Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

Another potluck, another recipe! This week’s theme was Cinco De Mayo. A Mexican independence-like holiday.

I don’t bake a lot, but I couldn't resist trying a recipe that had similarities to ginger snaps, and was a chocolate cookie rolled in chili powder. Weird. :-)

I followed the internet recipe fairly closely, except for forgetting to use coarse salt instead of regular every day salt. Anyhoo. If you would like to see the original, please visit here: http://www.marthastewart.com/336516/mexican-hot-chocolate-cookies

Other thoughts? Don’t skimp on the parchment paper for this recipe. I did. The cookies *really* stuck to the pan. Don’t use the leftover rolling sugar in your fancy iced coffee.  Blech.

Here is the recipe:

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar + additional 1/4 cup for sugar topping

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon chili powder (I would be open to trying this with cayenne next time.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down side of bowl. Add eggs and beat to combine.

With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat until combined.

In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and chili powder. Using heaping tablespoons, form balls of dough and roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place, about 3 inches apart, on two parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake until cookies are set in centre and begin to crack, about 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cookies cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Zucchini Chicken Poppers

Don’t we all want some new ideas? And that “Tasty” youtube channel has some seriously tasty looking dishes. With a lot of them deep fried. Heh.

Well, I saw one that looked very tasty and kinda healthy. I bookmarked it to try at a later date – which ended up today. Of course, I made a few changes – notably removing onions and cilantro. 

Here’s how they turned out. (Before you get too far, I made them with 1 tsp of salt, and I’m pretty sure that could at least be halved.)

Zucchini Chicken Poppers

1 lb chicken

1 clove garlic, minced

1 ½ cups grated zucchini

½ cup grated fennel

½ tsp grated ginger

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

4 tsps olive oil

Grate zucchini, fennel, and ginger into a medium sized bowl. Add salt and pepper, mix. Add in ground chicken, mix.

Pan-fry by tablespoons. (I made 4x batches of 5, refreshing oil in pan with each batch. If you could do more at a time, you could use less oil.)

Makes about 20 pieces. (20 1 tbsp size plus one giant one, to be exact.)

The original served this with a guacamole type dip – but I didn’t have avocado in the house. That would have been a fresh addition. (And a nice way to cut the salt.)

Enjoy.

If you are interested, here is the link to the original recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Z-Z6hx0s0