Chai cinnamon roll cookies with brown butter, soft centers & crisp edges, dollops of chai cinnamon roll filling, and a vanilla cream cheese frosting on top.
This post may contain affiliate links, please read the privacy policy for details.
chai cinnamon roll cookies
Hellooooo hello! These cookies are here for you love cinnamon rolls but want the flavor of them in 1/3 of the time. These chai cinnamon roll cookies are made with a brown butter cookie that’s soft in the center with perfectly crisp edges. The chai cinnamon roll flavor comes from little dollops of chai cinnamon roll filling chips that we’ll make and fold in to the cookies – and then they’re all topped off with a swirl of vanilla cream cheese frosting for the cinnamon roll appearance.
Like a lot of other recipes you’ll find on this blog, these cookies are small batch – yielding 8 medium sized cookies. However, you can easily double or triple the recipe if you need more. So let’s get into it! 🙂
why you’ll love these chai cinnamon roll cookies:
- Brown butter. It’s so delicious and such an easy way to add even more flavor into a cookie.
- One bowl, no mixer required. The cookies come together in one bowl and there’s no need for a stand mixer or hand mixer – just another reason that melted butter > creamed butter in a ccc.
- All the flavors of a cinnamon roll, but in a cookie. Butter, brown sugar, chai spice & cream cheese give you the same sweetness and tanginess that you get out of a cinnamon roll.
expert baking tips
Weigh your ingredients:
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale.
Mix the dough carefully:
When adding in the flour, only fold the mixture just until no flour streaks remain. Over mixing the dough leads to more gluten formation, which can make the cookies thicker and more tough in texture.
chill the cookies prior to baking
I know, I know – it’s frustrating to have to wait! However, because we’re using melted brown butter and a butter/sugar/spice mixture in the dough, we want to give the dough time to firm up. We’re going to give the cookies a quick freeze before baking them to ensure that they don’t spread out too thin. This also gives the flavors a little bit of time to meld together.
Under bake for perfect cookies:
Cookies continue baking after they have been taken out of the oven. Once the edges turn slightly golden brown, and the cookies look just a little wet on top still, they are ready to come out. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for an additional 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
The secret to perfectly round cookies:
Wanna know the secret to perfectly round cookies? It’s cookie scooting! Right when the cookies come out of the oven, take a bowl, cup, or biscuit cutter that is just slightly larger than your cookies and place it over one of the cookies. Gently swirl the bowl around the cookie to make the cookie perfectly round (and slightly thicker). And that’s all there is to it!
A note on oven temperature:
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature and might not always actually be at the temperature they claim to be at. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
ingredients for chai cinnamon roll cookies:
Chai cinnamon roll chips:
- Unsalted butter: for that buttery flavor you get from cinnamon roll filling. You can use salted butter here as well.
- Dark brown sugar: for flavor and sweetness. In a pinch you can use light brown sugar here as well.
- Chai spice: use your favorite blend of chai spices or a pre-made blend here! I used King Arthur’s Chai Spice, which is a blend of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, anise, and black pepper. You could also just use cinnamon here for a classic cinnamon roll cookie.
- All purpose flour: just a tiny bit to help thicken up the mixture.
chai cinnamon roll cookies:
- All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness.
- Baking soda & baking powder: helps the cookies rise and the edges crisp up.
- Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the cookies
- Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the cookies. We’ll also be browning the butter for some extra delicious toasty flavor. If you’re looking to make this dairy-free, Miyoko’s Creamery vegan butter has the ability to brown just like regular butter and works like a charm.
- Granulated sugar & dark brown sugar: a combination of both gives us cookies with crispy edges and soft and chewy centers. You can use light brown sugar in place of the dark brown sugar in a pinch.
- Egg: for binding and for moisture.
- Vanilla: for flavor.
vanilla cream cheese frosting:
- Cream cheese: the base of the cream cheese frosting.
- Unsalted butter: to thicken up the frosting.
- Salt: to balance and bring out the sweetness.
- Powdered sugar: for sweetness and thickening the frosting.
- Vanilla: for flavor. I used vanilla bean paste here for some cute little speckles in the frosting.
how to make chai cinnamon roll cookies:
Here are the basic steps to follow to make these cookies. You can find the complete recipe at the end of this blog post.
- Make little chai cinnamon roll chips by mixing together the butter, sugar, chai spice & flour then tearing off little pieces of the dough and freezing them.
- Mix together the brown butter and both sugars, then whisk in the egg and vanilla.
