Spicy Double Chocolate Cookies

I have been experimenting with this recipe for a long time and after a number of initial disasters, I finally managed to get the result that I was looking for. This spicy double chocolate cookie is sinfully chocolaty with the spice giving it an extra little kick by bringing out the chocolate flavor even more. It is crisp and light on the outside and just a little chewy on the inside. I must admit the cookies take a little work to make, but the results are well worth it!

Ingredients (makes about 18 cookies)

1/2 cup plain flour

1/3 cup + 2 tbsp castor sugar*

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp Kashmiri chili powder or cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

Instructions

Sift flour and baking soda together. Add salt, pepper, chili powder, cinnamon, walnuts and chocolate chips to the flour and mix together. In a pan combine butter and cocoa and heat over low flame stirring continuously till butter melts. Set aside till cool. Wisk together egg and sugar in a bowl till mixture is pale yellow. Add vanilla and whisk for a minute. Add the cooled butter and cocoa mixture to this and whisk. Finally fold the combined dry ingredients into the egg mixture until combined. Cover bowl with cling film and chill in fridge.

While the cookie mixture is chilling, preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Grease a cookie tray and line with wax paper or baking paper. After the cookie dough has chilled for 10 minutes, take a heaped teaspoon full of dough and roll into balls between the palms of your hands. Each ball should be a little over an inch in diameter. Place on lined cookie tray about 1 1/2 inch apart and chill for an additional 5 minutes.

After chilling, remove tray from fridge and place in oven. After about 3 minutes reduce oven to 150 degrees Celsius and bake for about 10 minutes. I found that the base of these cookies burn quite easily so I placed a few sheets of slightly damp newspaper directly below the baking tray and this took care of the problem. Although I have given about 13 minutes as the baking time, I suggest you check the cookies before this to make sure the base doesn’t burn. You will know the cookie is ready when the top is cracked and firm, and the bottom of the cookie is lightly browned.

Once ready allow cookied to cool for about 5 minutes and then remove from tray and cool on wire rack.

* Castor sugar is a fine grained sugar. If you can’t get your hands on it, coarsely grind sugar in a processor.

[Images- Shalini Pereira]