Oh boy, have I been holding out on you. Pause, now re-read that last sentence with a liiittle more enthusiasm. Because I’m not lying and the moment I saw these Pumpkin Spice Kisses, I just had to have them. (Then I got them home and had to figure out what to make with them).
After a little debate, my answer was to plop those suckers down into the middle of a chai flavored thumbprint cookie. Inspired by those delicious chai cupcakes last year, and some of the ingredients from that recent chai pie, I knew these would come together nicely.
And come together nicely they did.
Chai Pumpkin Spice Thumbprints
adapted from The Curvy Carrot
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup chai concentrate <– click here for a link to what I used
- 1 large egg
- 1 teas vanilla extract
- 1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teas baking soda
- 1/8 teas salt
- 1/2 teas chai spice mix<–click here for a link to the chai spice mix recipe
- 22-24 Pumpkin spice Hershey’s Kisses (found at Target in the early fall)
Preparation:
Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer and cream at medium speed until fluffy, or with a hand mixer, for about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg, chai concentrate, and the vanilla, mix until combined. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl as necessary. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Using your hands, roll the dough into 22 to 24 1 inch round balls. Place the dough balls on parchment paper lined baking sheets and sprinkle chai spice mix lightly over cookies.
Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes. Meanwhile, unwrap kisses.
Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately place pumpkin kisses in the center of each cookie. Don’t touch or the kisses will turn into puddles! Cool completely.
So mix up the classic pumpkin pie at your Thanksgiving feast this year and throw these bad boys on the table instead.
In the mean time, check out the other inspiration from the rest of the gang participating in the Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cookies – then panic because we are only five more weeks out until the big day.
My name is Kita. I am a 20 something girl geek and website/graphic designer who can rock an apron like there is no tomorrow.
Wow!!! Have to pin to make soon. I love these cookies & your cookies. Chai tea is my absolute favorite! Thanks!
Amazing! These flavors sound perfect together.
These are similar to a cookie I made with these kisses – I wait all year for them to come out! Love the combo!
Worth holding onto…what a find! I LOVE this fall twist on a perfect cookie.
I love those kisses! They never last long enough to bake with though.
I need to hide a bag so I can try these – I’m a sucker for anything chai!
This is such a fun twist on kiss cookies!! I’m honestly not sure if I ever saw those in the store or not though.
I didn’t even know they made pumpkin spice kisses! I am definitely going to have to buy some and make these cookies. And eat the remainder of the bag by myself.
Pumpkin spice kisses?! Wow! I really need to track some down.
Those look awesome! I have never seen “kisses” like that. How awesome. I love their color!
Not only are they tasty looking AND sounding, but they’re mighty pretty too!
Pinned for sure. Great photo!
Holy cow, these look amazing. And how have I missed the pumpkin spice Kisses at my grocery store?! I’d better find some asap. Great pictures, too!
Nom! I want 1. Or 7.
I’m a little scared to buy these kisses for fear of eating them all immediately!
I was in a frenzy to find these and when I did, like you, I had to pause and think of a special way to use them. I chose a pumpkin pie-spiced chocolate cookie as my base, but I like the way you think. Mmmm… chai. I bet these are phenomenal!
Oh I had nearly forgotten about chai and you made a cookie out of it! With pumpkin kisses! I didn’t even see these, but then again I haven’t been in the candy section much lately.
You are incredibly creative, my dear!
I’m currently eating a handful of these Kisses that we have at work and am so sad that they aren’t surrounded by a chai cookie
See how you are. Torture it tell you!!
You had me at chai and pumpkin! I still have not had those kisses. Does the outside taste like white-chocolate? I have an aversion to white chocolate and despite my love for all things pumpkin, I have been avoiding those kisses because I know that orange chocolate is actually white chocolate in disguise. But, if the inside overpowers the chocolate, I think I could enjoy them! Ok…you must think I am a total weirdo now…
My kind of cookie here, Kita! I love chai flavoring, especially in baked goods. These sound wonderful!
I don’t see where the chai was incorporated in the recipe.
Sorry about that! I’ve updated the post.
Okay, I didn’t know Hershey’s made pumpkin spice kisses. And what a great use you’ve put them to! Delicious.
Where have I been that I have yet to hear about the pumpkin spice kisses? These cookies are super cute and I am sure they taste fantastic too. I need to be on the look out for the kisses!
Chai and pumpkin are two of my very favorite things in the whole world. Looks like a winning combo for a cookie.
Absolutely genius! Where have these pumpkin kisses been all my life. Again, you are a foodie genius to pair these with chai cookies!
these look adorable. I love kisses cookies.
you should live closer. That would be soooo great. Then I could run over and get a cookie from you. brilliant!