- Mix in the dry ingredients and chai spiced chips, then freeze the dough.
- Scoop out the dough, bake, and enjoy!
chai cinnamon roll cookies recipe q&a
What is brown butter?
Brown butter is super simple to make so don’t worry! It’s just regular butter that is cooked on the stove until some of the moisture evaporates, allowing the milk solids in the butter to be toasted. The result is this butter with an amber hue and little speckles that has a toasted and slightly nutty aroma.
can I double this recipe?
Definitely – I’ve tested this recipe up to quadrupling it with no problem. Please be sure to use grams for the best results.
can I make these cookies ahead of time?
Definitely – cookie dough really only gets better with time. If you want to keep the dough frozen for over 30 minutes, I’d recommend that you scoop it out, then freeze the individual cookie dough balls. Keep them stored in an airtight container to prevent them from drying out. When you want to bake them, let the dough balls sit at room temperature for 10-20 minutes until they warm up a bit before baking them off as normal.
How to store chai cinnamon roll cookies.
Once the cookies are frosted, they will need to be stored in an airtight container in the fridge where they will keep well for up to 5 days.
chai cinnamon roll cookies troubleshooting
tools and ingredients:
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
other recipes you might enjoy:
did you make this recipe?
I’d love to see and know your thoughts! please leave a comment and review below, and tag me on instagram @freshbeanbakery. #freshbeanbakery
Chai Cinnamon Roll Cookies
Ingredients
Chai Cinnamon Chips
- 28 g unsalted butter room temperature (2 tbsp.)
- 50 g dark brown sugar (¼ c.)
- 1 ¼ tsp. chai spice
- 1 tsp. all purpose flour
Chai Cinnamon Roll Cookies
- 113 g unsalted butter (8 tbsp.)
- 100 g dark brown sugar* (½ c.)
- 50 g granulated sugar (¼ c.)
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 160 g all purpose flour (1 ⅓ c.)
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
- 42 g cream cheese room temperature (3 tbsp.)
- 21 g unsalted butter room temperature (1 ½ tbsp.)
- ⅛ tsp. salt
- 60 g powdered sugar (½ c.)
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Instructions
Chai Cinnamon Chips
- In a small bowl, beat together the softened butter, brown sugar, chai spice and flour until combined.
- Line a small plate or baking tray with parchment paper, and use your fingers to portion out small little chunks of the mixture, then place the tray into the freezer.
Chai Cinnamon Roll Cookies
- In a small saucepan set over medium heat, brown the butter. Stir the butter occasionally until it turns amber in color and develops little brown specks.
- Transfer the brown butter to a medium sized mixing bowl and set it in the freezer for 5 minutes to chill. You should be left with at least 90g of brown butter, if you have a little less, just add in some water until you reach 90g.
- Once the butter has cooled down a bit, whisk in both sugars.
- Whisk in the egg and vanilla until well combined.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Use a rubber spatula to fold the mixture together just until a few flour streaks remain.
- Add in the chai cinnamon chips and fold the mixture together just until no flour streaks remain. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up.**
- Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C.
- Scoop out heaping 3 tbsp. scoops of the cookie dough and evenly space the cookie dough balls out on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies start to turn golden brown.
- Once the cookies come out of the oven, I recommend "scooting" them. This just means take a bowl, cup, or biscuit cutter that is slightly larger than the cookie, place it on top of the cookie, and swirl the bowl around to make the cookie a little more round.
- Let the cookies sit on the hot baking tray for at least 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a small mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter and salt until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until well combined. Add in the vanilla, then beat for an additional minute.
- Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Once the cookies have fully cooled to room temperature, pipe the frosting in a swirl around the cookies. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that the nutrition facts are only an estimate and may vary based on different brands of ingredients and any substitutions made.
this recipe was amazing
So good!! Doesn’t even need frosting!! (But I still piped it on). The cookies are so beautiful and received so many compliments! They definitely spread out (a lot) when you bake them- so be prepared for that and do not crowd the pan (I ended up using 2 pans). I also doubled the frosting recipe since the cookies ended up being pretty large. I couldn’t find chai spice so I did 1/4 tsp all spice, ginger, nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and still turned out great!
Absolutely delicious!! I bought a kitchen scale just for this recipe because I wanted everything to work out perfectly and it was so worth it. The cookies had a soft centre with a chew and the cream cheese frosting with chai cinnamon chips were a perfect pair. Def give the recipe a try if you’re hesitant 🙂