Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Ingredients

For The Topping

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For The Cookies

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 cup sugar ¹
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons non-dairy milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon chocolate extract (or more vanilla extract if you have no chocolate)
• 1 2/3 cups flour ²
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (regular, not dutched)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda ³
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F⁴. Line 2 large baking sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
2. Mix the topping ingredients together on a large dinner plate. Set aside.
3. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, use a fork to vigorously mix together the oil, sugar, syrup, and milk. Mix in the extracts.
4. Sift in the remaining ingredients, stirring as you add them. Once all ingredients are added, mix until you’ve got a pliable dough.
5. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls. Pat the dough balls into the sugar topping to flatten into roughly 2-inch discs.
6. Transfer the dough balls to a baking sheet, sugar side up, at least 2 inches apart (they do spread). This should be easy as the the bottom of the cookies should just stick to your fingers so you can just flip them over onto the baking sheet.
7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes; they should be a bit spread and crackly on top.
8. Remove the coolies from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes, then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.

Footnotes