Growing up in Chennai, I felt like I could tell time based on when hot drinks were served in our house. The city is famed for its coffee, blended with chicory root and poured into glasses in dramatic foot-long streams, but ours was a tea household. My parents’ Guzzini mugs would come out promptly at 6:30 a.m. and once more at 4 p.m., the time I, with my mandated mug of milk, looked forward to most of all because it meant an accompanying packet of shortbread wasn’t far away. We’d sit together with our basset hound, Droopy, in the orange-tiled backyard, my grandmother too, when she was still alive, drinking our drinks, dunking our biscuits, discussing what dinner might be (the dog’s standing request was chicken gizzards). The combination of spiced milky tea and cookies will always be the taste of home to me. These tea-laced sandwich cookies capture that memory precisely.
Chai is a distinctly Northern Indian term. In Southern India, and particularly in Tamil Nadu, where I’m from, we often call it masala tea. While the mixture of spices used varies among regions, almost every version of masala tea includes ginger and cardamom.
BAKER’S NOTE: It’s best to use finely ground tea from a tea bag here because of how seamlessly it dissolves into the dough. But fancier whole-leaf tea is fine to use as long as you crush it with a mortar and pestle before adding it to the melting butter (this will save you from having strips of tea leaves in your finished cookie).
Recipe information
Total Time
1 hour
Yield
Makes about 16
Ingredients
Cookies
Filling and Assembly
Preparation
Cookies
Step 1
Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 375°. Melt ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter in a small skillet over medium-low heat (don’t let it boil). Stir in 1 Tbsp. black tea leaves (from about 3 bags), then pour into a medium bowl, scraping pan to get all the bits of tea. Let butter mixture sit until barely warm, about 10 minutes.
Step 2
Add 1 large egg, ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar, 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, and 1 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract to butter mixture and mix vigorously with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add ¼ tsp. baking powder, ¼ tsp. baking soda, and ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon and mix again to combine. Add 1½ cups (187 g) all-purpose flour and mix until no dry streaks remain, making sure to scrape sides and bottom of bowl.
Step 3
Divide dough into 32 portions (2 tsp. or 14 g each; easiest way to do this is to divide dough into quarters, then divide each quarter into 8 pieces). Roll each portion into a ball. Divide balls between 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing evenly apart.
Step 4
Working with 1 baking sheet at a time, bake cookies until puffed and dry to the touch, 6–8 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets.
Do Ahead: Cookies can be baked 5 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.
Filling and Assembly
Step 5
Using an electric mixer, starting on low speed and moving to medium, beat ¾ cup (83 g) powdered sugar, sifted, 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature, 1 tsp. (packed) finely grated peeled ginger, ½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt, ½ tsp. ground cardamom, and ½ tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract in a medium bowl until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes (or, you can use a whisk).
Step 6
Transfer filling to a pastry bag fitted with a medium round tip. Turn half of the cookies over and pipe kisses of filling onto flat sides, dividing evenly (alternatively, you can dollop a heaping 1 tsp. filling onto each one). Place remaining cookies, right side up, on top, gently pressing until filling spreads almost to edges of cookies. Chill creme pies 10 minutes to allow filling to firm slightly before serving.
Do Ahead: Creme pies can be assembled 2 days ahead. Transfer to an airtight container and chill. Bring to room temperature before serving.
Recipe notes
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