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!
Love these cookies? Pair them with my London fog latte!
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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 sugars until combined, then mix in egg and vanilla.
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
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.
These cookies turned out AMAZING! Their texture was perfect. I just used Bigelow Earl Gray tea and the cookies were very flavorful. My friend, who is a professional baker, agreed that these were really good cookies!
I made these using Earl Grey and they were delicious. I love Chai and was wondering if the spices would be too over-powering for the sugar cookie?
Hi Connie! Very happy to hear you enjoyed the cookies 🙂 I think chai would be absolutely delicious. It’s on my list of recipes to make this Fall. You can definitely swap out the earl grey for chai!
This is a great recipe! Did everything as stated. I chilled the dough for an hour. I did bake them for 14 minutes. At 11 minutes, the edges were not golden. Did increments of one minute. Still nice and chewy!
Made these twice and it didn’t work out both times :/ the middle keeps getting underbaked, baking even up to 15min didn’t help. no issues with my oven temperature and the butter was cooled for at least 30min so i don’t know what went wrong 😭 I reduced each dough ball’s size in my second run to see if that was the issue but it’s still underbaked. My ingredients were all measured with a scale and I didn’t make any tweaks.
Hi S! Thank you for your comment! I’m so sorry the recipe didn’t work out twice! 🙁
Do you happen to have an oven thermometer? I wonder if your oven may run a little cold, which is why it’s taking longer.
Bake times are usually a recommendation, as everyone’s oven is different. Did you bake until the edges are slightly golden brown and set? You may just have to bake the cookies longer! Were the bottoms burnt in any way?
Thank you for replying! I think I might lower the temperature and bake it longer, I don’t have a thermometer but everything else I’ve baked in there seems to turn out fine. I did bake till the edges were brown, thankfully nothing burnt and my repeated baking just made the cookie crispier and more chewy haha, but the middle still stayed a little wet (had that damp look)
Of course!!! Thank you for your reply. Yes, I would totally try baking a few minutes longer, or lowering the temp by 15-25 degrees and baking longer as you mentioned.
Please me know how it works out—hopefully the third time is the charm 😭 Thank you for giving the recipe another try!
The flavor of these cookies are really good. However, I made these twice and both times the cookies didn’t spread out like it does in the pictures. Despite being thicker, the texture was good though (chewy on inside and slightly crispy on outside). The first time I made it I used measuring cups and then reading reviews, I tried it with weighing it by grams the second time. But I got the same result both times. Any other tips on why the cookies don’t spread out as much? Could less sugar contribute to this? I usually reduce the white sugar by a tbsp because I tend to like my cookies less sweet than the original recipe.
Hi Anna! Thank you so much for your comment 🙂 I’m glad you love the flavor and even gave the recipe another chance!
Generally, more sugar does make cookies spread more. Here’s an interesting article about it! However, a tablespoon shouldn’t make much of a difference!
Do you happen to have an oven thermometer? Your oven might run a little hotter, which would make the cookies not spread as much. Alternatively, maybe the pan you are using is a thinner material, which would cook the cookies faster? Either way, you can try dropping the temperature by 15-25 degrees and seeing if that helps!
Let me know!
These sound yummy & plan on making them for our local elderly community. What I wanted to know is if you don’t have tea leaves, can you use the tea from a tea bag?
Hi Connie! That’s so sweet, thank you for your comment. Yes, you can use tea from a tea bag! I’ve done that before 🙂
They are really good!
soooooooo yummy and soft 😃👻😋
Have yet to make these using Earl Grey, but they are fabulous using chai tea.
Hi Barb! Omg, love to hear it! I’m actually writing up that same recipe right now for 2026! 🙂