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Maple Chai Latte Cookies with Brown Butter Icing: a cross between a really great soft, chewy maple cookie and a delicious steaming chai latte made with real espresso. These cookies are made with sweet dark brown sugar, rich maple syrup, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, all-spice, pepper, and the real secret – espresso powder. They’re generously glazed with a sweet, thick, creamy brown butter icing that melts in your mouth. They’re the perfect cookie to bake, share, and soon gift for the holiday season!
Is there anything cozier this time of year than a latte on a cold day? It’s honestly one of my favorite things. I often make a steaming apple or chai latte at home while cooking to keep warm.
During the winter, that will turn into hot chocolate, but right now, I’m loving a good latte. My favorite is that pecan latte I shared a couple of weeks ago. It is so good.
But you know what makes a latte on a cold afternoon even better? A cookie!
My mom and I were just discussing this the other night. Sometimes, we forget about the things we used to love. For us, that was baking and sipping on something warm back home in Cleveland.
During October, November, and December, my mom would bake nonstop. The best was when November hit; she would blast Mariah Carey’s Christmas non-stop. These are some of my favorite memories! When I told her about these cookies, she said I had to make them. What excited her most was that they sounded like the coziest cookie, yet didn’t involve pumpkin or apple. Something I’ve been receiving a lot of requests for – enough already, we need a fall cookie without pumpkin! These are delicious and wonderful cookies to bake all season long!
These are the details
Ingredients
- salted butter
- dark brown sugar
- espresso powder or instant coffee powder
- vanilla extract
- an egg
- maple syrup
- flour
- baking soda
- cinnamon
- ginger
- cardamom
- nutmeg
- all-spice
- pepper
- granulated sugar
- powdered sugar
- milk
- flaked sea salt
What you will need in the kitchen:
Just a mixer and baking sheets!
Steps
Step 1: make the cookie dough
Start by preheating the oven to 350° F and lining two baking sheets with parchment paper!
Next, beat soft, room-temperature butter with dark brown sugar and a high-quality espresso or instant coffee powder to create a butter mixture. Then, add an egg and your favorite pure maple syrup. Runamok sent me a vanilla bourbon maple syrup that’s wonderful in these cookies!
Add the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, and salt.
Step 2: the chai spice blend
I create a mix of ground cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, all-spice, and pepper. I only do a small, small amount of pepper.
It’s perfectly spiced and the espresso only helps to highlight the warming chai spices.
Step 3: roll the cookies
Roll the dough into rounded tablespoon-sized balls. I use a cookie scoop for this, but you can also use a tablespoon measure for the correct size. This is a sticky dough, but if you’re really having trouble, add a couple of tablespoons of additional flour.
Next, add granulated sugar to a bowl and roll each cookie lightly through the sugar.
step 4: baking
Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes. I find 9 minutes to be perfect, but all ovens are different! I love making these into drop cookies because they’re chewier than, say, a cutout cookie would be.
Not to mention, they’re incredibly easy!
Step 5: the brown butter icing
I love the nutty brown butter flavor and creaminess of this icing. It’s one of my favorites for cookies! I find it’s what makes these cookies really melt in your mouth. The icing just seeps into the cracks of each cookie, it’s so scrumptious!
The ingredients: salted butter, sugar, vanilla, a pinch of flaked sea salt.
The key is to brown the salted butter on the stove in a skillet. I like to use a 6-inch or 8-inch skillet for this. Add the butter to a pot set over medium heat to brown the butter. Allow the butter to brown lightly until it smells toasted, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for five minutes. Once cooled, add everything to the brown butter and thin it out with some milk. The milk is essential in bringing the icing together and preventing the butter from separating.
Tip: ice each cookie quickly; the frosting sets up pretty fast.
Decorating Tips
For decorating, I didn’t do anything fancy. I used some star anise and flaked sea salt.
If you want to be fancy, you can use some edible gold glitter, but you certainly don’t have to!
