Red Chile Chocolate Chip Cookies

Red Chile Harvest, Mesilla Valley, New Mexico
Photo by Bill Zarges

The red chile harvest is still going on all around us. The green chiles are left on the plants in the fields until they dry and turn red. We like to use chile in almost everything.

3/4 cup margarine or butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Dash of salt
1-1/2 tablespoons red chile powder
[I added 1/2 tsp. cinnamon]

1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Mix first 5 ingredients well. Sift dry ingredients together, add to butter mixture and stir well. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoonsful onto parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool. Makes 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on size.

This recipe came from the book Wedding Cake, by Lynne Hinton. I have taken some liberties with the directions, substituting my own words.