The first chocolate recipes were invented by the Mesoamericans, who included chili in their hot chocolate. I’ve been working on a way to adapt chili into a chocolate chip cookie recipe, because why not? Spicy chocolate is, frankly, delicious.

This is an ongoing project. My first batch used 2 teaspoons of chili pepper from an Indian grocery, which turned out to be much spicier than what a cayenne pepper would offer. That batch also turned out surprisingly crunchy. It’s possible I overbaked them because they didn’t appear done at just 7 minutes (sorry, no photo available).

This batch (as seen in the photo above) used a Mexican chili powder, which I found out after the fact was something my spouse made with cumin and garlic powder. I couldn’t taste enough of those flavors, and not much spice besides, but my spouse told me to take them to work to get rid of them. I left them in the break room this morning with an anonymous note on the ingredients as a warning.

Sometimes I worry about my baking reputation at the office, as my spouse wants to hoard my best bakes, so my coworkers sometimes get the more experimental snacks. I walked by after the lunch hour and saw four or five people congregating around them, eating cookies and smiling at the note (I might have written something to the effect of “if you don’t like them, it’s okay because you at least got your money’s worth). But they were smiling and eating, so take that as whatever endorsement you want. There are much fewer cookies now than there were this morning.

The good thing about this batch is that the texture is a success: they’re soft and chewy, especially when hot. You can always heat a cookie in the microwave for 5-10 seconds if you want to recreate that fresh-from-the-oven sensation.

This recipe is also useful if your butter isn’t softened, because you have to melt it anyway. It makes about 36-42 cookies, depending on the size scoop you use.

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (not Indian chili or Mexican chili powder mix)
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. The butter should be just barely melted – not hot and sizzling, not browned.

Add brown sugar to a large mixing bowl and pour the melted butter on top. Stir to combine. Let stand 5 minutes to cool the butter.

Add egg and egg yolk; stir to combine. Stir in vanilla extract.

Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and cayenne pepper. Stir until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Cover and chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. 

Toward the end of the chilling time, preheat the oven to 375F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using a small cookie scoop (1.5 tablespoon), drop scoops of dough 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet. Lightly press down on each cookie ball with your (clean!) palm.

Bake for about 7 minutes. The centers should look soft and slightly underdone.

Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.