I love my morning coffee. Apparently, my morning coffee also loves me.



I brew it a cup at a time, generally with freshly ground beans. I have an espresso maker, very manual, and I put in enough ground coffee for a single pull of espresso. Then I run the machine until I have an 8 ounce cup, so not espresso, but more like an Americano. The advantage is that rather than an espresso diluted with water to make an 8 oz serving, I run all the water through the grounds so it's all coffee. With a nice rich, thick head of crema. Mmm!

And nothing accompanies a good cup of coffee like a cookie, especially a chocolate chip cookie.



This particular batch happens to be an experimentation with a classic recipe. To the normal Toll House recipe - the best I have tried - I added 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. I also reduced the sugar by 20%, but that's just my personal preference. So these are a pretty darned good cookie that bites back just a little bit. I do believe it is my new favorite variation.