Sweet & Spicy: Dark Chocolate Chip Cayenne Cookies

After my disastrous roasted chicken fiasco last night (I will post about it because the flavors are amazing, but for some reason my chicken didn’t cook through and was pretty raw once we cut into it), I wanted to redeem myself. And it just so happened to be a torrential downpour today (yay, finally!), so I was hankering for some homemade cookies. Plus, just about every Friday the hubs has a meeting with his crew and he takes in something I’ve made for the guys to munch on and today he didn’t have anything, so I felt bad. I wanted to bake something and run it up to his office so they could indulge a little at the end of their day.

I’ve had this recipe pinned to my Sweet board for a while now and I gotta tell ya … if you like dark chocolate and spice, this little tasty nugget is for you.

Allow yourself some time, ‘cuz this spicy chocolatey goodness has to chill in the fridge for an hour before you can throw it in the oven.

Dark Chocolate Chip Cayenne Cookies
(Recipe from Pantry and Fridge)

Ingredients
1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 egg
1 C flour
1/2 C cocoa powder (she used Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cacao; I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t cayenne pepper (I used 1 whole teaspoon to bring the heat)
1/2 t Kosher salt
Zest of an orange (she says an entire orange, but I didn’t want orange overpowering the flavor, so I just used maybe 1/4 of an orange)
1/2 C chocolate chips (she used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Baking Chips; I used Nestle Dark Chocolate Chips, which are 53% cacao and ended up using about 3/4 C because I just wanted to finish the bag )
Sea Salt for sprinkles (I only have a grinder, so my sea salt flakes don’t look like snowflakes — sad face)
parchment paper for baking (she didn’t use this when she baked them, but I’ve found that refrigerated doughs come out much better and the cookie doesn’t flatten out as much when I use parchment paper)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and both sugars. Mix well until fluffy and smooth.
2. Add the egg and mix until smooth again.
3. Add to the butter/sugar/egg mixture the cocoa powder, baking soda, cayenne pepper and salt. Make sure you blend this very well to distribute the cayenne pepper thoroughly so that you make sure the heat is distributed evenly.
4. Add in the orange zest and mix so it gets mixed in evenly as well.
5. Next, add the flour in thirds until it’s incorporated completely into a nice, thick delicious dough.
6. Fold in chocolate chips and refrigerate for about an hour.
7. Preheat oven to 350 F.
8. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet (I put parchment paper down!) about 2 inches apart and bake for 10-12 minutes. Half-way through baking, spin the sheets around and sprinkle with sea salt (so it will stick!). Check them at 10 minutes. Mine took 12 minutes and still came out nice and chewy. If you want ’em crispy, add more time.
9. Cool them for 2-3 minutes on the cookie sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

She said her batch made 24-26 cookies, which I can’t figure out how. I didn’t make mine too large and I ended up with only 21 cookies, so I’d definitely double it next time because I’ve already eaten three and I don’t usually eat more than one of what I bake (not sure why this is).

Do you like combining sweet and spicy? What’s your favorite recipe that has both components?

~TTFN