I know you were all hoping that I was referring to myself (I kind of was), but for the purposes of this post, I’m talking COOKIES!

This evening, Mr. Muse and I will be joining friends for a potluck dinner in celebration of the safe and healthy return of our friend, Trevor, from his latest stint in the Middle East (Kuwait this time).  I decided that I should be safe and make sure that I have some sides (recipes posted another time) and at least one dessert that was safe for me to eat besides the main dish, which I was informed was devoid of gluten.  I pondered what I was going to make for a while and then I remember, “Oh yeah… PINTEREST.”

Pinterest is one of those places that I have a love/hate relationship with, but recently, the site has really been pulling through for me.  Case in point, these totally awesome Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodle cookies!  Yes, I DID make them “vegan” and I also made them Gluten Free, using Bob’s Red Mill’s All Purpose Gluten Free Baking Flour.  A note about this flour – it’s made with beans.  The dough or batter made with it definitely has a “beany” scent and flavor to it prior to baking; after baking, sometimes that “beany” scent/flavor is still there though less pronounced, but sometimes it’s not.  Other gluten free flour mixtures I have used made with rice can be really grainy/sandy in texture (not to mention spike the blood sugar), which doesn’t work out nicely for some recipes, so you have to make a choice on what “oddity” you’d rather have, potentially a “beany” smell/flavor or sandy texture and spiked blood sugar.

The recipe:

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles (Adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar)

For the cookie dough

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons soy, almond or regular milk (if using regular milk, the cookies won’t be vegan)
2 teaspoons vanilla

For the sugar coating

1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

To prepare cookie dough

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cayenne and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, maple syrup, milk and vanilla. Pour mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring with a wooden spoon until combined.

To prepare sugar coating

In a shallow dish, stir together sugar and cinnamon.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls, then gently flatten each ball into a 2″ disc. Place once side of the dough disc into the sugar coating, pressing to adhere. Place dough, sugar side up, onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them at least 2″ apart.

Place into the oven and bake until the cookies have spread and are crackly on top, about 9 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and place baking sheet on a wire rack – let cookies cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 24 cookies.

I made mine with a 1 Tablespoon-size cookie scoop, so I got 40 cookies.  I also rolled the balls of dough in the cinnamon/sugar mixture, flattening them on the parchment-lined pan instead of flattening and then cinnamon/sugaring, so they were coated all the way around, not just on top.  They baked up great!

Of course, I had to test the recipe… so I had a cookie, and it was awesome.  I had also toyed around with the idea of turning these spicy delights into sandwich cookies.  Which I did, with one Tablespoon of whipped cream cheese frosting.  Obviously I had to test eat that as well.  In a word:  Foodgasm.

I have a feeling these will be well-received.