Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cookies

Folks, let me be clear...I do usually NOT like recipes that add fruit or ginger or odd things to chocolate, nor did I THINK I liked spices combined with chocolate, but I was wrong!
This recipe is not mine, the only change I made was I added about 1/2 c (shaved) Chocolate Mexicano pictured above in the original recipe found here from Saveur.


1/2 c flour
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa

3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
12 tbsp butter

Whisk flour, cocoa, cinnamon, cayenne, salt, and pepper together in a medium bowl and set aside. Put sugar, vanilla, and egg into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Add butter and continue to beat on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes more. Using your fingers, work flour mixture into butter mixture until dough is just combined. Divide dough in half and roll each half into a 9" log. Wrap each log in parchment paper, twisting ends tightly to make a uniform cylinder. Freeze dough logs for at least 8 hours. Preheat oven to 350°. Unwrap dough and slice each log into rounds about 1/3" thick. Place rounds 1/2" apart on parchment paper–lined cookie sheets. Bake cookies until slightly puffed and tiny cracks appear on surface, about 8 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to let cool. enjoy!