Hot and Spicy Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is one that Michelle has been bugging me to post about for quite some time. These cookies were a bit out of the ordinary for a chocolate chip cookie, which can be hard to do. Who would've thought that adjusting the seasoning ever so slightly would create a whole different experience? I really liked these cookies and not only for their spiciness. The texture of them was fantastic as well. So if you're tired of the same old same old, add some heat to your cookies and make them hot and spicy.

Hot and Spicy Chocolate Chip Cookies

from No Recipes

1 1/2 sticks of butter at room temperature

3/4 C packed dark brown sugar
1/2 C granulated sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 C + 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 C bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks

Move the oven rack to the middle position and preheat to 325 degrees.

Cream the butter and 2 kinds of sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix till combined after each addition. Add the vanilla, cinnamon and cayenne pepper, mixing until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add it to the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir in by hand.

Scoop roughly 1/4 cup of batter for each cookie onto a baking sheet (it’s okay if the balls are jagged) leaving enough room for them to spread. Bake 1 sheet at a time for about 12-15 minutes each or until the edges are set, but the middle is still soft. You may need to experiment with your oven to figure out the perfect cooking time. As these cookies bake, they go from chewy to cakey to crisp, so you can change their characteristic by the amount of time you bake them for.

To get the chewy center, allow them to cool on the pan (not on a rack).

How to Cure a Case of the Blues-Baking and Chocolate

I'm so predictable in some ways. When I'm feeling down I put on this CD and bake. It never fails to make me feel better and I hope it never does.

Instead of the usual banana bread recipe that I use, I was feeling something chocolate. I found this recipe on The Sisters' Cafe blog and off I went. Humming and stirring.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread
courtesy of The Sister's Cafe

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cups mashed bananas (about 3)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (I used a 4 oz bar of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate, chopped)

Heat your oven to 350. Spray bottom of 8x4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Beat sugar, eggs, and oil in large bowl at medium speed until combined. Beat in banana and vanilla at low speed. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl (I sifted the flour and cocoa as it gives a lighter batter); beat into banana mixture at low speed just until combined (I just stirred with a spoon here as to not over mix the batter). Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

(if you're wondering where the other pieces of bread are, I ate them. for dinner. don't judge me)

The end result turned out great! I wish I had taken it out of the oven a little sooner. I forget that banana bread is always better when left undercooked in the middle as it will finish cooking quite a bit once you've pulled it out, it's the magic of the loaf. It was still damn tasty though. I am glad I made the bittersweet chocolate substitution. I think it left it with more of a rich dark chocolate taste rather than a sweet one. Yum. This recipe is a keeper.

Please and Thank You

Being that I bought an entire pound of bittersweet chocolate to make a flourless chocolate cake while we were away in Bend last weekend, only to discover that I needed an electric mixer and had none, I decided that something was to be done with all that chocolate. It's been a while since I made some good ol' fashioned chocolate chip cookies. I came across the NY Times Jacques Torres' recipe via Nosh and Tell and decided to give it a go.

Jacques Torres' Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon cake flour (I used regular flour)

3/4 cup bread flour

1/4 tablespoon salt (you can sprinkle coarse salt on top in lieu of this)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 tablespoon vanilla

1/2 pound or 8 oz best-quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used 1 bar of 4 oz bittersweet Ghirardelli chocolate and found them to be chocolate-y enough)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl cream together butter and sugars. Add egg and mix well. Add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and vanilla, mix well until combined. Fold in chocolate chunks.

*Instead of adding salt to the recipe, I sprinkled coarse salt on top of the cookies before baking. I've been seeing some food bloggers do this and since I'm such a fan of the coarse sugar/salt thing, I jumped right on that bandwagon.

Using a 4 ounce scoop for larger cookies or a tablespoon scoop for smaller cookies scoop cookie dough onto prepared cookie sheet placing about 2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 20 minutes for larger cookies and 15 for smaller cookies. Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

My oven cooks a little high so I took these cookies out at about 11 minutes. I like to take cookies out a tad early and then let them finish cooking on the sheet before removing them. I find you get a better consistency that way.

These cookies were near perfect when cooled just a little but still warm. They hardened up more than I like after they completely cooled. Not a terrible recipe, and maybe it's the fact that I didn't use the fancy flour, but I like my cookies less crunchy. Back to my Joy of Cooking standby!

Sitting Pretty

And they all lived happily ever after.