Chomp! Jalapeno Coconut Cookies…What???? Yes!!!!

By Ron Aiken
August 30, 2013

It started as an idea, a flavor profile that wiggled out of the creative ether of my brain into my active consciousness while on a run. It was a combination so simple, so jarring, so immediately provocative it simply had to be done, had to be made, had to exist in the world immediately: jalapeno coconut.

The outcome was only going to go one of two ways, either spectacular success or spectacular failure. So, all that was to it was so do it, so since I did it, let’s get to it!

The ingredients: I had a couple other cookie ideas in mind, so on my trip to my local Publix I bought a host of ingredients to try.

Here’s what I bought:

• A fresh japaneno pepper
• Bag of chocolate-covered espresso beans
• Bag of chocolate-covered plums
• Bag of dried raspberries, cranberries, cherries and strawberries
• Bag of shaved coconut
• One 16.5 oz. Bag of pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough (Publix brand)
• One container, marscapone cheese
• Bag of roasted almonds

With those ingredients, I started with the pepper. I had thought of taking the skin off the jalapeno through boiling it or even roasting the pepper to get the skin off and add some sweetness, but in the end I decided I wanted the most heat available to me and left the skin on.

I sliced it in half, right down the middle, and then used the same knife to de-seed the pepper. If you’d like, you can try the recipe with some seeds left in. I may try one like that next time. But for my first go-through, I took them out. Another thing is that if children will be eating them, it’s probably best to leave them out as well. It’s still supposed to be a cookie, after all.

Once the seeds were gone, I very finely sliced one half of the pepper and did more of a rougher chop of the other half, trying to leave a little bit of texture and meat. Here’s a picture of how they looked once I was done:

I sliced one half as finely as my knife skills allowed, while the other half I left with a bit more body.

Next, I got a bowl out and began to break off handfuls of my cookie dough and put them into my mixing bowl. Here are the cookies I made:

• Almonds, marscapone, chocolate chips

• Almonds, chocolate-covered espresso beans, chocolate chips

• Dried cranberries, blueberries cherries, strawberries, raspberries and chocolate chips

• Coconut, jalapeno, chocolate chip

• Jalapeno, chocolate chip

• Almonds, chocolate-covered plums

That was it. Here’s what they looked like all ready to be baked:

Look at these little delights just waiting to go in the oven! Aren’t they cute!

And a close-up of the pre-oven jalapeno coconut cookies:

I mixed the coconut flakes into the cookie with the jalapeno, then once I’d rolled the cookie, rolled it around in the flakes to coat the outside as well.

I started the cookies out at 350 degrees, but after 10 minutes of impatience, I increased the temperature to 400 degrees for another 10 minutes before taking them out. You can use your own judgment (your eyes and nose will be all you need) on the time. Personally, I think soft cookies are the devil. I abhor them. Cookies should be crunchy, and so I make mine so.

After taking them out – and bear in mind that despite your best efforts, the marscapone (I used scoops from a spoon) will melt out of the cookie; this is OK and still delicious – I let them cool so they could harden up appropriately, and with myself and my mom (an official member of the prestigious  Chomp! Chewer action food review/taste test team), we went to town on these bad boys right here:

Here’s the assortment of non-jalapeno cookies.

The stars of the show, the jalapeno coconut cookies.

So, how’d they taste? We ate the dried fruit cookies first, and they were fantastic. Just terrific. Next, we tried the almond, chocolate-covered espresso bean and chocolate chip cookies, and they melted in your mouth just like I had hoped, with a superb crunch from the almond and espresso beans that was incredibly gratifying.

Suitably impressed, we moved to the evening’s experiment, the jalapeno coconut cookies, and I can only say they were nothing short of a mind-blowing revelation. They were more sensational than anything in my wildest dreams, with the gentle bite of the pepper’s heat marrying so thoroughly with the sweetness of the coconut that you’d think the flavors were separated at birth. I thought I may have had a heavy hand with the jalapenos in the cookies, but really, it’d be hard to put too much in a single cookie because of how the cookie rises and some of the bite you’d expect gets mellowed in the cooking process.

What you’re left with is heaven. You’re left with bliss, with flavors in your mouth you never had before but seem like they’ve always been there, just waiting to pop.

Chomp!’s mom’s only complaint was that Chomp! forgot to bring milk. And indeed, this was grievous. So please do not make that mistake when you make these cookies, because YOU WILL MAKE THESE COOKIES.

I’m dying to know how they turn out for you, so when you make them, take a picture of them and either email it to me at [email protected] or shoot it to me on facebook (Ron Aiken). I’d love to give your cookies some pub! Enjoy! 

 

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