These cookies started with two bellies full of chicken chili, the absolute need for dessert and a challenge to bake cookies without a recipe. After the first batch, I became a teensy bit obsessed with the recipe and all the other ideas it gave me and I made five batches in one week including two with red wine which led to a whole other cookie experiment. Stay tuned.

This isn’t a super spicy cookie, but it does have bit of a kick. My favorite thing about these cookies is watching people eat them for the first time (the cayenne hits you around the second bite and pretty much everyone has had this eye-widening surprise look that makes me grin). They are also delicious sans frosting and make for a pretty wonderful dipping cookie. Cocoa, tea, coffee, mulled wine…

for the cookies:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups ap flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup dutch-processed cocoa
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

for the frosting:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp vanilla

steps:

1. beat butter and sugar until well combined, 2-3 minutes. add egg, then vanilla and beat well.

2. in a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, salt, cinnamon and cayenne. mix dry ingredients into wet, all at once, and mix until fully combined. the dough should come away from the sides of the bowl and clump together into a ball.

3. dump all of the dough into an air-tight plastic container or wrap in plastic wrap and let it chill overnight (or at least a few hours if you just can’t wait).

4. when you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350℉ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. very lightly flour a working surface and roll the dough out to about ¼ inch thick. you might need to let the dough warm up a tad, or you can use rolling as your arm workout for the day. score!

5. cut out shapes and place onto the prepared baking sheet. if you don’t want to make all of the cookies into sandwiches, you can sprinkle about ¼ cup of sugar on a plate and place one side of the cookie in the sugar, and place them on the baking sheet non-sparkly side down. or bake them totally plain!

6. bake the cookies for 6 minutes. if your cookie cutters are bigger than mine were, you might need an extra minute or two, but check the cookies at 6 minutes (for tiny cookies, check at 4-5 minutes). they should have puffed up slightly and have a matte-looking finish. let them cool for a minute on the sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack. if they absolutely crumble as you try to move them, they probably need another minute.

7. while the cookies are cooling, make the frosting. beat the butter for a couple of minutes until it is very smooth. add the sugar in two parts, beating until fully incorporated both times. beat for an additional 5 minutes, then beat in the cinnamon and vanilla. give it another 2 minutes mix.

8. when the cookies are completely cool, use an offset spatula or piping bag, or regular old butter knife, to spread frosting on half of your cookies. top the frosting with the remaining cookies.