Happy Saturday! I've loved all things Aztec since my first anthropology class...so when I saw a recipe called Spiced Aztec Cookies....I knew I had to try and make them. In Aztec stories chocolate, or xocolatl as they called it, was thought to be from their god Quetzalcoatl. Xocolatl was so important to the Aztec culture that the beans were even used as currency.

ingredients for Spiced Aztec Cookies

softened butter: if you are like me and forget to leave your butter out to soften, just toss it in the microwave for a bit on low power...genius idea from my sister

add lightly packed brown sugar to softened butter

it's so fluffy!

I like to throw all my dry ingredients together and sift them, works to mix dry ingredients and keeps there from being any clumps. Just imagine a picture of dry ingredients mixing with the rest of the wet ingredients (egg, vanilla) here.

MarieBelle Aztec Hot Chocolate....yum.

After adding in the Mariebelle Aztec Hot Chocolate my dough looks quite different from The Three Cheeses....which I'm sure resembled....well cookie dough, mine I feel looks like ground beef :P

Ground beef ....I mean chocolate cookies being formed into a log and tossed into the fridge. Pretend my kitchen is spotless like Giada de Laurentiis would have hers at this point ;)