10+ Warming Chai Recipes

Updated September 03, 2019
Credit: Photo by Alex Tepper

Chai isn't just for drinking—the aromatic mixture of spices can upgrade even the most basic of desserts. Get ready for fall with our absolute best chai recipes, from cheesecake bars to snickerdoodles. 

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Chai Swirl Cheesecake Bars

Credit: Jen Causey; Prop Styling: Christina Daley; Food Styling: Pam Lolley

Chai Swirl Cheesecake Bars Recipe

These eye-catching dessert bars taste like your favorite chai latte, reimagined in cheesecake form. Featuring flavorful swirls of chai-infused cream cheese filling, each bite offers richly aromatic, spiced flavor set against a cool and creamy vanilla cheesecake backdrop. They’re a simple dessert to make, but undeniably impressive. 

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Mini Coconut-Chai Cheesecakes

Credit: Con Poulos; Food Styling: Margaret Dickey; Prop Styling: Audrey Davis

Mini Coconut-Chai Cheesecakes Recipe

Whether it’s your classic New York style, key-lime flavored, or chocolate marbled, I’ll gladly eat an entire wheel of cheesecake. Don’t put it past me. But, as we know, this famously rich dessert is heavy on the fat and calories, so it’s not wise for our health to overdo it (*sigh*).

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Chai Shortbread

Credit: Becky Luigart-Stayner; Jan Gautro

Chai Shortbread Recipe

A combination of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper gives these chai cookies a taste reminiscent of Indian spiced tea. The fine texture of powdered sugar helps them retain the characteristic shortbread crunch.

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Pumpkin Chai Snickerdoodles

Credit: Sara Tane

Pumpkin Chai Snickerdoodles Recipe

Perfectly crispy on the outside, while light and fluffy on the inside, these festive, fall treats are your new favorite cookie. Rolled in a chai-spiced sugar mixture, these cookies are basically all of your favorite latte flavors mixed up into one perfect cookie. Best served after a dunk in coffee, if we do say so ourselves.

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Chai Carrot Pie

Credit: Hector Manuel Sanchez

Chai Carrot Pie Recipe

With a sweet cream cheese layer on the bottom and spiced carrot filling on top, this luscious dessert feels like a cross between pumpkin pie and carrot cake. A combination of butter and shortening in the crust is ideal--butter for its rich flavor, and shortening to create a flaky texture. We recommend seeking out Earth Balance shortening because, unlike most other shortenings, it contains no trans fats.

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Turmeric Chai Latte

Credit: Daniel Agee

Turmeric Chai Latte Recipe

Skip the coffee house and make a memorable tea drink at home this winter. Turmeric, which has received big press for its uses as a Functional Food, adds nuanced flavor to the traditional chai latte.

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Chai Tea Eggnog Cookies

Credit: Jennifer Davick; Styling: Caroline Murphey

Chai Tea Eggnog Cookies Recipe

The chai gives this cookie a kick while the eggnog topping shows a sweet side.

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Chia Chai Pudding

Credit: Travis Rathbone; Styling: Megan Hedgpeth

Chia Chai Pudding Recipe

We dare you to say "chia chai" three times fast.

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Chai Spice and Pear Oatmeal

Credit: Randy Mayor; Styling: Lindsey Lower

Chai Spice and Pear Oatmeal Recipe

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Chai Syrup

Credit: Andrew Thomas Lee; Styling: Kaitlyn Du Ross

Chai Syrup Recipe

Chai Syrup is a simple syrup made with loose Chai tea leaves and lends sweetness to the Pondicherry Sour cocktail.

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Dirty Chai With Whiskey and Maple Liqueur

Credit: Photo by Alex Tepper

Dirty Chai With Whiskey and Maple Liqueur Recipe

Maple liqueur and whiskey turn a dirty chai into a party in this recipe from Brooklyn’s STAND Coffee. It’s perfect for brunch, midnight breakfast, or, as our barista-in-residence recently decided, a weekday a.m. office happy hour. The double shot of espresso, combined with the chai (STAND recommends using Dona Chai concentrate), gives you a triple dose of caffeine, making for a fortifying drink that’s better suited to a breakfast café than a bar. If you’re still concerned about drinking in the morning, here’s a fun fact: Winston Churchill drank whiskey for breakfast and he helped win World War II. We’re not saying a daily morning whiskey intake will maximize your potential, but we’re also not saying that it won’t.

The Dirty Flirt

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