Spiced Chocolate Chip Cookies

Basically you use the latte setting but rather than use coffee and foam you use tea and either coffee, foam, or hot chocolate. I decided to combine the Chai tea pack with hot chocolate which is just one of the easy desserts recipe that you can make at home with some friend. It was AWESOME! It was so good I started to obsess a little about spice and chocolate on the days I was not in the office, and then I started to crave cookies. I think you see where this is going. The spice mix in these cookies is not  true Chai since it is missing the pepper. I just wanted the essence of Chai, so I borrowed some of the aromatic spices for these cookies which you can check out some cooking videos at Gourmandia. These are perfect for cooler weather, with a cup of steaming hot coffee or even hot chocolate, but I can see eating these any time of the year. I added a little chopped pecan to these to compliment the spices. If you wanted you could increase the nuts to a full cup, or use chopped walnuts, or just add more chocolate which you can combine to make easy dessert recipes.

Ingredients

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon cardamom

⅛ teaspoon allspice

1 cup butter, slightly softened but not greasy

1 cup packed light brown sugar

½ cup sugar

2 eggs, cold

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 – 12 ounce bag semi sweet-chocolate chips

½ cup chopped pecans

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350 F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and all spice. Set aside.

In the work bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, add the butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Beat on medium low speed until the butter and sugar are well mixed but not fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well before adding the next, about 30 seconds each. Stir in the vanilla.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until just combined, about 20 seconds. Add the chocolate chips and chopped pecans and stir until evenly distributed, about 20 seconds.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets by rounded tablespoons at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are just golden brown on the top. Cool on the pan for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.