THE FOOD ÉTUDE

While visiting friends in Grand Rapids, I went to the Nantucket Baking Company. On a whim, I asked the person working to pick out a couple of cookies to go with my coffee. I’m not sure that I would have chosen the Mexican Chocolate Cookie for myself, but it absolutely stopped me in my tracks. If I had not been away from home, I probably would have gotten into the kitchen that day and tried to replicate their cookie. The only clues from Nantucket’s website is that the chocolate cookie contains chocolate chips, cinnamon chips, and cayenne.

I took this idea and ran with it. Nantucket’s was a plain, dark brown, *gorgeous* cookie, but I thought it might work well as a chocolate crinkle cookie. I headed to America’s Test Kitchen and started with their recipe. Instead of unsweetened chocolate, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips because it was what I had on hand. I also specifically went for McCormick’s clear vanilla extract because I think it gives cookies an “I got this in a bakery!” vibe. I tinkered with the spice mix, adding cinnamon, white pepper, and cayenne, as well as a little espresso powder to enhance the flavor of the chocolate. I highly recommend spices from Penzeys (no there isn’t an apostrophe in their name) and if your cayenne is fresh, be careful! This is not the time to add heaping measures of spices. These cookies will kick with the listed amount of spice.

Yield: 48 Small 2” Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (142 grams) all purpose flour

½ cup (43 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon Diamond Kosher salt

1 tablespoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon white pepper

¼ teaspoon cayenne

1 ½ cups packed (298 grams) brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon McCormick clear vanilla extract

1 teaspoon espresso powder

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

½ cup (57 grams) powdered sugar

Equipment

Kitchen Scale

Stand Mixer

#70 Cookie Scoop (1 Tablespoon)

Parchment Paper

Cookie Sheets (2)

Method

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, white pepper, and cayenne into a bowl and whisk. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together brown sugar, eggs, espresso powder, and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, combine the chocolate chips and butter. Microwave in small intervals (10 seconds) or on low power (50%), stirring occasionally, until fully melted. Add the melted chocolate and butter to the egg mixture and mix until well incorporated.

Tip the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and stir only until no dry bits remain. Let the dough rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. The resting time will allow for the dough to thicken enough for portioning. 

While the dough is resting, pour the granulated sugar and powdered sugar into two separate bowls. Using a small cookie scoop (#70 scoop – 1 tablespoon), drop the ball of dough first into the granulated sugar, making sure it is fully covered. Next, drop it into the powdered sugar and roll it around for an even coating. This will be a delicate process because even after the resting time, the dough is very soft and sticky.

Place the dough balls on a cookie sheet spaced at least 3 inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets halfway through. The cookies will puff and crack (when they are done, the dough will still look raw in the space between the cracks). The centers will be very soft and the edges just set. Let cool on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack.

Note: This original recipe from America’s Test Kitchen measures a cup of all purpose flour at 5 ounces or 142 grams. King Arthur Flour lists a cup of their flour at 4 ½ ounces or 120-125 grams. For my version of this recipe, I stuck with the weight listed by ATK. The flour weight on some of my other recipes uses the lower weight as provided by King Arthur Flour.