These Earl Grey sugar cookies are incredibly soft, melt-in-your-mouth, and slightly chewy. The cookie dough comes together in less than 10 minutes and is the perfect treat year-round! Interested in more sugar cookie recipes? Try out my chewy strawberry sugar cookies and easy red velvet sugar cookies!
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🍪 Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s perfect for Earl Grey lovers! The cookie dough uses 2 tablespoon of Earl Grey tea leaves, or about 3 tea bags worth.
- The cookies melt in your mouth. The cookies are SUPER soft and buttery, kind of like those iconic grocery store sugar cookies… but better.
- You won’t need any special equipment. Simply mix everything in one bowl with a silicone spatula, then bake.
Looking for more easy cookie recipes? Try out my basic sugar cookies, cute lemon sugar cookies, and mini chocolate chip cookies!
Ingredients
To make Earl Grey Cookies from scratch, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- They key ingredient here is Earl Grey. I used loose leaf tea from a local tea shop, although any brand of Earl Grey tea will work. I prefer the texture of the leaves, but you can use finer tea or grind it for a smoother result.
- Melted unsalted butter makes the cookie dough really easy to mix by hand.
- I like to use a mix of brown sugar and granulated sugar to create the perfect balance of flavor and chew.
- Adding in both baking powder and baking soda gives us the exact texture and rise we’re aiming for!
- You can use either vanilla extract or vanilla paste (1:1) in this recipe.
Looking for a basic sugar cookie recipe? Try out my cute bunny sugar cookies!
For the full list of ingredients and measurements, see the recipe card below.
💡 Baking Tips
- Weigh your ingredients! One of my favorite kitchen tools is a kitchen scale because it’s more accurate than measuring by volume. If you use cups, spoon the flour in gently, then level it with a knife or spatula.
- If chilling the dough for longer than 30 minutes, I pre-scoop cookie dough into balls, closely line them on a parchment tray, and chill them. When it’s time to bake, I break off the dough balls, roll them in sugar, and bake. Pre-scooping is easier on my hands and wrists than working with chilled, firmer dough.
- For rounder cookies, place a large circular cutter or mug on top of a freshly baked, warm cookie. Move it around in a circular motion until your cookie is perfectly round! This step is totally optional and purely for plating purposes! 🙂
How to Make Soft Earl Grey Sugar Cookies
Step 1: Combine butter and tea leaves. Fully melt in a pan or in the microwave at 15-second intervals. Transfer to mixing bowl and let tea-infused butter cool to room temperature.
Step 2: Stir in egg and vanilla until smooth.
Step 3: Add in dry ingredients and mix until no dry spots remain. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days. Use a cookie scoop (2-3 tablespoon capacity) to gather dough, then roll into granulated sugar. Place cookie dough balls on lined baking sheet about 3 inches apart.
Step 4: Bake at 325°F/162°C for 10-13 minutes or until the edges are set and lightly golden. Remove from the oven let cookies sit on baking tray for at least 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to fully cool.
For full instructions, see the recipe card below.
“Insanely delish—I LOVE them!” – cookie taste tester 🍪
Earl Grey Sugar Cookie FAQs
Earl Grey is a black tea infused with bergamot orange. It is often described to be a bold tasting tea with hints of lemon, spice, and malt.
Yes, although it wouldn’t be a sugar cookie anymore!
You can add around ½-1 cup of mix-ins, like white or dark chocolate chips. If you’d like to flavor the dough and enhance the citrusy flavor, you can massage the zest of one small lemon with the sugars until fragrant, then mix it with your tea-infused butter.
They can last at room temperature in an airtight container for up 5 days. See my storage instructions on how to freeze Earl Grey cookies.
As of right now, this is my first recipe using Earl Grey tea! I have more ideas in mind, but let me know in the comments what you’d like to see.
Otherwise, I do have a LOT of delicious matcha recipes! Some classics include my easy matcha latte, vegan matcha sugar cookies, and matcha cream buns.
