Mexican Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adding to my list of all-time favorite cookies are these spicy little gems, which I stumbled across on one of my favorite blogs, Cookie Madness.

Once upon a time, I brought a batch of these to work, along with a batch of those infamous New York Times' Chocolate Chip cookies, which (in case you didn't know) are supposed to be the best things ever. Just take a guess as to which cookies were the first to go...

I see little need to comment further on the recipe, except to encourage you to have fun as you take a mallet (or a hammer... or some other blunt object) to the Ibarra chocolate. It takes some strength to break it up into little pieces, but so worth the effort.

And so, without further ado:



Mexican Chocolate Chip Cookies

(adapted --slightly -- from Cookie Madness)

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 slightly rounded teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 8 oz unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (Mexican vanilla is suggested, but regular works, too)
• 8 oz dark chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli) 
• 4 oz Ibarra chocolate (broken up into bite-sized chunks using a mallet)

Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl using high speed of an electric mixer; Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir until absorbed, then mix in chocolate chunks and chopped Mexican chocolate.
Refrigerate dough for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto sheets, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake cookies until golden brown and set – 10-12 minutes. Let stand on sheets 3 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool.

Makes approximately 32 cookies