Query to the Font of All Knowledge

[wyld_dandelyon]

I have a brother-in-law who likes all things hot (spicy).  It occurred to me, for a holiday gift, that I could make pepper-shaped cookies with cayenne powder mixed in for flavor, as well as food coloring for color (of course).  Or maybe (since I don’t like the taste of food coloring when you use enough to make a bright red) add some cocoa powder too.

 

Has anyone experimented with something like this?  Any pointers as to how well/whether it works, and how much pepper powder to use?

 

My Aunt’s recipe that we usually use for hand-shaped cookies uses butter (well, she prefers Imperial Margerine, says the cookies shape better with it), sugar, egg, vanilla & flour, and I’ve had good results adding cocoa powder to that recipe in the past for brown.

Comments

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I have given him hot sauces in the past, and may do so again this year, but with Aunt not well this year, and she's the one who normally leads cookie-making (with the help of the teen-and-under set), I started thinking about cookies, and thought that if I could find or create a good recipe, this would make a good surprise.

Tickets for a home-made meal don't work so well when you live in different cities, though it's a fine idea in some circumstances.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I went and used Google; there are peanut-butter and pepper, chocolate and pepper, and "Aztec" chocolate, pepper, and cinnamon varieties out there.

Looking at those recipes, I think I can just add cocoa and pepper to my aunt's recipe and keep track of how much and then check the taste. This gives me the advantage of having them look (except for the hot-pepper shape) like the other (angel and snowman and other holiday shapes) cookies. Hmm...I should ask Aunt if the small kids are still making monster-shaped ones; a few of those with hot pepper might go over well too.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

You could also make him some really spicy gingerbread - it's a different kind of heat, but in its own way, it can be quite "hot."

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I like ginger cookies! "Ginger Beer" too, which is a soda, but much spicier than ginger ale.