Jalapeño double chocolate chip cookies

I know I've mentioned this countless times before, but I am really loving being part of a CSA. I get to support our local farms and eat fresh produce. It's also a bit of surprise to see what produce and other items are included in my biweekly box. This forces me to make dishes that I normally would not have even thought about before.

One week, we received a bunch of jalapeños (although they might be hatch chiles - I don't quite remember). While I am starting to appreciate spicy foods more, I am pretty inexperienced when cooking with hot peppers. I was pretty dumbfounded when I saw all the peppers in the box and wasn't quite sure what to do. Should I give them away? Pretend they weren't there? Or even--gasp--throw them away?  No, no, and no.  I wanted to challenge myself and make something with them.

I decided to do a little searching online and came across these jalapeño double chocolate chip cookies. I liked the idea of infusing the margarine (or in my case, butter) in the jalapeño and then discarding the pepper completely. I'm usually not a fan of taking a bite into chunks of pepper, so the idea of simply creating a jalapeño margarine sounded more up my alley.

Man - these were unexpectedly good! My husband said that he didn't think the cookies would have too much heat, but they provided more spice than he expected - in a good way, of course.  When you first bite into these, you won't taste the jalapeño, but after a few more bites and after you finish swallowing, you'll feel some heat linger around. It's a pretty neat feeling and taste.

Now I'm tempted to try some more sweet and spicy desserts!

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted margarine(I used 2 sticks of unsalted butter)
• 1 jalapeño
• 1½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• ⅔ cup cocoa powder
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• ½ cup roasted pine nuts (optional - I did not add) 

Directions

Make ahead: Melt margarine in a small saucepan, add jalapeño split in half and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain to remove the jalapeño and seeds, cool and refrigerate until solid.

After the jalapeño margarine is cooled and ready to use, preheat oven to 350 degrees F .

Beat the jalapeño margarine, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a stand mixer (or use a hand mixer) until it is light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, combine or sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Slowly incorporate into the margarine mixture until it is well mixed.

Mix in the chocolate chips and pine nuts (if using).

 
Drop by rounded teaspoon on to ungreased cookie sheets.  I used my medium cookie scoop and placed them on my imitation Silpat. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Transfer to wire racks to cool.  If you don't want to bake the entire batch immediately, you can store in the unbaked dough in the freezer and bake at a later time.

Yield: The website claims you can get ~60 cookies, but I got 40 cookies by using a medium cookie scoop.

Source: Cook Kosher