Tad’s Mexican Oreo Cookies

I have tried a few different recipes to combine chile and lime with a chocolate cookie. This is the best I have come up with yet. You can adjust the amount of chile powder you use, depending on how much of a burn you want them to have. These cookies are very easy to make so it is not that much extra trouble to frost them and they are worth the extra effort involved. Don’t be afraid of the chile.  I took them to the emergency department and to choir and no one complained they were to hot.

Serving Size:

24

Ingredients:

Cookies:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

½ cup butter

½ cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup flour, 2.25 ounces

3 tablespoons cocoa

¾ teaspoon cinnamon

1-1½ teaspoons ancho chile powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg, cold

12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Lime Butter Cream Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons fresh limejuice

½ teaspoon lemon zest

½ cup butter, at room temperature

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Gently melt bittersweet chocolate and butter over double boiler or in microwave. Set aside.

3. Mix dry ingredients in bowl of electric mixer.

4. Stir egg and vanilla into dry ingredients.

5. Stir in butter/chocolate mixture.

6. Stir in chocolate chips.

7. Form into 1 tablespoon-sized balls and place on baking sheets covered in parchment paper.

8. Bake for about 14 minutes.

9. Make the frosting by beating the powdered sugar, limejuice, lime zest and butter until smooth. Add more powdered sugar as needed to make it perfectly spreadable.

10. After cookies are cool, spread some frosting on the bottom of one cookie and press the bottom of another cookie into the frosting, forming a whoopie pie.

Notes:

1.  I have baked them at 325 degrees in the middle of my oven for 14 minutes and they were great. I also baked them at 300 degrees on convection for 14 minutes as well. Every oven is different so you have to be careful, especially in chocolate cookies where you can’t use the color as a guide. Don’t over cook them!

2. If you want to back off on the chocolate a bit, you can melt semi-sweet chocolate. The cookies are not as dark, of course, and there is no compromise on the texture.

3. If you use 1 teaspoon of chile powder, you will only notice the slight burn as the cookie is just leaving your mouth. With 1½ teaspoons of chile, they have just a little burn while you are eating them. Fun!