Five delicious ways to use chai spice
Cardamom, cinnamon, anise, clove and peppercorn. Warm chai is a whole late fall mood. Here are five more ways you can chai-spice-up your December. (Yes, there will be cookies.
Even if you are a year-around chai drinker, there’s something extra magical about the smell and taste of spiced drinks as the weather turns cool. It’s the subtle warming sensation of cinnamon and pepper, and the slight earthy burn of ginger. It’s the way the whole house smells glorious when you’re warming chai spices on the stove.
It’s comforting, cozy, meditative, and kind of moody—a true late-fall vibe. And once you realize how simple and rewarding it is to make your own chai from whole spice, you’ll want to have it cooking all the time.
But what to do with all that chai? We’ve got you covered!
But first, a chai tutorial
If you didn’t grow up drinking chai, you may be surprised to learn that the word “chai” simply means “tea” in Hindi, a word probably derived from “chá” the Chinese word for tea.
In other words, it’s a general term in many cultures and could represent a wide variety of tea flavors. The spices we tend to associate with the chai lattes and other chai products we purchase in the States come from generalized recipes for “masala chai” or “spiced tea.”
You’ll probably notice that many chai spice products have slightly different variations on cardamon, cinnamon, ginger, anise, peppercorn and clove. To come up with your favorite version, check out our Chai Chart and recipe to get you started.
Five other ways to use chai
Please drink up all the chai you want, there’s no hurry to that liquid gold into cookies and jams and cocktails. But, when you’re ready…and you will be ready… try these options!
Dirty chai. The easiest on this list and the most caffeinated! At your local café, a dirty chai means a shot of espresso added to your chai latte. To make dirty chai at home, simply add hot or cold brewed coffee to your chai. We recommend 1 part coffee to 2 parts milky chai.
Chai syrup. Make your chai on the less milky side for this. Once the tea is hot, jump straight to the “syrup” portion of this recipe.
Chai sugar cookies. For this recipe, you’ll infuse butter with chai spice. Yes…chai infused butter…you read that right. Because the cookies already have sugar in them, skip the full tea recipe for this one and use the chai chart to ground up spices and black tea and put them into the butter instead of the oolong called for in this recipe. For the flavored sugar topping, you can even use our chai spice pack.
Chai french toast. For two servings, wisk two eggs into one cup of milky chai and place in a wide bowl. Cut six thick slices of challah bread and dip each side into the egg and chai mixture. Fry on a griddle and enjoy with that chai syrup!
Chai overnight oats. Have you gotten on board with overnight oats? It’s so simple and nutritious and makes for the easiest mornings. We love the Minimalist Baker recipe. To make it chai flavored, swap out the milk with your milky chai. Place ½ cup of rolled oats in a jar, cover with ½ cup milky chai, add ¾ tbsp of chia seeds, cover and let sit in the fridge overnight. That’s it! Top how you like in the morning and eat.
May your home smell of chai until the first blooms of spring (or forever if you prefer)! What are your favorite ways to use chai?
