Shortbread cookies are some of my favorite. I love the buttery richness of them and how they almost melt in your mouth. Thai tea is one of my most favorite drinks. I have seen other tea based shortbread, and thought Thai tea shortbread cookies had the potential to be fantastic. In my opinion, they are!
What is Thai Tea?
Thai tea (and technically this is Thai iced tea as there are other types of Thai teas) is a black Ceylon tea with spices like star anise, cardamom, cinnamon and vanilla. If you enjoy Masala Chai – like I do, you may notice there is a bit of overlap with the flavors of these. While I don’t think they taste all that similar, I do think that if you enjoy Chai you will also enjoy Thai iced tea.
One big difference is the color though, which food coloring is added to the tea, so when the cream or milk is added it turns into a lovely orange color it is famous for and what makes these Thai tea shortbread cookies that amazing color! I also have made Sweet Thai Tea Ice Cream which is also the same fantastic orange color.
I usually buy this brand of loose leaf Thai tea for both drinking and making these thai tea shortbread cookies. From what I’ve read, this is the type used in a lot of Thai restaurants. Which, it does taste pretty much the same, depending on the restaurant. It comes in a large bag that will last quite a long time. I usually will make a large batch of this when I make it and just store it in mason jars in my fridge. For the Thai tea shortbread cookies, you only need a tiny bit of tea though.
Now, I could enjoy one of these Thai iced teas daily. However, if there is a flavor I love I will always see if there are other ways I could enjoy it. A cookie was my first thought for a vehicle because they are sweet and it’s a tea best enjoyed sweetened. I decided on shortbread as the main flavor in a shortbread is kind of a buttery vanilla, which wouldn’t take away from the flavor of the tea. Something like a chocolate chip cookie base would probably have too many competing flavors and muddle them all.
The result was perfect. You could both bite into one and know it was definitely shortbread, and also definitely thai tea. Perfection if you ask me.
Additionally, these cookies are so gorgeous in color. If you have friends who enjoy tea, these will be a must bake!
Baking Tips
Chilling your dough can be annoying step, but it is integral – especially in shortbread. You want to make sure your dough is chilled to help prevent warm butter from melting and spreading in the oven. Butter is the main ingredient of these cookies and if it is too soft it can dramatically change the structure.
Sifting your flour and powdered sugar (along with your ground tea leaves) can also make a huge impact of the texture of these cookies. A good shortbread will feel like it just melts in your mouth. If you do not sift your tea, you will get tiny hard bits of tea that make these not as fun to eat.
Thai Tea Shortbread Cookies Key Ingredients
- Thai Tea – Traditional Thai tea is what I used to make these. You probably could attempt making them with black tea and spices but I don’t think they would have the exact taste you are expecting if you are familiar with the drink.
- Butter – As always with shortbread, butter, and good butter at that, is key! When I make shortbread I always buy the best butter my budget allows. This doesn’t necessarily mean organic either, but you want something with a higher butterfat percentage.
- Powdered sugar – So my previous recipe for thai tea shortbread cookies used granulated sugar, and while it was good, this powdered sugar version I feel like has a much better consistency that leads to that more melt in your mouth texture.
Ingredients
- 113 g Unsalted butter ½ cup, room temperature
- 60 g Powdered sugar ½ cup
- 1/4 tsp Vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp Ground Thai Tea
- 1 tbsp water
- 120 g AP Flour 1 cup
- pinch table salt
Instructions
- Take loose leaf Thai tea and grind with pestle and mortar down to a fine powder. Use a fine mesh strainer to remove any larger pieces. Do not skip this, you do not want these big bits that are hard, as they will get stuck in your teeth or add an unpleasant texture to the cookies.
- In a small bowl or cup, add your sifted tea and water and mix together.
- Measure out flour and salt in a small bowl and mix together. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add softened butter and powdered sugar, creaming together until combined using a hand mixer.
