The richness of chocolate and the heat of cayenne are combined in this spicy cookie recipe to create the best of both worlds.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 35 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 24 cookies |
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups white sugar, divided
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Beat together 1 1/2 cups sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in cream of tartar and baking soda. Beat in cocoa powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and cayenne powder. Beat in flour. Stir chocolate chips into dough until incorporated.
- Mix together remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into balls. Roll balls in sugar-cinnamon mixture and place 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake in the preheated oven until centers are set and edges are slightly cracked, about 10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for about 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
- If you’d like more spice, add a generous pinch of cayenne to the sugar-cinnamon mixture.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 212 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 29 g |
| Cholesterol | 36 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 151 mg |
| Sugars | 19 g |
| Fat | 11 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Excellent. Followed it as written.
great! recipe went well. baked a minute or so more fora crispy cookie. great soft or crisp and everyone loved the cayenne! I even took the initiative to very sightly sprinkle more cayenne on them. Now, I do mean very, very little and sprinkled about 6 inches from the cookies.
A lot of compliments on this one. Not a fan of chocolate chips, so I don’t put that in. But for and extra umpf, I add a tbsp of instant espresso. It’s really the cayenne pepper, that makes it though.
I made this cookie for Christmas and it was a big hit. Now wishing I had doubled the batch!
It was good, but not spicy, so I added extra Kyan, coco powder, and cinnamon.
I made the recipe as it is and I really liked it, I should say I am not a big fan of chocolate cookies in general, but these ones I enjoyed very much. Taste like mexican hot chocolate plus the little kick of the cayenne. I doubled the recipe so I am taking some for a bake sale and will keep some at home for later in the year. I will see how well they freeze. By the way, my KA mixer was super full with the doubled recipe, I guess next time I will do in 2 separate batches. Thanks for sharing!
Absolutely delicious! I made these for a work party, can’t wait for everyone to taste one. Simple recipe, only 1 dirty bowl! I chilled my dough in the refrigerator for about :30 so I could roll the balls easier. 100% recommend this recipe.
Delicious! Fudgy gooey goodness with a kick. Going to add a marshmallow frosting next time.
This was excellent. Very flavorful. Just the right amount of heat from the cayenne pepper. You fell the heat later. Goes great with a glass of cold milk. I will definitely make this again.
I used chipotle powder rather than cayenne. Yum! Also doubled the cinnamon and chipotle in the dough and added some chipotle to the cinnamon sugar on the outside. Definitely need to chill the dough.
Big hit with my husband’s coworkers. I enjoy experimenting with cookies. I did replace the listed spices with my homemade ghost pepper powder. The chocolate cookie recipe is a wonderful base recipe. I used it to make espresso cookies as well.
The cookie itself is delicious and a winner. However, DO NOT add the extra cayenne into the sugar coating as some others suggested. I did this and it ruined the cokies. Doing this gave the cookies an extremely spicy aftertaste, and I really wish I hadn’t added it.
This is a fantastic recipe. I did change it only because of the type of cookie I wanted to make. I wanted to make a Mexican chocolate cookie with chocolate being the base. So I just substituted Mexican chocolate for the Cayenne and I rolled the cookie in the Mexican chocolate instead of pain sugar. It came out fantastic.. I
Incredible flavors, these are AMAZING! Everyone raved! I did as others suggested and cut the sugar down (to 1 cup) using half white & half brown sugar. We like spicy things so I also added 1/4 tsp ground ginger and 1/8 tsp fine ground black pepper to the batter as well. Transformed my second batch into “hot chocolate cookies” by adding a marshmallow top! You just pull out the cookies around 7 minutes in, quickly top with marshmallows and return to oven for the last 3 minutes. (Used full size marshmallows cut in half. Placed cut side down in center of cookie). Sooo goooood!!!
Great recipe. We’ve shared theses cookies as an “adult indulgence”. I added a bit more cayenne on the second batch to give them a bit more kick.
My husband loves these cookies. I like this recipe because it’s easy – one bowl, no sifting, and the dough still came out without clumps of cocoa, total bonus. I left the ratios of spices IN the cookies as is, but added about 1/8 tsp. of pepper to the sugar/cinnamon combo, which is a great kick in the pants. I recommend Penzey’s red and black blend for these cookies. I also sprinkled a bit of Maldon on each cookie as they are cooling. My larger cookie scoop yielded about 30 cookies. Thank you!
These cookies are amazing! They are fudgy with just enough spice to make them interesting. They baked up beautifully as well.
These are the best spicy cookies! I did add extra cayenne pepper as suggested and split the chocolate chips with Scor chips ( half/half). I also used my Canna butter for adult only cookies. Yes I’m Canadian, LOL.
These were delicious! Just the right amount of sweetness and spice. We couldn’t stop eating them. Increased the batch to 36 but actually ended up with almost 60 – I guess we made them a bit smaller but it was about 1″ balls of dough. Seemed like a good size.
I loved this cookie , i will make it again
Followed recipe as is and Added extra the extra Cayenne pepper? like others suggested and they turned out delicious!!