Year on the Grill: Raspberry Chipotle Sauce - It's not just for BBQ

You have to do the math...

Chocolate and Raspberries... Good

Raspberries and Chipotle... Really Good

Raspberry Chipotle Sauce and Chocolate... REALLY REALLY GOOD!

Really.

But what is really great about these little gems, your eaters will not have a clue what the mystery ingredient is.

Mystery ingredient. A mystery ingredient should add something to the taste, without overpowering all that is best about the original dish. It does help to know just a little about anatomy. The taste buds in your mouth are actually very smart. The front of your tongue tastes sweet things, while the little guys in the back taste heat and spices. I like to think the guys in the back are just a little smarter and have more complex personality than the guys in the front, but that's just me. Ordinarily, when you eat a chocolate cookie, just the guys in the front care, and the guys in the back are bored.

By adding just a smidgen of Raspberry Chipotle sauce to your cookies, you intrigue those complicated interesting guys in the back of your tongue. The taste is so subtle, they are confused, but they sit up and with each bite get more and more involved in the tasting of the cookie.

Ladies, I give you Raspberry Chipotle Chocolate Cookies... It's a way to get the smart, interesting, more complex guys to notice your cookies!

Remember this post???

Raspberry Chipotle Sauce you can make in your own Cul de Sac

I actually made a paste more than a sauce. It was thick and VERY spicy. But it was also the perfect way to season a mop for pulled pork, and a finishing sauce for the pork. It was most useful for the pork once I watered it down (vinegar it down actually). I also used it to jazz up some potato salad. For the tater salad, I used the paste (just a smidgen) full strength.

For the cookies, I wanted to just interest the more complex taste buds, without divulging the secret ingredient. I needed to water down the paste. BUT, when I say water down, I actual mean add more of the sweet to alter the mix of heat and sweet. More sweet, little less heat.

So, I go back to the lab... um, I mean stovetop and make a straight Raspberry Sauce...

As an aside, FAST and easy, and a great little sauce to have around, even without the chipotle. Put it in a squeeze bottle and you have a great garnish for anything chocolate when you plate something.

But I digress...

Top left photo, 1 pint of berries, 2 TBS water and 2 TBS sugar over a low heat.

Go about your business for 10 minutes (eat bon bons, change the baby, go get the mail, gossip over the fence with the neighbors, whatever you like). Come back and stir (top right).you can see the berries begin to break up. Leave for another ten minutes (watch a little Jerry Springer, write your mother a letter, call your Senator and complain about the state of the union or eat more bon bons). Stir again and you can see (bottom left) the berries are completely broken down.

If you want just a raspberry sauce, you are done. Again, a great sauce to drizzle over a chocolate lava cake (or your favorite chocolate dessert). But that leaves out those interesting guys that live on the back of your tongue. Look at the photo on the bottom right of the collage... I am adding 1 TBS of the Raspberry Chipotle Sauce... um paste. Remember, the paste is a concentrate. It is very spicy. I wanted just a little spicy. 1 TBS of the more spicy paste added to the all sweet sauce is plenty to give just a hint of heat.

Mix well, allow everything to cool, and put into a squeeze bottle.

Do you all watch Guy Fieri's cooking show on TV. Do you love all his squeeze bottles of sauces he makes?

Me too.

But, have you priced his squeeze bottles??? 2 empty bottles for $34.99! Is he nuts? I'm not going to spend the cost of 4 great Rib Eye steaks just for bottles. But, whenever I empty one of those cute little bear honey bottles, I am saving the bottles.

But I digress.

Now that I have my less spicy Raspberry Chipotle Sauce, finally here's what I did to make the cookies.

Made 18 cookies (easily doubled)

1 stick Butter, softened
1 cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
pinch of Sea Salt
1 cup White Chocolate Chips
Powdered Sugar to dust

1 TBS of the less spicy Raspberry Chipotle Sauce

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Cream the butter and sugar
Add the egg and vanilla and cream again
Add the less spicy Raspberry Chipotle Sauce and cream again
Add everything else (except the powdered sugar) and mix well
put a rounded TBS of the dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet
Bake for 7-8 minutes

I served these to 6 people. Alll of them tasted something pleasant and extra. All of them loved the cookies, no one mentioned at all that there was any type of chipotle heat in the taste.

it's just got enough of a mystery ingredient to make the interesting guys interested.

These are JUST as good as they sound!