Scrumptious Saturdays: Chai-Spice Cookies

Salutations!

Today I'm bringing you one of the most delicious cookie recipes you will ever try. The cookies come out chewy and full of flavor. My mouth is watering just thinking about them!

Let's dive in, shall we?

Chai-Spice Cookies

This is the book I'll be sharing from today. If you love to be in the kitchen and you don't own this, go to Amazon right this instant and order it. Here...I'll even give you a link!

{1} Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

{2} Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

{3} Melt butter. Cut cream cheese into 8 pieces.

{4} Place sugar and cream cheese into a large bowl. Pour butter over sugar and cream cheese and whisk to combine.

{5} Whisk in oil until incorporated. 

{6} Add egg, milk, and vanilla; continue to whisk until smooth.

{7} Add flour mixture and mix until a soft dough forms.

{8} Now you will add in the spices. 1/4 tsp each of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and cardamom. [[Cardamom is a pretty expensive spice, but these cookies alone make it completely worth it!]]

I know they aren't all even, but for me, baking is an art...not a science. Who cares if they don't bake evenly? That's part of the fun!

{9} Pour ~1/3 c sugar into a pie plate or small bowl [[your preference]]

{10} Working with 2 tbsp of dough at a time, roll into balls and coat in sugar.Place on baking sheets

{11} Bake for 11-13 minutes. [[I usually stop at 11 because Josh likes underdone cookies. But you know your oven and your taste preferences, so you bake those cookies until they look done to you!]]

Do you have a go to cookie recipe? You know...the one that you use when you know people are coming over later and you need to whip up something quick? I would love to hear about it!

PRR: Nutella Cookies.

As I have mentioned before, I am a huge fan of being in the kitchen. I love preparing food for loved ones and even strangers because it makes me feel closer to them. I know it's not it's own official Love Language, but I think it totally should be.

Because of this love of cooking, [[and because of seemingly everyone's love of Pinterest]] I have decided to begin a weekly review of Pinterest recipes. [[Pinterest Recipe Review or PRR for short]] The one that I've seen floating around the pin boards a lot lately that really caught my attention is Nutella Cookies. Who doesn't like Nutella? And who doesn't like cookies? This marriage should be a blissful one should it not? Well, that's what I was out to find out.

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
1 c flour
1 egg
1 c nutella

1. Mix ingredients together.
2. Form into 1" balls and place on cookie sheet.
3. Bake @ 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes [[or until dough sets]].

Simple enough right?

Well...maybe not...
So as you may or may not know...Nutella is super sticky...it was a beast to get out of the container, into the measuring cup and then into the mixing bowl. It made a huge mess in my kitchen [[which was obnoxious]]. My fingers were sticky...my counter was sticky...obnoxious. The actual mixing and baking was super simple so even the most beginner chef in the world could make these things and not mess them up.

They came out of the oven looking outstanding [[because, again, who doesn't love Nutella?]] but when we tried them, they were just okay. The normally subtle hint of hazelnut was all of a sudden the overpowering flavor [[kind of a turn off for us]].

So here is the run down:

Pros-
1. Super easy to make.
2. That's the only pro...

Cons-
1. Nutella is pretty expensive. Why would I use a whole cup of it on mediocre cookies?
2. The Nutella made an unnecessary mess in my kitchen.
3. The cookies were not that good. Strange texture. Odd flavor.

So my advice? If you are a huge fan of Nutella, just eat the stuff straight out of the jar like a normal person. And if you are bent on having Nutella flavored cookies, just make chocolate cookies and add some chopped hazelnuts to them. That would taste better and be a whole lot cheaper.

p.s. Have a Pinterest recipe that you've been dying to try but just haven't had the time yet? Send it my way and I'll try it for you!