Last quarter I was quite busy and didn’t have much time to read my regular magazines. By regular magazines I mean the ones I subscribe to, including Food and Wine. I don’t like to keep clutter in my home, so when I’m done reading a magazine I toss it. If I find a couple great recipes in Food and Wine, I’ll pull that page out of the magazine, put it in a folder until I want to use the recipe. If the food turns out good, I will transfer the recipe to a 3×5 card and put it in my recipe box (I will rewrite the whole recipe). If the recipe sucks, I toss the page in the trash. If it is okay, I’ll keep it in my folder and try it again.
I pulled 7 recipes from the November 11 issue of Food and Wine and decided to make one immediately. The idea of the Chocolate-Cayenne Cocktail Cookie really sung to me. My favorite thing now is super dark chocolate with a bit of spice and some sea salt. These three ingredients work so well together — they just make me smile. I also chose to make this because I’m trying to bake a little more — I really hate to bake, but I want to push myself to try new things.
The recipe was really easy to make and unlike most baking options, I had all the ingredients in my pantry. I pulled out my Kitchen-Aid, which I’ve had since 2007, but haven’t used it all that much — maybe 2 dozen times in 5 years.
I also think the salt didn’t add enough…well, saltiness. It’s possible I didn’t use the right size of sea salt flakes, or something like that. I think I would add a bit more salt to the top of this, before baking next time.
This definitely wasn’t a dessert cookie — it wasn’t billed as one either. I will definitely make this again — I actually have the second half of the dough in my freezer right now and will use it again in a few weeks when I have people over for dinner. I am glad I didn’t bake the whole recipe — I can tweak it a bit with more salt before baking.
I, of course, had to partner this with a glass of Kopke Port. It worked well and did put a bit of a smile on my face.