Spicy Cookies

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

This time of year tends to lean to the crazy side of things. Food, family, friends, programs, ending semesters, grading, finals, shopping, busy busy busy.

This is in addition to regular life stuff, like sports and work and feeding your family, so imagine my sadness when I realized that the blog hasn’t really gotten attention in a week. Then more sadness when I realized that this cookie has a grand total of two pictures for the whole blog. I guess, in the midst of photographing and recipe typing, this cookie got the short end of the stick. Kind of makes me sad, because of the cookies with the most surprise, this one is delish.

Imagine a dark chocolate cookie, rolled in a mixture of sugar, cinnamon, and two kinds of chili powder. Then baked to a soft dark sweet and spicy treat. You have this cookie.

Originally by Martha Stewart in her glory (yes I own almost every one of her cookbooks), the cookie calls for unsweetened cocoa powder. I have baked it with Dutch process and Dark Cocoa and hands down, my family prefers the darker chocolate flavor. I have also upped the spice factor by adding both Ancho and Chipotle, and increased the amounts, but trust me, with the sugar and the cinnamon, the subtle heat that happens with this cookie is more of a “Oh Wow” than “What the heck?”

As an aside, these spices are from the Atlantic Spice Company, an awesome little shop in North Truro, Massachusetts. This is in the Outer Cape Cod, at the junction of 6 and 6A. A must stop if you love to cook and are on the Cape. They have an amazing selection of spices and teas as well as the very cool gift selection for the culinary artist in your family (many items in my stocking came from the Atlantic Spice Company and I was very pleased).

In all fairness, I do typically warn the consumers of what is what on a cookie tray. My mom is not a fan. Spicy is not her thing. So, in respect for those who want to stay to the safe side of the cookie tray, let your guests know.

If you are the type who loves a little kick, and likes to be inspired, then this is the cookie for you. You can’t go wrong with a spicy dark chocolate chewy cookie that has just the subtlest hints of red flecks amongst the sugar. The cinnamon also rounds this out, so it is just a flavor boom of a cookie.

I also continue to bake my cookies at the lower temperature (I know, who do I think I am to mess with Martha Stewart on a recipe?) to keep them soft and I find that these are the kind of cookies you bake, and serve. As in, tender and break easily after the first day. So if you are planning to bake and freeze or bake and leave out…maybe do another kind of cookie. The good thing is, this dough doesn’t require chilling after mixing and before baking, so you can do this in one setting.

The soft chocolate crinkly top with the mix of sweet and heat makes this the perfect bring along to something like a Super Bowl party, where the folks who are clinging to the wings platter might enjoy spice with their cookie, or an event were foodies who like to try something new are up for a new dessert. I say, it takes all kinds of cookies to make up a tray.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and as always, thank you for coming to the table!

Chrissy

Click below for a printable recipe!