Contents
These Chinese five-spice cookies are gonna make you say bye-bye-bye to boring plain sugar cookies and nǐ hǎo to these crisp and spiced lovelies. They’re sugar cookies and so, so much more. Depending upon your five spice blend, it may include ground star anise, cinnamon, ginger, fennel seeds, Szechuan peppercorns, and cloves. Perfect at the holidays or any time of year, actually. And perfect with tea thanks to the crisp texture that stands up to dunking.–Renee Schettler Rossi
Chinese Five-Spice Cookies
These Chinese five-spice cookies get their kick from the traditional components of five-spice powder, which may include ginger, cinnamon, star anise, fennel, Szechuan peppercorns, and cloves. (Yes, that’s six spices, not five. What can we say? We’re overachievers.) Say hello to your newest holiday tradition.
Equipment
- 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter or favorite holiday-shaped cutter
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup superfine sugar, (or just blitz granulated sugar in a blender until finely ground but not powdery)
- 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Dump the flour, Chinese five-spice powder, and salt in a small bowl and whisk thoroughly.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter in a large bowl until creamy and well combined. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until fluffy, about 1 minute more.
- Stir in the flour mixture, combing just until everything is incorporated and a soft dough forms. Shape the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and adjust the rack to the center position.
- Unwrap the dough, place it on a fresh piece of plastic wrap, and roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Slide the wrap and the dough onto a baking sheet and place the whole shebang in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm it slightly.
- Remove the dough from the freezer and quickly cut out the spice cookies with a 2 1/2-inch round cookie biscuit cutter (or if it's the holidays, your favorite cookie cutter) spacing them 1/2-inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until the edges are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Immediately transfer the spice cookies to a wire rack to cool. (The cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week.) Find more information on storing and freezing your cookies here.
An LC Original
View More Original RecipesNutrition
Serving: 1 cookieCalories: 94 kcalCarbohydrates: 11 gProtein: 1 gFat: 5 gSaturated Fat: 3 gMonounsaturated Fat: 1 gTrans Fat: 1 gCholesterol: 21 mgSodium: 34 mgFiber: 1 gSugar: 5 g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tried this recipe?Mention @leitesculinaria or tag #leitesculinaria!
Recipe © 2017 David Leite. Photos © 2017 The Picture Pantry. All rights reserved.
These cookies are delicious! The dough was a little difficult to work with, but I couldn’t be more pleased with the finished product. Thank you!
Angie, so glad you like the cookies. I agree the dough is tough to work with, but slipping it in and out of the fridge certainly helps.
I made these last weekend and they are so good and so different. I love that they aren’t super sweet, and they *are* perfect with a cup of tea 🙂
Hi jenijen, so glad you liked the cookies. They’re one of my favorite tea-dunking snacks. I developed these years and years ago (when I was still young and beautiful) and I still turn to them every fall and winter. So nice to tuck into.
These sound amazing. And I have a jar of Chinese 5-spice in the kitchen right now leftover from a soup I made (and I haven’t had another reason to use it yet). Thank you!
You’re very welcome! Let us know what you think of the cookies! And if you still have some five-spice powder left, you may want to consider this Chinese Five-Spice Chocolate Chiffon Cake or any of several other recipes using “five-spice powder.”