If your a Chile Pepper Magazine subscriber, then you saw this recipe on pg. 78 of the October 2005 edition. If your a long time reader of HSB, you’ll remeber the Cayenne Peanut Butter Cookies I made a while back which were a success by all accounts. So since I made the Cayenne PB cookies I’ve been looking around for another spicy cookie recipe that might be worth a shot.

So when I happened upon this recipe which uses Whiskey, Habanero and White Chocolate, I was sold on it immediately.

Oatmeal White Chocolate-Chunk Cookies with Spicy Spiked Cranberries

Chile Pepper’s Version of the Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup dried cranberries
6 tablespoons whiskey
1 teaspoon habanero chile powder
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, slighty softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 cups white chocolate chunks
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Directions:
Place the cranberries, whiskey and chile powder in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover, and allow to sit for at least 20 minutes or until the cranberries have absorbed most of the liquid. Set cranberries aside.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare several baking sheets with cooking spray or butter. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside. Use a mixer to beat the butter, shortening and both sugars on medium speed for 2 minutes.
Add the egg and corn syrup and beat until fluffy. Beat in the flour mixture a little bit at a time. Stir in the oats, cranberries and chocolate. Refrigerate the batter for at least 10 minutes. Drop the dough in tablespoon sized balls onto the baking sheets, spaced about 3 inches apart. Flatten each ball slightly with the back of a spoon.
Bake the cookies, one sheet at time, for about 12 minutes or until the edges are golden. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack, and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Serve or store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

White Chocolate Chip Spicy Cookies ala Nick

Instead of Habanero Chile Powder I used Chipotle Powder which gave the cranberries a bit more body, but not a lot of heat. Also, make sure the saucepan you use is small - using a regular sized one doesn’t allow the cranberries to absorb as much whiskey. I also couldn’t find white chocolate chunks so I had to settle for white chocolate chips. Worked just fine.

Cookies tasted very good, the wife really enjoyed them - although I would like a rematch to fine tune it a bit more. Plus I would like to try it out with habanero powder as well. Other then that, I really enjoyed them - great with morning coffee. Not hot by any standards, but the chipotle powder toned down the sweetness of the cookie overall and the whiskey added just a bit of a punch to each bite.

Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars