Hot chocolate!

Cinco de Mayo is a great excuse to push the dessert course in a spicy direction, nodding to the Mexican culinary tradition of infusing chocolate with both cinnamon and chiles. There are all sorts of easy ways to accomplish this for the week’s festivities: Take your favorite chocolate bread pudding recipe, double the cinnamon and add a half-teaspoon of dried chile powder. Use challah from Forte Grove Bakery, which will provide an elegant, fluffy texture. The bakery is on hand at the Thursday and Saturday Red Stick Farmers Market this week. Or, make a plate of brownies from scratch and spike the batter with two teaspoons cinnamon and a half-teaspoon chipotle powder. Pick up spices from locally-owned Red Stick Spice Company, which sells by the ounce. Finally, top your brownies, bread pudding, or your favorite chocolate pies or cakes with homemade cinnamon whipped cream:

• 1 cup heavy or whipping cream

• 2 teaspoons confectioner’s sugar

• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip cream in a chilled bowl until stiff. Whisk in sugar and cinnamon. Spoon on top of each serving and give a final shake of cinnamon.