Vanilla Chai Shortbread Cookies

Well, the cookies have all surely been eaten by now, and I'm not in danger of ruining a surprise...so here's the recipe!

Vanilla beans are intimidating, particularly if you've only ever used one once before. They are strange looking little devils, and surprisingly, require a sharp knife and a steady hand to open. I wrote an earlier post to help those who may be like me--a vanilla bean novice.

These shortbread cookies are great with tea--actually they were inspired by the Bigelow Vanilla Chai tea! This recipe has gone through several adaptations, but the original recipe is a Martha Stewart Special, from her holiday 2008 magazine. They're not too sweet, and not overpowered with vanilla or chai. They're originally designed to be used with a cookie press, but since that is one of the few kitchen gadgets I don't own--I opted to roll them into balls and press them flat instead.

Alrighty, let's get to it.

Ingredients:

1 Vanilla bean, split and seeds removed

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

2 chai tea bags (any flavor would work)

2 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. Prep the vanilla bean. If you are not used to doing this, it may take a few minutes...

2. Grind the tea to a fine powder. No one wants a big o' leaf in the middle of their cookie. I used a mortar and pestle, but you could just place the contents of the tea bags in between 2 pieces of waxed paper and use a heavy object (meat tenderizer) to grind to a powder.

3. Whisk the salt and flour together.

4. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla bean seeds in a mixer on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. I swear if I could, I would have eaten it just like this on toast. Or with a spoon...ahem. Doesn't it look great??

5. Add the egg, vanilla extract and chai tea to the mixture, and fully incorporate.

6. Then, add the flour to the wet mixture with the mixer set on a slow speed, until everything is all mixed together.

7. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Start preheating the oven to 350 F.

8. Form small balls with the cookies, flatten slightly dip the top in turbinado (raw) sugar if desired, and place on a greased cookie sheet a few inches apart from one another.

9. Bake for about 15 minutes, turning the cookie sheet halfway through, or until the cookies begin to brown slightly.

Voila! Enjoy!