These cookies are a huge hit with my friends who either love spicy food or love torturing themselves. Ghost chili is addictive: it burns, but then it triggers this strange euphoria that leaves you wondering when you can get your next spicy fix. (This song plays on repeat in my head when eating anything containing ghost chili. Don't try to read too much into that; I have no clue what the lyrics mean, but we love the pain and want some more of it seems to apply!)

These spicy cookies came about after I saw Bianca's recipe for Dark Chocolate Cookies with Espresso Salt on her blog, Confessions of a Chocoholic. I had already experimented with brownies topped with ghost chili sea salt (success!), and I wanted to expand the idea to cookies, dark chocolate cookies in particular. (I also love to put this salt on top of dark chocolate ice cream!) When I saw Bianca's dark chocolate cookies topped with a fancy espresso salt, I figured it'd be easy enough to replace one salt with another. The result? Amazing.

This is such an easy batter. It's basically chocolate peanut butter (a lot of it) with a few other things mixed in. There is no way these cookies are remotely healthy.

I followed Bianca's recipe almost exactly: mix together one cup of chocolate peanut butter (she and I both used Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams), one cup of light brown sugar, 1/4 cup of white sugar, one egg, one tablespoon vanilla extract, one cup of dark chocolate chips (we both used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Chocolate Chips, although I'd go even darker if I found something in the 70% range next time), and three tablespoons dark chocolate cocoa powder or hot chocolate blend (I used Green and Black's Organic Cocoa Powder). You should preheat your oven to 350 somewhere along the way as well.

I added one extra ingredient to the mix: ghost chili powder, about a half teaspoon. I order mine online. (Spicy addition #1...there's more to come!) I guess you could skip this step...or maybe some cayenne would do the trick. (It wouldn't be nearly as spicy, but it'd be something, at least.)

The first time I made this recipe, it made about two dozen, as Bianca indicates. Tonight, though, I must have gotten overzealous and ended up with twelve huge cookies. I hope they're cooked all the way through...they're cooling at the moment, but I guess I'll find out soon! In any case, once you portion out the batter onto the baking sheet, that's when spicy addition #2 comes in! Instead of espresso salt, get out your ghost chili salt and sprinkle it generously on the top of each cookie. What? You don't have ghost chili salt? Order it now. No, I'm not being paid to say this. I'm just frighteningly addicted to this stuff. It's good on everything. Ice cream, popcorn, salads, cookies, steak, chicken, fish...get it now.

Bake for 12-15 minutes at 350. Since my cookies ended up nearly double-sized this time, I left them in for an extra five minutes or so.

These cookies are The Lights Out-approved and also get a thumbs up from most of the non-vegan section of The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library. These will have to be my go-to treat for all music-related gatherings now!

These cookies will melt your face off.

Here's a newer post about the cookies, including a video!