The warm chai spice and espresso with the maple and brown butter is unexpected, but I’m finding that everyone LOVES it.
The result is a chewy maple cookie with rich notes of chai, espresso, and vanilla. And the frosting really makes them special.
Hope you guys love these just as much as I do!
Looking for other sweet pumpkin recipes? Here are my favorites:
Pumpkin Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies
Pumpkin Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Vanilla Chai Pumpkin Latte Cupcakes
Cream Cheese Swirled Cinnamon Pumpkin Butter Bread
Lastly, if you make these Maple Chai Latte Cookies with Brown Butter Icing, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And, of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Maple Chai Latte Cookies with Brown Butter Icing
Servings: 22 cookies
Calories Per Serving: 170 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Watch the How-To Reel
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 sticks, 3/4 cup, 12 tablespoons salted, butter at room temperature
- 3/4 cup light or dark brown sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons espresso powder, or instant coffee powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 2 1/4 cups, plus 1-2 tablespoons, as needed all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon all-spice
- 1 tiny pinch black pepper
- granulated sugar for rolling
Brown Butter Icing
- 1 stick, 1/2 cup, 8 tablespoons salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 – 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean powder
- flaked sea salt
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. 2. In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, espresso powder, and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the egg, mixing to combine. Then, add the maple and mix to combine. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, all-spice, and pepper, beating until combined.3. Place the sugar in a small bowl.4. Roll the dough into tablespoon-size balls (if the dough is too sticky, add 2-4 additional tablespoons flour), then lightly roll through the sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheet, spacing the cookies 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the cookies are just starting to set around the edges. The centers should be a little doughy. Let cool on the pan.5. Meanwhile, make the icing. Add the butter to a pot set over medium heat. Allow the butter to brown lightly until it smells toasted, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Let cool 5 minutes. Whisk in the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt. Immediately spread the icing over the cookies, it will set quickly. Sprinkle with sea salt. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
This post was originally published on October 15, 2024
I want to make these cookies but I dont like coffee can I just not add it in or should I substitute something else with it.
Hey Felicia,
You can skip it, no big deal:) I hope you love this recipe!
Happy Holidays!
These have become my favorite cookies! Made them last year for first time during the fall and again at Christmas for family and to fill gift boxes. I can’t wait to make again this Christmas! Rich and delicious!
Thanks so much, Jodi! Love to hear these cookies are always enjoyed, I appreciate you making them and sharing with others!
Happy Holidays!
I was really hoping for a chai snickerdoodle type cookie and was shocked when the reel and title didn’t mention it was coffee loaded. Still made them with with less coffee and still thought it was too much. My cookies turned out much darker even so unsure if it’s just difference in ingredients. Tasted pretty baking soda heavy. In my opinion just go for making a molasses cookie rather she has a great recipe with maple icing that is well balanced.
Hi Nicole,
Thanks for trying this recipe and sharing your feedback, very sorry to hear it was not enjoyed!
Hi Tieghan, I am making them actually right now and was the opposite — super happy to find out there was coffee in it. what if you were to rename it to dirty chai latte cookies? (though I dont know how many people know that dirty chai is a chai latte with espresso). just a thought!
Thanks so much, Lys! I appreciate this suggestion:) Have a great weekend!
Tasted delicious, however, my cookies didn’t spread at all, and I didn’t add any of the extra flour. Otherwise, I followed the recipe pretty carefully. The only thing I didn’t do was let them cool on the pan. What’s the likelihood that was the issue?
Hi Kelly,
Thanks for trying this recipe! Next time, I would let them cool on the pan and try tapping your baking sheet on the counter, that should help!
These are absolutely fantastic! Melt in your mouth, love all the spices. I had some Chai spice blend I used 2 tsp of that instead of all the different spices. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Hi Stacey,
Wonderful! So glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe, thanks a bunch for giving it a try!
They taste great, but I’ve tried making them twice now and they keep spreading miserably! Ive tried putting them in the freezer before baking, and they keep spreading. Any ideas? They end up making a huge blob and coming out super thin.
