscuit-y and hopefully will have the will-power not to scoff them down before tea-time! Thank you very much for this recipe, this is my go-to site!
Simply delicious! This recipe is very easy and can keep on hand in the freezer for guests. I made one batch each of earl grey and chai tea. Now I want to experiment with other tea flavors. Mightly Leaf tea has chocolate truffle tea blends. I wonder how those will turn out.
You can always use a mortar and pestle to get the tea down to a better consistency for the cookies.
I have a cupboard full of various loose (and interesting flavors) from David's Tea. I'm thinking "Pure Chai"... "Cream of Earl Grey"... and either "Buttered Rum" or "Irish Cream" for these.... I'd totally do "Chocolate Chili Chai" too, if I had any on hand. (Yes, I realise I'm plugging for this company, but man... soooo tasty are their teas).
www.davidstea.com
great stuff! some changes i made - cut back on butter as suggested by a couple of readers which worked very well. but i had to add a lot more than 1tsp of water to get the dough consistency (maybe due to less butter?). i also reduced temp to 350 and baked for just under 10min. definitely going to repeat this recipe!
This really belongs in the pet peeves department, but why are we asked to use unsalted butter & then add salt to recipes?
@Barefoot it lets you control exactly the amount of salt in a recipe, instead of adjusting on the fly to the insconsistent salt amounts of salted butter.
Also, sometimes salted butter isn't as fresh; the salt can preserve older, less fresh butter.
Ooooh, I cannot wait to try these!
I have to use up tea so this is a wonderful idea.
What temp. do you bake them at? I dont see it up there but I may have missed it thanks!
Oh so sorry, I just saw 375 up there!
I am soo excited my cookies are in the oven!
Theyyyyy're baaack! *rolls up sleeves* Time to bake! I'm thinking a batch of Matcha green tea and a batch of Pumpkin Chai! *WIN*
I made these with vanilla tea and vanilla sugar in place of plain sugar--delicious! I'm making a batch again tonight for a get-together tomorrow.
Instead of using Vanilla, could Vanilla Extract replace it?
reasonably careful and experienced baker, have made a million shortbread recipes, but this fell right apart on me. I added three teaspoons of water, but it never came together. Wound up pressing it into the bottom of a tart pan. Fingers crossed I can do something with it... all that butter wasted, otherwise!