- Add in your tea with water and vanilla to your butter and sugar, mixing in until combined.
- Add in flour and mix until dough just comes together. Remove dough and place on parchment paper. Shape into a log form, either cylindrical or squared off (or any shape really). Using the sides of the parchment can be helpful in getting shape. Once dough is formed, wrap in plastic wrap (I wrap the plastic wrap around the parchment as well). Chill dough for at least one hour, but up to 24 hours.
- After dough has chilled sufficiently, preheat oven to 350F.
- Remove dough from refrigerator and slice into about quarter inch slices.
- Arrange on a parchment lined baking sheet with a few inches between cookie slices. Place on the center rack of your oven and bake for about 12 minutes for slightly softer (but still firm) shortbread or 15 min for more crisp shortbread.
- Remove from oven, let cool on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes (especially if using the shorter bake time) then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Cookies will firm up as they cool.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 5-7 days. Enjoy!
How much cream (not listed in ingredients)? Sounds yummy!
Thanks
Hi Irma! I’m assuming you mean when I stated to add in the butter. I actually meant to cream in the butter, there isn’t any cream in the recipe 🙂 Hope that helps!
Hello, I tried your recipe for Christmas but somehow, by “translating” the recipe in grams (I am in Europe) I think something went wrong. They melted a lot in the oven and did not appear to be baked at all. I removed them but they look nothing like your photo. Could you please help me ? I love thai tea so much, I would like to bake those cookies so much !
Hi Delphine,
This is one of my earlier recipes that wasn’t posted in grams. I’m adding that now, but here are the measurements in grams:
113 g Unsalted butter
65 g powdered sugar (I think its referred to as icing sugar in europe)
1.25 mL vanilla
4-5 g Thai tea
15 mL water
120 g All purpose flour
pinch of salt.
I would also make sure your dough has sufficiently chilled and is cold when it goes into the oven, that should also help prevent the cookies from spreading too much. Let me know if this is helpful! Good luck 🙂
When I looked over the few Thai Tea Cookie recipes online, I knew straightaway that this was the one to go with. And Tiffany proved me right! Her attention to detail is exceptional and left me with no big questions. In the end, these were a massive hit for friends. The cookies were gone in about 3 minutes!
And here’s the Thai tea I found that a local restaurant uses: https://a.co/d/0XVV3Rn As of this writing, Amazon sells a 1-pound bag for just $8.49 — that’ll last forever!
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I just made these for the first time, they’re terrific!! I’ve just got two questions.
If I wanted to punch up the spice flavor from the tea, could I just add a bit of star anise and cardamom?
And do you have any suggestions for a glaze of some kind? I was thinking maybe just a dip in white chocolate.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them Parker! I think those would be good additions, maybe even a pinch of pepper. I also think a white chocolate glaze would go nicely, maybe just dip half the cookie in though? That’s probably what I would try! I’d love to hear how it works out 🙂
Hello.
Is a hand mixer a necessity? I don’t have one, but I have a food processor and high-powered blender if either would work? And could I maybe substitute coconut milk for the butter?
Thank you,
Hiroshi
Hi Hiroshi, a food processor would most likely work, but I have never tried it myself. I would just be careful to make sure to not over process it when adding the flour. Pie dough can often be made in a food processor and shortbread also relies on not overworking the dough and similar ingredients so I think that might work. As far as coconut milk, I don’t think that would work. Coconut oil MIGHT work, but again I have never tried it and it would also alter the flavor so I would stick to butter.
Hello.
What about cocoa butter? Could that work or applesauce? I might try in a food processor if I can find a substitute for butter.
Thank you again,
Hiroshi
So butter is one of the more difficult things to substitute for in shortbread because it is a main ingredient. I have NOT tried this, but I would try substituting with a 1:1 ratio of shortening. You will lose some flavor but if you’re looking for something without dairy that would be a good replacement that should bake similarly.
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