Sometimes when we have worked hard or perhaps need a little motivation or (bribe) it feels right to indulge oneself. This past week we took a break from work and so I took the opportunity to indulge myself in many ways.  I spent the week adventuring fairly close to home, hiking, walking to do errands and exploring new places in the wilderness.  I also did some spring cleaning, recycled and took a large bag of tired sweaters and clothes I never wear to the thrift store.  It felt good to purge and clean out after the ‘cozy wintriness.’  I feel ready for space and green and blue skies and warmer breezes now.

To reward myself for all this I turned to something I love to do, bake.  I spent time perusing my favourites Pinterest pages, delving deeper through the layers of amazing food photos and discovering new websites and blogs that inspire me.  One of the sites I discovered is a site called Local Milk.  Beth Kirby creates this inspiring site and besides being an amazing photographer with a fashionable, vintage flair, she is an enthusiastic, creative baker.

Part of my reward for cleaning and exercising and freeing myself from the constraints of everyday business was trying out one of her recipes.  Among the many recipes that had me salivating and itching to get in the kitchen, one stood out.  Salted, Spicy, Double Chocolate Chilli Cookies.  Are you kidding me?  Salt and double chocolate anything works for me, so, I just had to try these.  I have become partial to a coffee called a Mexicano, at a local coffee house this past year  and this recipe reminds me of a cookie version of the same flavors.

So with great fervour I hauled out my mixer and blocks of deep, dark, Callebeaut chocolate and began to create.  As usual, I adapted the recipe to suit my tastes and since I knew I would be giving most of the cookies away I substitued really good quality cinnamon for the cayenne pepper.  As well, instead of mixing the salt into the recipe, I chose to wait and sprinkle pink Himalayan salt on the tops of the baked cookies, just where the chocolate was oozing out of the thick, rich, dough.   I didn’t want the chocolate to totally dissolve so I waited a few minutes after I removed them from the oven and then carefully sprinkled the salt so it would be visible to the ‘consumer’ when biting into the delicious morsel.

The results?  Let’s just say I have dubbed these the most divine cookies I’ve ever made.  I mean the most ridiculously delicious, divine, indulgent, rich, dreamy taste I’ve  ever savoured.  I am not sure how but I did have the restraint to wait until the cookies were cooled and set (although I did sample the dough), before I tested one and let’s just say I was more than satisfied.  In all, I ate three cookies over the course of a couple of days, before packing them up and taking them to my daughter,who is in the final weeks of her second year of university.  I figured they would be good study treats, a reason to keep going even when she has had enough and just wants to pack up and head home.  I hope she is as delighted with them as I was.

My son is also at university but much too far away to send cookies, so he received a text message with photos of the cookies.  He inquired what was in them and asked for more details because he also could use a little ‘pick me up’ treat but unfortunately he had to make due with the pictures.  I will definitely be baking up another batch of these when he gets home.