My friend Caroline told me about her double chocolate mint chip cookies and provided a recipe to me. But there was a warning. The mint flavored semi-sweet chocolate morsels in her recipe are nearly impossible to find. So, I improvised – with Andes crème de menthe thin mints. The result was extraordinary.
SOFTWARE
· 60 Andes crème de menthe mints (about 10 oz.)
· 1.25 c. AP flour
· ¾ t. baking soda
· ½ t. kosher salt
· 8 T. unsalted butter, softened
· ¼ c. sugar
· ½ c. brown sugar, firmly packed
· ½ t. vanilla
· 1 egg
METHOD
1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Unwrap the mints and cut them lengthwise, then into thirds. Place the pieces into a bowl.
3. From the mint bowl, measure out ¾ c. by volume and deposit into a microwave safe glass bowl.
4. Microwave for 30 seconds on high, stir, and repeat as needed until mint pieces are melted.
5. In a small bowl, place a sifter in the bowl and add the flour, baking soda, and salt to the sifter. Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl.
6. In a medium bowl, mix together the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer until creamy.
7. Add the egg to the creamy mixture. Mix thoroughly. Add in the melted chocolate and mix until well combined.
8. SLOWLY add the dry ingredients a little at a time, mixing as you go, and making sure to integrate the dry ingredients before adding more. Otherwise, you will get a white cloud in your kitchen. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
9. Once all the dry ingredients have been added, use a spatula to fold in the mint chips until well distributed.
10. On two cookies sheets covered with parchment paper, portion out the cookie dough with a #40 scooper (or use a rounded tablespoon of the dough) onto the sheet, leaving a couple of inches between each cookie.
11. Bake one sheet at a time for 9 minutes. When finished, remove from oven and allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack. When they come out of the oven, they will be slightly puffy and soft. After cooling, they will flatten out. That’s fine.
12. Enjoy.
VARIANTS
If you are fortunate enough to find them, Nestlé makes the morsels. But you will lose the attractive green stripe in your chocolate bits. According to the real baker in the kitchen, I probably should not tweak out this recipe … or anything I bake. The results could be unusual.
