You don’t need a lot of fancy ingredients to make these uniquely flavored browned butter and earl grey cookies. The simple everyday ingredients result in a buttery, crumbly, and fragrant cookie you will fall in love with. Thanks to the cornstarch and powdered sugar in the cookie dough, your cookies will be beyond tender and melt in your mouth.
These browned butter earl grey shortbread cookies are perfect for an afternoon tea party, a cookie swap, a bake sale, and more. These tea-infused cookies are always a big hit, and you can easily prepare the dough ahead of time for parties. Want another homemade cookie recipe everyone will love? Try my kitchen sink cookies, lemon cookies, or orange cookies!
What You Need to Make This Recipe
Earl grey tea — earl grey tea is black tea infused with bergamot oil, so it has a floral taste with a hint of citrus flavor. It has a lovely aromatic fragrance. Using a good-quality earl grey tea will give you the best flavor.
Butter — be sure to buy unsalted butter and not salted butter. Different brands of salted butter do not have a consistent amount of salt, so you should add your own, or you might have an overly salty cookie.
Vanilla — vanilla pairs wonderfully with the flavors of earl grey tea. You can use vanilla beans or vanilla extract.
Powdered sugar — you’ll need this to make the dough and the glaze for the cookies. See my post on how to make powdered sugar if you forgot to pick some up at the store. Using powdered sugar in the cookie dough will keep them soft and tender.
Cornstarch — adding cornstarch to the cookie dough will give them a crisp but crumbly and tender texture, so the cookies melt in your mouth.
Milk — you’ll need a splash of milk to make the glaze. Milk will add more flavor than water.
How to Make Browned Butter-Earl Grey Cookies
1. In a small bowl, combine browned butter, vanilla, cardamom, and tea leaves. Place the butter mixture in the fridge, stirring every 15 minutes, until smooth and spreadable, about 45 minutes.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cooled browned butter mixture, remaining ½ cup softened butter, sugar, egg yolk, and salt and beat until creamy and combined. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add in the flour and cornstarch, mixing just until combined.
3. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and shape it into a disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
4. Lightly flour the chilled dough and roll between two sheets of parchment paper to ¼-thickness. Chill for another hour or until firm.
5. Cut into desired 2-inch shape and place on a lined baking sheet 1-inch apart. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the bottoms start to brown. Let the cookies cool completely on the pan.
6. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, orange zest, milk, butter, and cardamom until smooth. Dip half of each cookie in the glaze and place on parchment paper or drizzle the glaze over the cookies and set aside to dry. Let the glaze fully dry before serving.
Pro Tips for Making This Recipe
- Adding too much flour will lead to the cookies being dense. A kitchen scale is the most accurate and easiest way to measure flour. If you don’t have one, then fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle it into your measuring cup, and use a knife to level it.
- It’s important to blitz the earl grey tea before using it so it blends well into the cookie dough. You can cut open a tea bag if you do not have loose leaf tea. Tea in tea bags tends to be finer.
- Do not skip chilling the cookie dough! Chilling the dough helps prevent the earl grey with brown butter cookies from spreading in the oven, as it helps solidify the butter in the dough.
- You cannot bake these cookies directly on a greased baking sheet. The parchment paper will help prevent the cookies from spreading as well.
- Make sure you do not overmix the dough, as it can result in a tough cookie.
- I recommend using a light-colored pan when you brown the butter, so you can see when the butter is ready. You do not want to burn the butter! The butter should be golden brown and smell buttery, nutty, and rich.
- The cookies need to cool completely before you dip them in the glaze. If the cookies are hot, the glaze will melt off.
- If you do not have an orange to zest, swap it for a lemon.
Frequently Asked Questions
The dough can be rolled between the parchment paper and refrigerated that way for up to 36 hours before cutting and baking.
Using a sharp paring knife, split the vanilla beans in half down the length of each bean to expose the seeds. Then, use the back of the knife or a small spoon to scrape out the vanilla beans.
Store the cookies in single layers with parchment between them in an airtight container for up to a week. The parchment will help keep the glaze from sticking to the other cookies.
Earl grey tea contains caffeine. You can use decaf tea instead of regular earl grey tea for this recipe if you’re concerned about the caffeine content.
If you love this recipe try these out!
If you’ve tried this Browned Butter-Earl Grey Cookies recipe, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!
Browned Butter-Earl Grey Cookies
Equipment
- Small saucepan
- Mixing Bowls
- Electric or stand mixer
- Parchment paper
- Cookie cutter (optional)
- Baking Sheets
Ingredients
For the Shortbread Cookies:
- 1 tablespoon loose leaf earl grey tea
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened and divided (227g)
- ½ vanilla bean seeds scraped or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ cup powdered sugar (60g)
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour (210g)
- ¼ cup cornstarch (40g)
For the Glaze:
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 tablespoon warm milk
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter melted
- 1 pinch ground cardamom
Instructions
For the Shortbread Cookies:
- In a small spice grinder, blitz the tea leaves until finely chopped. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan, melt ½ cup of butter over medium-high heat. Continue cooking until the butter foams and the milk solids turn deep golden brown in color, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl. Stir in the vanilla, cardamom, and tea leaves.
- Place the butter mixture in the fridge, stirring every 15 minutes, until smooth and spreadable, about 45 minutes. (You can also do this ahead of time and leave it covered at room temperature overnight.)
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cooled browned butter mixture, remaining ½ cup softened butter, sugar, egg yolk, and salt. Beat on medium speed just until creamy and combined, about 1 minute. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add in the flour and cornstarch, mixing just until combined. Stop and scrape down the bowl occasionally during mixing. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and shape into a disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
- Lightly flour the chilled dough and roll between two sheets of parchment paper to ¼-thickness. Chill for another hour or until firm.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut into desired 2-inch shape and place on the baking sheet 1-inch apart.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the bottoms start to brown. Let the cookies cool completely on the pan.
For the Glaze:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, orange zest, milk, butter, and cardamom until smooth. Dip half of each cookie in the glaze place on parchment paper or drizzle the glaze over the cookies and set aside to dry. Let the glaze fully dry before serving. Cookies can be stored in single layers with parchment between them in an airtight container for up to a week.
Notes
- Adding too much flour will lead to the cookies being dense. A kitchen scale is the most accurate and easiest way to measure flour. If you don’t have one, then fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle it into your measuring cup, and use a knife to level it.
- It’s important to blitz the earl grey tea before using it so it blends well into the cookie dough. You can cut open a tea bag if you do not have loose leaf tea. Tea in tea bags tends to be finer.
- Do not skip chilling the cookie dough! Chilling the dough helps prevent the earl grey with brown butter cookies from spreading in the oven, as it helps solidify the butter in the dough.
- You cannot bake these cookies directly on a greased baking sheet. The parchment paper will help prevent the cookies from spreading as well.
- Make sure you do not overmix the dough, as it can result in a tough cookie.
- I recommend using a light-colored pan when you brown the butter, so you can see when the butter is ready. You do not want to burn the butter! The butter should be golden brown and smell buttery, nutty, and rich.
- The cookies need to cool completely before you dip them in the glaze. If the cookies are hot, the glaze will melt off.
- If you do not have an orange to zest, swap it for a lemon.
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