Jenna's Kick Butt Chocolate Wake-Ups

I loved Jenna's chocolate cookies from Monday so much that I thought they should "wake up" our sleepy blog.

Chocolate Wakeups

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick/4 ounces) unsalted butter
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch* of black pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
3/4 cup (2 1/4 ounces) natural cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups (6 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
Pearl sugar (optional)

*Using your thumb and forefinger, "pinch" up some of the spice. The
bigger the pinch, the hotter the cookies. These were made with a
moderate pinch, probably about 1/16 teaspoon.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two
baking sheets.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla, peppers,
cinnamon, and salt. Beat in the egg. Add the cocoa, then the flour. Stir
to combine well; the dough will be very stiff.
Drop the dough by the teaspoonful onto the prepared baking sheets.
Lightly flatten the cookies to 1/4 inch thick with the bottom of a
drinking glass dipped in sugar. If desired, press some pearl or coarse
sugar onto the top of each cookie.
Bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes. They won't look brown and they won't
feel done, but that's the correct time and temperature. Remove the
cookies from the oven, transfer them to a rack, and let them cool.