'Naughty' Chocolate Cookies

To kick off December, Chera came over and we made some delicious cookies. There's nothing better than a warm apartment filled with the wonderful smell of baking cookies. One of the cookies we made were the 'Naughty' Chocolate Cookies that I spoke about in my previous blog post. The only thing we didn't add to these was orange rind. We didn't have any oranges. Oops. They are yummy cookies none the less!

'Naughty' Chocolate Cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp finely ground pepper, plus more for sprinkling
1 tbsp and 1 tsp of good quality instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Orange rind, grated finely to taste.
Coarse sanding sugar, for rolling (I used regular sugar because I forgot that I could use turbinado sugar)

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt, pepper, espresso powder, and cinnamon into a large bowl; set aside.
Put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment*; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, vanilla and orange rind. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, mix until just combined.
Turn out dough onto a piece of parchment paper, and roll into a 2 inch diameter log**. Roll log in the parchment paper. Refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350. Remove log from parchment paper. Let soften slightly at room temperature, about 5 minutes. Roll log in sanding sugar, gently pressing down to adhere sugar to dough. Transfer log to a cutting board and slice into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Place rounds on baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Sprinkle each round with freshly ground pepper.
Bake cookies until there is slight resistance when you lightly touch centers, about 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in air-tight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.

* I used a hand held mixer. But before I got my hand held mixer for my birthday (Thanks Mom & Dad) I used a whisk and it works just fine.

** A problem I always have with these cookies is that they end up looking like D's because one of the sides get flattened when I cut them. This time, I made a rectangle and made square cookies. Problem solved :)