chipotle powder, cinnamon, cocoa powder, cookie, dessert, maple syrup, nut-free, snickerdoodle, soy-free, vegan, vegetarian



With the wickedly warmer weather this year, it is hard to believe that Christmas is only a couple weeks away. We had our first true snow fall yesterday as the temperature dipped below freezing. This brought me more into the Christmas mood. The snow has since melted but it feels a bit more like winter now. Thankfully I am not hosting any gatherings over the holidays, but I still wanted to make something special for the season. I resorted to our favourite holiday snack: cookies.

These cookies were fabulous. Perfectly sweet and perfectly spicy, these chocolate snickerdoodles were chewy and moist. Make sure to evenly distribute the chipotle powder, because some people thought these were rather spicy. I consider myself quite spice averse and it didn’t bother me in the slightest, so perhaps I just need to eat more cookies for taste-control. The chocolate flavour is not too predominant and I would be curious how this would taste with a bit of chocolate extract (an ingredient I have never seen anywhere, but also never looked for).

Looking back at my cookies of previous years, I obviously have a soft spot for sugar coated crinkle cookies: Brown Sugar Cardamom Snickerdoodles, Blackstrap Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies, Cinnamon Snaps and even my (Not Vegan) Cinnamon Snaps. I don’t want to name any as my favourite since I love them all, but these certainly were delicious. Rob certainly won’t complain when I make them again since this batch was gobbled down so quickly.

Spicy Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Adapted from Isa Chandra

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

3 tbsp non-dairy milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 2/3 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground chipotle powder

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line 2 baking sheets with a silpat or parchment paper.

2. Mix together the sugar and ground cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the melted coconut oil, sugar, maple syrup, non-dairy milk and vanilla. Stir until evenly combined.

4. In a medium bowl, sift the flour and cocoa powder. Stir in the baking soda, salt, cinnamon and chipotle powder. Mix thoroughly so that the spice is evenly distributed.

5. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until you have a pliable dough.

6. Roll dough into 2 tbsp sized balls, flatten to become 2″ discs and roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture so that it is entirely covered. Place onto 2 baking trays, placed 2″ apart.

7. Bake cookies at 350F for 9-12 minutes until slightly brown. Remove from oven, let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Makes 24-30 cookies.