Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Salted Chipotle Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Okay, I promise this is the last recipe I post for the year, but I just finished putting together the gift bags for my kids' teachers and some parent friends from their school and I wanted to throw something else in there. So, I made some cookies. But these aren't your ordinary cookies. These are complex cookies with character. The kind that makes your taste buds report in waves of flavors.

First, I took a standard, chocolate chip cookie recipe that I've had success with in the past (and, more importantly, was quick - I was strapped for time). In this case, it's the Ghiradelli Chocolate Chip cookie recipe. And then I doctored it up with some spices, most notably chipotle, cinnamon and cayenne and then sprinkled some sea salt at the finish for a sweet, salty, spicy (with a hint of smoky) flavor profile.

I recommend getting Ghiradelli bittersweet bars and chopping them into chunks or you can use Scharffen Berger chocolate chunks (it ends up being cheaper than the bars). Just make sure you use good quality chocolate. I would have used Guittard, but didn't want to wrestle with chopping up the bulk chocolate. For the rest, I used all organic ingredients, house made vanilla extract and eggs from our backyard chickens.

These end up being mildly spicy. If I weren't baking these for other people (and eating them myself), I would increase the chipotle and the cayenne. So, if you like things spicy, feel free to double the cinnamon, chipotle and cayenne!


Salted Chipotle Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/4 cup unsifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate chunks
fleur de sel (or fine sea salt)

Directions
Heat oven to 375ยบ F.

Stir flour with baking soda, salt and spices and set aside.

In large mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, one at a time. Mix on low speed until incorporated.

Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Sprinkle fleur de sel or sea salt on each unbaked cookie.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for three minutes and then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling. Then stuff into mouth.

8 comments:

Lisa said...

I will have to make these for my husband! He loves spicy stuff. Thanks.

Chile said...

For a really smoky flavor, you could try sprinkling them with smoked salt. (It's just plain salt smoked on alder boards in Oregon.) Since I have chile powder but not chipotle, I think changing the salt would work for me.

Erika said...

Amazing! I think these will be tonights project-of-the-day... :)

Robj98168 said...

MMMMMMMmmm. I will be up for cookies after work!

Dmarie said...

sweet and salty were enough to get my attention. smoky? hmmmnnnn. just count me among those who hope you are not shy about posting recipes along with the crunchy. thx!

Greenpa said...

Mark Bitten just put up a recipe for a caramelized apple/ice cream dessert - with candied bacon.

So what could you do with bacon in cookies? :-)

They sound great; only question is, how do your kids take to them? I'm wondering if they might actually be kind of R rated cookies.

Shaving soap said...

Looks yummy! I will have my wife bake this for me.

Anonymous said...

Hope you are okay - missin' your posts...