Storage
- Room temperature: Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Freezing instructions: Store cooled cookies in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. You can also freeze cookie dough balls for up to 3 months and bake from frozen, adding 2-3 minutes to the bake time.
- Reheating instructions: Allow frozen (already baked) cookies to thaw at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Or, reheat in the microwave at 10-second intervals.
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Thank you so much! -Bianca ❤️
📖 Recipe & Video
Soft Earl Grey Sugar Cookies
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Equipment
- 1 small bowl or plate for rolling dough in sugar
- 1 medium mixing bowl for dry ingredients
- 1 large mixing bowl for mixing dough
- 1 Medium cookie scoop 2-3 tablespoon capacity
- Parchment Paper
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups (187.5 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) table salt or fine sea salt
Wet ingredients:
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 2 tablespoons (10 g) earl grey tea leaves about 3 tea bags
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (55 g) light or dark brown sugar packed
- 1 tablespoon (4 g) vanilla extract or paste
- 1 (1) egg room temperature
For rolling:
- 4 tablespoons (48 g) granulated sugar
Instructions
For the cookie dough:
- Add ½ cup unsalted butter and 2 tablespoons earl grey tea leaves into a saucepan and heat until melted. Alternatively, melt in a microwave-safe bowl in 15-second intervals. Let fully cool.
- In a large bowl, use silicone spatula to mix melted earl grey-infused butter, ½ cup granulated sugar, and ¼ cup light or dark brown sugar until combined.
- Mix in 1 egg and 1 tablespoon vanilla until smooth.
- Add in all of the dry ingredients: 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon table salt. Mix until no dry spots remain.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes, or up to 2 days. Tip: When I do longer chill times, I like to pre-scoop cookie dough into balls, closely line them on a parchment tray, and chill them. When it's time to bake, I break off the dough balls, roll them in sugar, and bake. Pre-scooping is easier on my hands and wrists than working with chilled, firmer dough.
Scoop & bake cookies:
- Preheat oven to 325°F/163°C and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl or plate, add 4 tablespoons granulated sugar for rolling the dough.
- Use cookie dough scoop to gather dough (2-3 tablespoons). Roll into granulated sugar and place on lined baking tray, spacing cookies about 3-4 inches apart.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until edges are slightly golden brown and set. Cool cookies on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!TIP: For rounder cookies, place a large circular cutter or mug on top of a freshly baked, warm cookie. Move it around in a circular motion until your cookie is perfectly round! This step is totally optional and purely for plating purposes! 🙂
Notes
- Weigh your ingredients! One of my favorite kitchen tools is a kitchen scale because it’s more accurate than measuring by volume. If you use cups, spoon the flour in gently, then level it with a knife or spatula.
- Room temperature: Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Freezing instructions: Store cooled cookies in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. You can also freeze cookie dough balls for up to 3 months and bake from frozen, adding 2-3 minutes to the bake time.
- Reheating instructions: Allow frozen (already baked) cookies to thaw at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Or, reheat in the microwave at 10-second intervals.
This recipe is so easy to make, and was a hit with all of my friends and family! I followed one of the other comments and rolled the dough in sugar + lemon zest and it was the best addition. I’m a huge Earl Grey fan and loved how you could taste it in every bite. I’m going to be making these often now that I’ve found the perfect recipe!
Hi Kristy!! YAY, SOO glad to hear the recipe was loved. I appreciate it you for trying it out and leaving this kind review!
Could the dough be refrigerated overnight or is that not recommended?
Hi Ben! Thanks for your comment. You can totally chill the dough overnight and up to 2 days. 🙂
A little tip, I like to scoop the fresh cookie dough into balls and line them up really close together on a parchment-lined small tray or plate. I refrigerate the entire plate or tray. Then when it’s time to bake, I just break off the cookie dough balls, roll in sugar, and bake.
I like doing this since scooping cold dough can be a little hard on the hands/wrists.
I just added all of this info to the blog post, thanks again!