Wow – these are absolutely stunning! You HAVE been holding out on us!
Those look so good! I love pumpkin tea, so this should be awesome.
I like how everything is Chai-licious all of a sudden. Why not?
Delicious!!! I love chai and have been wondering how to incorporate it into more things.. And your photos are beautiful as always!
Sorry, but I’m a little confused: do you use the whole egg or just the yolk? The instructions sound like you use more than one egg yolk, but there’s only one egg in the ingredient list.
Oops! Its just one whole egg. Sorry about that.
I want to make these so bad, they look incredible! But I can’t find the pumpkin spice kisses anywhere
I’ve looked at Target and Walmart so far with no luck. I saw them on Amazon but I’d rather not have to order them online.. If you have any idea of where I could buy them, I’d really appreciate it!
Im sorry
I got mine at Target. I had never seen them before so I am not sure if its something only they carry.
Oh these are so cute! I love the pumpkin kisses, I need to find those!
I love these!
Love those chai spices!
If I wanted to pre-make the dough, how many days do you think it would last in the fridge?
I would think these would be ok, wrapped in plastic wrap for at least 2 days in the fridge. Hope this helps!
Oh my! I need to go find those Hershey’s Kisses!!!! YUM!
I have a question! when you say chai spice mix, what exactly is that? ive never heard of that before, ive heard of the tea obviously, but what is it, and where can i find it?? i didnt see anything called chai spice mix at my local grocery store
Thanx!
Here’s a link to a recipe for chai spice mix. Hope this helps! http://passthesushi.com/vanilla-chai-cupcakes
I made these tonight and, honestly, I was a little disappointed. I double-checked my ingredients and had done everything correctly, as far as I can tell, but the cookies seemed very bland in flavor and the texture was a bit dense. I had high hopes because the flavors sounded so good together -sparked some inspiration in the kitchen! May go back and try to mess with the recipe a little bit.
Also a fan of chai! Those kisses look awesome.
Could you use a chai tea instead of chai tea concentrate?
These make me so excited for Fall!!
Hi there! I love this recipe and am so excited to try it, but I have a question about the chai concentrate? Amazon has both Oregon Chai and Tazo Chair concentrate for about the same price. Did you choose Oregon for a taste factor? I’ve never had it before, so I’m curious if there’s a noticeable difference in its quality. Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe!
I’ll be honest with you, I chose Oregon because it was the first one I cam across. I had never used it before this and the chai pie that I posted last year. I wish I had something more insightful for you! :/
do you use liquid chai concentrate or the powdered version? i’ve made cookies with the powdered (such as general mills international), but i get the impression that you use a liquid form. please advise.
(ps i tried to find the answer in the comments, but to no avail. perhaps i just missed it)
I used liquid, http://www.amazon.com/Oregon-Concentrate-Original-32-Ounce-Boxes/dp/B003Q4TPAI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320856220&sr=8-1 .
hi, i came across your recipe and really want to make these. i have a problem though. i am unable to find chai concentrate where i live. do you think it could be substituted with cinnamon extract or something of that sort? thanks!
I was so excited for these cookies, but was really disappointed. They are really bland. I even added the chai spice mix to the cookie dough on top of sprinkling it. The only real stand out taste is the baking soda. It’s a brilliant idea though. *I should mention I couldn’t find the kisses so this is my take on the dough only. I was hoping for a bigger chair taste. maybe it all comes together when you add the super sweetness of the kisses
Delicious! After reading soe comments, I added the following….1/4cup vanilla flavored Greek yogurt with the butter/sugar, and with the dry ingredients I added 1 packet instant vanilla chai mix.
Where can i find the chai concentrate?
I found the Pumpkin Spice Kisses at Target yesterday. I went there specifically to look for these and almost missed them! I thought they would be back with the seasonal candy, but found them on an endcap at the registers. I bought 6 bags!!!! But I have a good excuse…I plan on making these for my Christmas boxes that I do every year (and I may need to keep a bag or 2 for me
)
I noticed someone mentioned they used a chocolate based chai cookie for theirs…..does anyone want to share that recipe?
Thanks!
Where is everybody finding the Chai concentrate? I’m having a heck of a time locating it.
LOVED the taste, but had hard time “applying” the kisses. are you supposed to flattened the dough balls and make a thumb print in them? they were too sturdy to press the kisses in, ended up with some melting off the top.
I let these chill for 1 hour in the fridge and followed the recipe exactly… The dough was SO STICKY when I tried to roll the balls to put on the pan. Why??? Half of the dough ended up on my hands!