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Spicy White Chocolate, Pine Nut + Cornmeal Cookies

These cookies bring together sweet, nutty, and spicy flavours in the best way. White chocolate and toasted pine nuts make them rich and moreish, while a pinch of paprika and chilli gives a warm, smoky lift. The cornmeal adds great texture, though they’re equally delicious with just all-purpose flour. Finished with flaky salt, they’re an exciting, flavour-packed take on a classic cookie.
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Servings: 10
Course: Dessert
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 130 g unsalted butter, softened
  • 120 g brown sugar
  • 90 g sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 175 g AP flour
  • 45 g cornmeal or cornflour
  • 1 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp cobanero chilli if you can’t find cobanero, cayenne works – just reduce to 1/4 tsp
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 170 g white chocolate, roughly chopped or chips
  • 80 g pine nuts lightly toasted
  • plus flaky salt and extra cobanero to sprinkle

Method
 

  1. Cream butter and sugar on medium speed with a paddle until light and fluffy, about 2 mins.
  2. Add in the egg, and paddle together until very well incorporated. Scrape the bowl well.
  3. Whisk together all the dries – flours, chillies, baking powder, baking soda, and salt – then paddle into the mixture until the flour is almost, but not totally, incorporated.
  4. Lastly, add in the chopped white chocolate and pine nuts, and paddle together.
  5. Portion the cookie dough into 85-90g balls, and refrigerate overnight.
  6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 180℃/350℉. Sprinkle cookies with a pinch of cobanero chilli and flaky salt. Bake for 16-18 minutes, rotating halfway, until they’re brown around the edges, golden on top, and ever so slightly gooey in the very centre.
  7. 1-2 minutes before the cookies come out the oven, grab a round container (like a quart container) and circle it around the hot cookie to round its edges out.

Notes

The cornmeal in this recipe gives a crisper more craggly edge to the cookie, which I like to straighten out by rounding the cookies with a large cup or quart container a minute or 2 before removing from the oven.