Honestly never heard of this cookie before, so was intrigued. I was in search a bergamot sugar cookies and settled with yours since I’d have to buy additional ingredients.
These turned out so surprisingly delightful. Flat, chewy and intriguing. Thank you for your post. I’ll be making these again!
Hi Ron! So glad you stumbled across the recipe and enjoyed it. 🙂 Thank you so much for your comment. Happy baking!
these were the best earl grey cookies ever,i’ve been looking for a great recipe and now i found one thanks so much!!!!!!
Hi Lynda!! Thank you sooo much, that means the world to me. I am obsessed with these cookies too, haha. Happy baking!!!
I’m not an earl grey tea fan but a huge fan of these cookies. I made them for a friend’s surprise tea party and I know they’ll love them as much as I do. I followed the recipe to the ‘tea’ and tried to use a cheap earl grey tea but the tea leaves were ground up so I used one of my good English ones too. They still came out perfect. I only had to use 2 bags to measure 2 Tb. Thank you for the easy and delicious recipe.
Hi Aleta, thank you for your comment and review! That makes me so happy to hear. A surprise tea party sounds like a dream, and I LOVEEE your pun hahaha. Hope your friend enjoys the cookies. Thanks again for sharing! 🙂
Great recipe! I baked these cookies and gave them to friends and family as I do with all of my baking and the next time I saw anyone, they were all either saying how good these cookies were or asking if there were any left, haha! I definitely will need to make this recipe again.
Hi Kitzy! Thanks so much for commenting. That makes me sooo happy to hear!! These cookies really are so good—one of my faves 🙂
currently making these for the third time in two weeks! made these for the first time for a friend’s house warming party and they were a huge hit. had to make them again for the super bowl party and now this time for a birthday party. extremely easy and quick recipe to follow and i’ve shared it with a few people who loved the cookies.
the second time i made them, i zested a lemon into the rolling sugar and the cookies turned out delicious like that as well, not too lemon-y at all it was the perfect touch.
thank you for this recipe, it’s now my go-to cookie!
Hi Sarah!! That’s amazing to hear, I love that SO MUCH!! The lemon tip is so great, thank you for sharing <3 Glad you enjoy the recipe. It's truly one of my favorites!
Unbelievably amazing!!!! The cookies are perfect in every way!
The Earl Grey cookies were so good that the next week I used the same recipe to make chai cookies.
One note: 325 kept resulting in raw cookies, so I cooked them at 350 for 12 min.
Hi Caroline!! Amazing, so happy to hear!! 🙂 Thanks for your comment, chai cookies are def on my recipe list!!!
Do you have an oven thermometer? My oven is old and runs on the colder side. So when I want to bake at 325F, I actually hav to crank it up to 340F, so it actually reaches 325F LOL.
You can always bake the cookies longer at 325F until they look baked through—edges slightly golden and set. The lower bake time helps the cookies spread more while baking, as higher baking temps will cook them faster and make them puff more! But if you do prefer a very slightly puffier cookie with crispier edges, 350F is totally the way to go! 🙂
Yup! Tried these and fantastic! Didn’t have butter so replaced with 6 tbsp of vegetable oil and still *chefs kiss*
Hi Mikayla!! Thank you so much, glad to hear the vegetable oil worked well 🙂
My husband and I absolutely love this recipe hes been asking me regularly to make more cookies and the best part of this recipe is we have so many teas we use a different one each time we make these! Orange spice, clementine ginger, black tea and obviously earl grey which is my favorite
Hi Taylor! Omg, YUM! All those tea flavors sound absolutely delicious! 🙂 Thanks for sharing~
These cookies taste great! A lot of tea cookies are so dry, but these are moist and flavorful! The tea is sweet and aromatic without any bitterness. The earl grey I used has lavender in it, which gave these cookies a nice extra layer of flavor that I’m in love with.
