White Chocolate Earl Grey Cookies

Soft and chewy Earl Grey Cookies infused with tea and studded with white chocolate chunks. They’re a sweet treat perfect for afternoon tea and beyond.

The recipe for these earl grey cookies different from those other popular tea cookies you’ll find on the internet. Other recipes include the tea leaves in the cookie. This one doesn’t.

Certain teas, like matcha, are grown specifically for direct consumption. The same cannot be said for many supermarket teas. Generally, teas are meant for steeping in liquids.

Don’t eat tea leaves. Let’s steep tea in butter to extract flavor. It’s the same technique used in these boba tea cupcakes.

Recipe Ingredient Notes

For best results, measure ingredients by weight using a kitchen scale. However, if you prefer to use volume measures (cups), use the spoon and level method to measure dry ingredients.

• Infused Butter : Earl Grey tea leaves are infused into melted butter. More detailed information in the next section.
• Earl Grey Tea : There are dozens of Earl Grey tea variations. Choose your favorite version. More detailed information regarding tea in the next section.
• Brown Sugar : Use your choice of light or dark brown sugar. It will slightly affect the color of the dough. However, it has minimal effect on the flavor.
• White Chocolate : For the best experience, use high-quality white chocolate. Cocoa butter should be listed within the first three ingredients on the packaging. Stay far away from “white chocolate morsels” or “white chocolate chips” that are made from sugar, palm oil (or other hydrogenated oil) and milk powder. Find real white chocolate like these white chocolate feves.

Tea Bag versus Loose Leaf Tea

On average, loose leaf tea tends to be more flavorful and aromatic than tea bags.

This isn’t always the case. Certainly there are plenty of high-quality tea bags. But, much of supermarket tea bags (Twinings, Celestial Seasonings, Trader Joe’s, Numi) have finely ground tea that resembles “dust.”

Study the image above. The tea bag tea leaves are ground to a fine “tea dust.” The actual tea leaves are unrecognizable. While the loose leaf tea in the second cup are much more recognizable. You can see the tea leaves formed into tightly rolled coils.

Use either tea bag or loose leaf tea for this recipe. They both work just fine. You may have to use double the amount of tea bags to get the same flavor as loose leaf.

How to Infuse Tea Flavor

How do you infuse Earl Grey flavor into cookie dough? Fat! Flavor is best transported through fat. In this case, butter is the fat.

1. Add tea to hot melted butter. Steep tea in butter for 20 minutes. Make sure the melted butter is hot. It will slightly cool as the tea steeps. If the melted butter starts to harden during steeping, simply warm up butter over the stove.
2. Strain tea out of the butter. Once again, if the butter starts to harden and solidify, gently reheat it to melt.
3. Squeeze out as much liquid as you can from the tea leaves!
4. The tea infused butter will have a slight green color. The butter will not be clear. It will appear a bit cloudy.

Don’t try to taste the tea infused butter at this point. You will not taste the Earl Grey flavor until you mix the dough together. The addition of sugar and salt will enhance the aroma and flavor of the tea.

Step by Step Mixing

1. Cream butter and sugars until smooth. Add egg, yolk, and vanilla. Mix for about 3 minutes until mixture has the consistency of caramel sauce.
2. Add dry flour ingredients in three additions.
3. Mix on low speed until there are no longer any dry streaks of flour. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed to ensure thorough mixing.
4. Fold in white chocolate. Cover and chill dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

How to Portion Cookie Dough

The secret to uniformed sized cookies is proper portioning! Reasons to portion out dough: 1) all the cookies bake at the same rate and 2) all the cookies are the same size.

These earl grey cookies are “drop cookies.” This means the dough does not need to be shaped before baking. Simply scoop the dough and drop onto the baking sheet.

This recipe uses a size 24 scoop (1.75 oz).

Make Ahead Cookie Dough Option

Freeze now and bake later!  These Earl Grey cookies can be made ahead of time. Store the raw dough in the fridge for up to two days, or keep in the freezer for up to three months.

How to prepare cookie dough for freezer:

• Mix together the dough.
• Chill in the fridge for two hours (ideally overnight).
• Scoop and portion into rounds. 
• Place portioned cookie dough on a parchment lined baking sheet. Place in the freezer for one to two hours until solid.
• Once solid, transfer cookie dough to an airtight container such as a ziptop bag or reusable silicone bag. 

Recipe Troubleshooting and Tips

Cookie Storage Instructions

Cooling cookies to room temperature is vital step. Next, is having a good cookie jar or an airtight container.

Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days. However, they are best enjoyed within three days after baking.

Cookie Variations

1. Caramel Stuffed Earl Grey Cookies : Omit the white chocolate. Flatten the portioned cookie ball. Place a soft caramel candy in the center. Roll dough back to a ball to encase the caramel. Bake as usual.
2. Earl Grey Sugar Cookies : Omit the white chocolate. Roll the portioned cookie balls in granulated sugar. Bake as usual.
3. Earl Grey Cookies : These cookies are not mixed with white chocolate. The raw cookie balls were frozen and later baked. Frozen cookies will have a slightly richer, darker color.
4. Freeze for Later Use : Follow the recipe post as instructed and freeze the raw cookie balls. Add 2 minutes to baking time. The resulting cookies will have a slightly richer, darker color than cookies that were not frozen.

More Tea Infused Dessert Recipes

• Boba Milk Tea Cake
• Honey Jasmine Profiteroles
• Apricot Chamomile Cake
• Honey Earl Grey Fig Cake