Hi Alexandra,
Thanks for trying this recipe and sharing your feedback. Is there anything you are adjusted? I would place the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes once they have been rolled into balls in step 4, then bake as directed. I hope this helps!
I didn’t change anything from original and did try 30 mins in freezer. I decided to add a lot more flour and that ended up being the trick to help. They still spread a little, but didn’t turn into one blob. They are so good and everyone enjoyed them!
Thanks so much, Alexandra!
I love this recipe-it’s so cozy and autumnal, yet so different from any other fall related recipe I’ve seen around!
I’m gonna be making these delicious cookies again for a home bakery event I’m hosting this upcoming weekend for friends and family. I was wondering if I could prepare them in advance and freeze them for a couple of days before baking them the day of. It would definitely make my life easier as I’m baking other goods as well and I have over 30 guests coming over, but I want to make sure that freezing them won’t affect them and also ask if I need to add a couple of minutes to the baking time.
Thank you for sharing this recipe and happy thanksgiving!
Hey Laura,
Awesome! So glad to hear this recipe turned out well for you! Thanks for making it! Yes, you can make ahead and freeze and then frost the day of!
Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m saving the leftover icing for French toast 🤤
Love this idea!!
I just made these tonight and they are delicious! I doubled the cardamom because I love all things cardamom. I made sure to really properly brown the butter and it made all the difference in the flavor! I drizzled the icing on some, dipped half the cookie in icing on others, and dipped the entire top of the cookie and icing on the rest for variety.
Hey there,
Awesome! Thanks so much for trying these cookies, I’m so glad they turned out well for you! Happy Tuesday! x
Hi! Could I just plop the icing on top in a little circle instead of drizzling or would that be too much icing?
Hi Rei! Yes, that should work just fine! I mean you can never have TOO much icing right?? 🙂 xT
These cookies are amazing. I skipped the cardamom and allspice because I didn’t have any and not an issue. They are a huge hit whenever I make them. I waited too long to frost the second batch so instead of a drizzle, it was a spread of frosting. The brown butter is the best in this frosting.
Hey Amy,
Thanks so much! I love to hear this recipe turned out for you, thanks for making it! Happy Wednesday!
Can you make the dough the night before you plan to bake the cookies? Any adjustments in cook time needed for this?
Hey Leah,
Totally, that would be just fine for you to do:) You can keep the recipe as written. Please let me know if you have any other questions! xx
What is your trick for getting drop cookies to be perfectly round and the same size? Will these naturally spread out while baking and be that thin or do you need to flatten the dough? Do they crack naturally while baking? Thanks!
Hi Susan,
I like to use a cookie scoop to make my cookies even. I usually tap my baking sheet on the counter for a flat, crinkle cookie. I hope this helps! xx
These turned out great! I agree with a review below about halving the icing recipe – there is plenty. Highly recommend!
Hey Melanie,
Happy Sunday!! Thanks a bunch for making this recipe and your comment, I’m so glad it turned out well for you! xx
This recipe looks amazing! I was wondering if I could make the icing ahead of time and reheat before putting it on the cookies? Thanks!
Hi Megan,
Yes, you can make the icing ahead of time:) I hope you love this recipe! Happy Thanksgiving! xx
Hi ! Wondering what that cute “star like” accent piece is for decoration in your photos and where to get it for my display? Wonderful recipe–Cheers!
Hi Taylor,
Thanks so much!! Those are just star anise, you should be able to find them at your local grocery store. Please let me know if you have any other questions! xT
Such a wonderdful cookie for the Fall/Holiday Season. Absolutely love the flavors and the look. I’ll probably halve the icing next time but other than that….absolutely wonderful! Thanks so much for the unique idea for cookies.
Hey Angie,
Wonderful! Thank you so much for making this dish and sharing your feedback, so glad to hear it was enjoyed! Happy Monday! xT