I was a little skeptical when scooping them because my dough became slightly crumbly in the fridge and didn’t want to hold together well, but after rolling them in the sugar they shaped right up and held together perfectly in the oven. These were incredibly easy to make and I absolutely will be remaking these whenever I’m in need of a sweet treat!
Hi Georgia! Thank you SO much for your comment! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe. The lavender-infused tea sounds amaaazing. <3
A perfect combination of two of my favorite things. I used Earl Grey tea from Adagio Teas and the flavor was just right. Will definitely keep these on hand in my freezer.
Hi Cathy!:) Thanks so much for commenting, so happy you enjoyed!
I’m a huge fan of earl grey tea and this recipe was by far the best earl grey cookies I have made! They were a huge hit with family and friends during the holidays (even non-tea drinkers, which was huge)—definitely looking forward to trying more of your recipes. Thank you, Bianca!!
Hi Sydney!!! That makes me sooo happy to hear!:) Thank you so much for your comment, happy holidays.
I LOVE these cookies. It has the perfect amount of earl grey and it’s so soft and chewy! It’s really my kind of cookie.
Aww Isabelle yay!! Thank you so much for your comment! <3 <3
I have never commented on a recipe before but with how these turned out I just had to. I’ve tried Early Grey cookies before from bakeries and was never really a fan. I wanted to make cookies for my friends birthday and she loves Earl Grey so I found this recipe, and let’s just say…… can I give more than 5stars? I make cookies and bring them to work frequently and these are the ones that have gotten me the most compliments. My new favourite cookie. I’m also now using this recipe but using coconut oil, gluten free flour, and coconut sugar for my GF/DF family members and had a fight break out over who got the last one.
Hi Jackie! Omg, what a nice comment!! Thank you soooo so much.
I love these cookies too. I recently made them for a cookie exchange and they were a hit!
I’m so, so glad you and other people love them. And such a great note on using coconut oil, gf flour, and coconut sugar. So happy everyone can try them!
Bianca! I think these cookies are amazing. My partner and I have made them many times 🙂 have you used different kinds of tea (matcha, chai, etc) in place of the earl gray? Any recs?
Hi Devin!
Omg, amazing!!! Thank you for such a kind comment, that makes me sooo happy to hear. For this specific recipe + ingredient ratios, I do not have other blog posts for them… yet!
But for now, you can definitely play around with the recipe. Here are some ideas:
1.Swap out the Earl Grey tea leaves for other tea leaves, 1:1.
2. If using matcha powder, I recommend using culinary matcha powder and adding 1 tablespoon to the wet ingredients.
3. Remove the Earl Grey entirely for plain sugar cookies.
Let me know if you have any questions! Enjoy! 🙂
<3 Bianca
Such an awesome twist on a sugar cookie! Love love love the tea leaves in these cookies they’re so beautiful! Will definitely add this recipe to my arsenal of cookies for the holidays.
Hi Laurel!
Yay, so glad you enjoyed them. Thank you for your kind comment! <3 Happy holiday baking~
Just made these cookies bc I loove earl grey so much! Especially the Russian earl grey. And they were perfect tysm for this recipe! I usually make my cheesecakes with black tea leaves so I was sure it would be a good idea for cookies too!
Hi Cassie! Yayyy, so glad you tried the recipe. Thank you for sharing! (: Your cheesecake sounds AMAZING!
Amazing recipe! I’m a tea lover and this has the perfect amount of Earl grey taste. I also did use grams. Super soft and a little chewy too. One of the best cookies I’ve ever made! Can’t wait to make again.
Hi Kris! YAY, so so happy to hear!! Thank you so much for your comment! <3
(I am the author of this recipe)
I made these cookies 4x after developing the recipe! I’ve shared my cookies with friends, acquaintances, family, and even shipped some across the country for another friend to try. (: They’re SO delicious and easy to make!!
What do u mean by after developing the recipe? What did u do different?
Hi hi! (: I didn’t do anything differently—I just meant that after I created this recipe, I already made it a bunch of times to eat/share because it’s that good! Thanks for asking!