Spiced winter beer with warmth, suggestions?

I decided to try to come up with a brew that I hope really goes over well in December/holidays. I figure the normal is probably a little hint of cinnamon for that warmth spice (and others like clove/nutmeg/ginger/etc).

I'm trying something a little different for the 'warmth', but I will retain the slighest hint of spices. Recipe was concocted through the BrewR app.

Sizzlin' Snow Spiced Porter *2.5 gallons
.25 lbs Chocolate Malt
3 lbs Dark DME
1 oz Cascade (60 min)
.5 oz Cascade (15 min)
2 jalapeno's (15 min) *I used 10 in 1 gallon for a test wine and it was too much. I'm looking for slight warmth here, not heat.*
1/2 tsp cinammon (15 min)
1/2 tsp ginger (15 min)

BrewR stats (set as 2.5 gallon volume with 1 gallon boil):
Est. OG: 1.054
Est. FG: 1.014
Est. ABV: 5.3%
Est. IBU: 26.4
Est. SRM: 23.8

Yes, I'm going to do a 1ish gallon boil and do a top off with boiled/cooled water to 2.5 gallons. I already set this in the app, so I'm hoping it took it into account. Anyways, a couple things:
Chocolate malt gets steeped, not mashed, correct?
Do the hops matter? I know nothing about hop flavors yet, and these fit the estimated ranges for IBU's in the app. Any suggestions here?
Any other spices I should consider or re-consider?

Planning to start it first week of October, so getting things ready soon and allowing time for considerations and feedback in case of tweaks.

Changed the Amarillo hops to Cascade as they seem more like the average/normal hops to use. Also changed the IBU's to 26.4.

Still looking to see if the chocolate grains are steeped? Also, still looking for feedback or if anyone has good tweaks for this? Looking to get ingredients this week I hope.

Usually for spiced Pumpkin or Winter ale's I like East Kent Goldings or Fuggles. EKG is probably my favorite for that style of beer. I'd be good with cascade for bittering and maybe EKG for aroma or late additions.

Think about nutmeg or anise for other spices. A little bit will go a long way. I like cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in my winter ales.

Steeping the grains will be fine. It will give you the color you are looking for and a little character from the grains.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll go with the EKG and see how it turns out. For spices, nutmeg and anise sound like good additions. Hoping that 4 different spices go well together and mellow and none are too pronounced.