[Photos: Liz Gutman]

Spending as much time around chocolate and candy as I do has changed my threshold level for it. Not to say I don't still love both with a fiery passion and crave them all the time (I totally do) but the ferocious sort of "I-must-put-this-in-my-face-right-now-as-fast-as-I-possibly-can" feeling has lessened somewhat over the years.

Not so with cookies.

I mean, there's only so much cake I can eat, or muffins; other specialty pastries like éclairs and baklava are more special-occasion treats for me. But I almost always have room for a cookie. Or three.

This recipe has a lot of flexibility; I adapted it from The Essence of Chocolate, and while the changes I made altered the texture slightly along with the flavor, none of the changes were bad. I think it's a great way to use up those last few walnuts hanging out in your freezer, or the half-handful of dried cranberries you don't know what to do with.

What's nice about these cookies is that they're weensy. They're also nice and crisp, and—if you bake them just right—a tiny bit chewy in the middle. It's a perfect texture to go with a cup of afternoon tea or a glass of cold milk.

Or, you know. Nothing at all.

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Crispy Cocoa-Nib Tea Cookies »