As an avid tea drinker, I can’t help but take as many opportunities as I can to incorporate the flavors of tea into baking recipes. Earl grey is one of my favorites to bake with due to its beautiful aroma and citrusy flavors. As September kicks off and the pace of life gets a little quicker, these earl grey cookies are the perfect on-the-go treat to give yourself both a little burst of flavor and energy during the day.
These earl grey shortbread cookies have a buttery texture and a delicate flavor from the earl grey and orange zest. The base for the shortbread cookie is adapted from Preppy Kitchen’s shortbread cookies recipe. When adding the tea, you can use loose leaf tea leaves and grind them in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle or you can use tea from tea bags, which is fine enough that it doesn’t need to be ground. For a little bit of added crunch, the edges of the cookies are rolled in a mixture of sugar and tea leaves before baking.
I can’t even begin to describe how delicious these cookies smell while they bake. The earl grey and orange zest are both beautifully fragrant and the results are impeccable. These cookies are great on their own and even more perfect with a cup of tea on the side. If you love earl grey as much as I do and have more time on your hands, you have to try my earl grey latte buns. This was the first recipe I developed for the blog and is still one of my favorites.
Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies
Course: Cookies and barsDifficulty: Quick bake18
cookies15
minutes10
minutesThese earl grey shortbread cookies are buttery, citrusy, and lightly floral. They are the perfect mid-afternoon pick-me-up. If you have a lavender earl grey blend, that works beautifully in these cookies as well. You can use either loose leaf tea or tea bags to make these cookies.
Ingredients
1 Tbsp finely ground earl grey tea (+ additional 1 tsp set aside)
1 1/2 cups (180g) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp diamond crystal kosher salt (1/4 tsp if using morton kosher)
10 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (60g) confectioners sugar
Instructions
- If using loose leaf tea, grind in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle until the ground tea measures 1 Tbsp. Otherwise, remove tea from tea bags and add directly to a bowl. To the tea, stir in the flour and salt. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the orange zest and vanilla. Once combined, beat in the confectioners sugar until combined.
- Pour the flour tea mixture into the bowl and beat until just combined.
- Transfer to a lightly floured surface and pat and roll the dough into a log. The diameter of the log will determine how large your cookies are so for smaller cookies, roll out a longer log. Wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes, until firm but still slightly malleable.
- Preheat the oven to 350. Remove your cookies from the refrigerator and roll a couple more times on the parchment paper to smooth out the log as needed. Place the parchment onto a cookie sheet to line it. Cut the log into 1/4″ coins. You should have about 16-18 coins.
- On a small plate, mix together an additional 1 tsp of ground earl grey with 2 tsp of sugar. Lightly roll the edges of each coin in the mixture and return to the parchment paper. Prick each cookie once in the middle with the tines of a fork.
- Bake for about 10-12 minutes, until you notice a slight golden color near the base of the cookie. Let cool completely.
2 responses to “Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies”
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I made these with ginger tea as I did not have earl grey. They were stupendous! Looking forward to experimenting with other tea flavors!
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Ooh, using ginger tea is such a great idea! So glad that you enjoyed the cookies and can’t wait to hear about other tea variations you try!
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