Crisp and crunchy with an intense chocolate flavor touched with a mild mint flavor. Yum!
Maida Heatter’s Brand New Book of Great Cookies
I’m back for my weekly series of Teach Me Maida, baking from one of Maida Heatter’s cookbooks. Today, I’m baking from her Brand-new Book of Great Cookies. I picked her Mint Chocolate Cookies because (1) they looked quick and (2) Chocolate. Need I say more?
The recipe is indeed quick. I mixed them up and had two sheet pans into the oven within about 7 minutes of picking the recipe. The longest step time-wise is melting your chocolates in the double boiler. You could even shorten this step by microwave melting your chocolates. I prefer the double boiler only because I like to relax and enjoy the baking process. Stirring the chocolate together while they melt is just so calming and the smell is divine.
Ready to bake?
Gather your ingredients:
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
8 oz semisweet chocolate
6 oz chopped chocolate covered mints
1 1/2 cups sifted a.p. flour
1/2 cup cocoa, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line cookie sheets with a Silpat. Set aside.
Roughly chop chocolates to make melting easier. Place the chocolates into a bowl set over a pan filled with about 1″ of water (making a double boiler). Stir occasionally, until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
Sift together your dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat you butter until soft. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat until well mixed. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Add the cooled chocolate mixture and beat to mix.
On low speed, add the dry ingredients and beat to mix. Remove the bowl from the stand and stir in your chopped mints. I used a full (10 oz) bag of Andes chopped mints. Stir with a spatula all the way to the bottom of your bowl to make sure everything is mixed well.
Use a rounded tablespoon of the dough for each cookie and place the mounds at least 2 inches apart on your cookie sheets. You’ll only get 6 per cookie sheet.
Bake 2 sheets at a time for 18 minutes. Reverse the sheets top to bottom and front to back once during to insure even baking.
With a wide spatula transfer the cookies to racks to cool.
What kind of Cookie Gal are you?
Stay with me here. I was thinking of Thank You gifts for my vet, daughter’s teachers and our family mechanic and was searching the web as one does to avoid housework. I happened to be looking at the Shari’s Berries website and noticed they had this fun little Flowchart which indicates which kind of Christmas Cookie you might be. I don’t know that I totally agree with my outcome (do I look like a Red Velvet cookie kind of gal?) but I had fun doing it. If you’re inclined, click HERE and you’ll be taken to their site. Doesn’t cost a dime and it’s fun.
Mint Chocolate Cookie
Crisp and crunchy with an intense chocolate flavor enhanced with a mellow mint flavor.
Ingredients
- 4 oz unsweetened chocolate
- 8 oz semisweet chocolate
- 6 oz chocolate covered mints
- 1 1/2 cups a.p. flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 oz unsalted butter softened
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar packed
- 3 eggs large
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 325 degrees
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Line 2 cookie sheets with Silpats.
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Roughly chop chocolates and place them in the top of a double boiler over warm water. Melt chocolates, stirring occasionally. Set aside once melted.
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Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
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In the large bowl of a mixer, beat the butter until softened. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat well. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
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Add the melted chocolate and beat to mix.
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On low speed, add the dry ingredients slowly. Beat to mix. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
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Mix in the chopped mints and stir deeply to the bottom of the bowl to be sure that everything is well mixed.
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Use a rounded tablespoon of the dough for each cookie. Place the mounds about 2 inches apart on your cookie sheets. You should only get 6 per sheet.
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Bake two cookie sheets at a time for 18 minutes. Reverse the sheets top to bottom and front to back during baking to insure even baking.
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With a wide spatula, transfer the cookies to racks to cool.
