Chai Spiced Snowdrop Cookies – Melt-in-your-mouth, sweet, and perfectly spiced Snowdrop Cookies. A perfect addition to your Holiday platter!
Chai Spiced Snow Drop Cookies are also known as, Russian Tea Cakes, Italian Wedding Cookies, Snowball Cookies, Mexican Wedding Cookies, and finally, in my neck of the woods, they’re called Vanilici (vah-nee-lee-tsee).
Any other names for these cookies that I am forgetting?
How rude of me, I forgot to say HELLO! Please take a seat and chill with me for a while. Today is my Name Day and I am celebrating with these amazing Chai Spiced Snowdrop Cookies from my dear friend and cookbook author, Jennifer Farley!
Are you wondering about what a Name Day is?
Well, good, ’cause I’m happy to tell you! 🙂 Followers of the [Macedonian] Orthodox Faith (many others, too) who are named after a Saint, celebrate said Saint’s Feast Day on the day of that Saint’s passing. I was named after St. Katherine the Martyr, and according to the Julian Calendar, today is our day! 🙂 In just a few hours, I will be hosting a dinner party at my house with over 40 people, eating and drinking the night away. I feel SO blessed!
I am most excited about serving these gorgeous Snowdrop Cookies that I found in this WONDERFUL cookbook, The Gourmet Kitchen, written by my super awesome gal pal and blogger-friend, Jennifer from Savory Simple.
This cookbook stands out in that the recipes within it are both, new and timeless, modern, yet classic. The book is filled with over 100 recipes, featuring fresh ingredients, bold and sometimes daring flavors, all accompanied by Jennifer’s beautiful photographs. Looking at just the photos is enough to make you jump into the kitchen and start creating things like, Jen’s Andouille Macaroni and Cheese, her Oatmeal Stout Beer Bread, or even her gorgeous Banana Peanut Butter Layer Cake with Chocolate Ganache.
Hop on over to Amazon and get yourself several copies – one for you, of course, but can’t forget about them Christmas gifts, either!
Just as the rest of the recipes in this book, this one is also impressive, yet very approachable.
What are Chai Spiced Snowdrop Cookies
These tender snowdrop cookies are made with butter, all-purpose flour, almond flour, and powdered sugar, then tossed in a chai-spiced mixture. They are a fantastic holiday cookie, and go BEST with a cup of coffee.
The cookie itself is only 5 ingredients, and the chai spiced topping is what completes it.
A simple mixture of powdered sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and allspice is what separates this snowdrop cookie from the rest.
This is a serious melt-in-your-mouth little cookie. My husband and I could not get enough.
You know what else is a fantastic idea? Making these snowdrop cookies ahead of time. Honestly, they were amazing the first day, but also just as amazing on their last. So don’t be afraid to make these today, and have them all set and ready for your Christmas Cookie Tray.
In the meantime, pick up Jen’s book – you.will.LOVE.it!
ENJOY!
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TOOLS AND INGREDIENTS USED IN THIS RECIPE
Chai Spiced Snowdrop Cookies
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups (8.5 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 ounces (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (2.5 ounces) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1-1/4 cups (4.25 ounces) almond flour
- 1 cup (5 ounces) powdered sugar
- 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk the flour and salt. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, the 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Turn the mixer speed down to low and slowly add the almond flour followed by the all-purpose flour mixture.
- Scrape down the sides once or twice to make sure the dough is evenly combined.
- Use a 1 tablespoon-sized scoop to measure out the cookies.
- Using your hands, roll each cookie into a ball, and place on the previously prepared baking sheet.
- Chill the cookies for 20 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Remove from refrigerator and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
- While the cookies are baking, combine the 1 cup powdered sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and allspice in a small mixing bowl; whisk until thoroughly incorporated.
- Remove the cookies from the oven.
- While they are still warm, carefully coat each cookie in the topping mixture and set aside to cool.
- Once the cookies have cooled, about 15 to 20 minutes, toss them again in the sugar mixture.
- Store in an airtight container for 1 week, or freeze for up to 1 month.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
I have to disagree with you on something. These aren’t also known as Russian Tea Cookies or Italian Wedding cookies or Snowball cookies. While it may not be a vast difference, there is a difference in the recipe of these cookies. There is additional flavors in this cookie which don’t exist in the Russian Tea Cookies. I’ve been making the “Italian Wedding Cookie” or its various other identities for over 40 years and not once have I ever added cardamom spice. To be truthful , at least where I live, we never heard of cardamom spice in the 60s or 70s or even the 80s. It wasn’t until some point in the 21st century it began to make an appearance. Simply because cookies look like one another doesn’t mean they ARE the same cookie. The Russian Tea Cookie is THE favorite of my little sister and I’ve lots of them. In fact, it was one of the first cookies I helped her learn to bake. Years later they’re still her favorite and I was just getting ready to send her an email showing her this cookie with the cardamom and checking to see when she would be available to come to the house and we’ll bake them, checking them out. So while these Chai Spice Snowball Cookies look identical, they’re not the same cookie.
THANKS SO MUCH for chiming in! I have always thought they were all very similar, if not identical, but glad to have found out otherwise. If you do not mind and have a minute, would you share your recipe for Russian Tea Cookies with me, please? 🙂 Have a great Sunday!!
So delicious just fell in love with it.I really liked it as a late night snack!! 🙂 🙂
I made a few more variations which you can see in my blog.
Happy Name Day! Love the cookies! I bet they would go fast around here! How did the dinner party go?
Great looking cookies for the holidays.
can you substitute g.f. flour blend for the flour in this recipe? do you think it will turn out okay?
Hi! I have not attempted to make these cookies completely GF so I can’t say for sure, but if you have a great flour blend that you’ve used for other cookies, I would definitely give it a go.
I love snowballs, and I love chai, but I never would have thought to combine the two. This is genius!
I LOVE that these cookies are chai spiced! I know I could eat a dozen no problem! 😀
Happy name day to you (what an awesome party you had for it!!). And these cookies look so lovely! Congrats to Jen on her gorgeous book!!
Happy Name Day! I’m loving these little chai spiced cookies!
Any cookie named “snowdrop” sounds like a winner to me. Love these little beauties!
Oh man, I am loving everything chai right now and I’m sure I would devour this entire batch myself!
Wonderful for the winter season!
I didn’t know about name day – loved learning about that. Happy name day! Wedding cookies are a favorite here and I am digging the chai spice in these ones.
These look so festive and delicious!