WINTRY DAYS AND MINT CHIP SUGAR COOKIE MADNESS

You know if you find yourself making a recipe twice in as many days you’ve hit sweet paydirt.

Late last week the weather reporters called for an upcoming snowstorm. That kind of weather is pretty unusual around here so we all got excited. The school cancelled school the night before in anticipation of treacherous driving so the kids and I had a relaxing, lazy morning waiting for something to happen.

Charlotte and I scrolled Pinterest for winter cookies and a recipe from Little Dairy on the Prairie popped up — and one look and I knew I had to make them.

Her cookies looked more perfect than mine, but I can’t imagine that they could possibly be better.

Dear heaven– they are amazing.

One look at her blog and I knew that I had to make the cookies. The only problem was I was shy a couple ingredients (peppermint extract and cream of tartar) so I quick dashed over to Whole Foods for provisions before the snow started to fall.

I got home just fifteen minutes before the snowflakes started falling.

The kids played out in the snow, and I pulled the batter together.

Lucky for all of us I’d stockpiled a couple bags of Andes Mints in advance of my big holiday baking push– as if I knew that this moment was coming and I wanted to be ready for it.

The snow fell modestly but even the lightest of dusting was cause for neighborhood fun.

Yes, Oliver insisted on taking off his coat and feeling the snow on his bare arms — and picking up the smaller kids and kindly pulling them to the top of our driveway time after time so they could get the right incline for sledding.

I let the batter chill so that it wouldn’t spread too much; this is basically a very fancy sugar cookie, and I wanted a little heft (and not a flat buttery disc).

If you are a chocolate and mint lover, this cookie is going to be your new best friend.

I’ll have you know that the original recipe only calls for like 6 oz. of chocolate chips and 6 oz. of Andes creme de menthe baking chips; you’ll see in my revised recipe I used a lot more chocolate and just unwrapped about 25 Andes foil-wrapped mints (I’ve never seen those chips at the store).

I will leave up to you and your imagination/conscience how much add-ins to use.

I do recommend, however, you be sure that your dough is firm before you bake it. I let the big batch chill for about 30 minutes until it was semi-firm, then used an ice cream scoop to form little balls, and chilled those dough balls for another hour or so until quite solid and cold.

Aren’t they like little Grinch Bites of Gold?

I’m so in love with these. 

They embody all the best qualities of a sugar cookie (delicate crumb, nice crispy edges), a chocolate chip cookie (complete with addictive warm pockets of melty chocolate) and a Mint Oreo (with an appealingly peppermint finish).

Think of a Mint Milano, but much, much, much better.

They are so mouth-watering and appealing with a cup of cocoa that we ate (or shared with neighbors) the entire batch within 24 hours and I made them again the next day — this time bumping up the peppermint flavor, adding more salt than originally called for and making them just ever-so greener in hue.

LOVE.

Make a batch and you’ll see — but don’t be too surprised if they don’t hang around long enough to share (yes, they’re that good).

And one last note– this dough freezes beautifully so don’t skimp on quantities.

Go BIG!

Won’t you be so happy next week when you remember you’ve got this waiting for you?

MINT CHIP SUGAR COOKIES

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Feel free to go bonkers on amounts of chocolate chips and chopped up Andes mints; is this really a time for moderation?

Author: adapted from Little Dairy on the Prairie

Recipe type: cookie

Serves: about 20 large or 35 tiny cookies

Ingredients

• 3 C. all purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. cream of tartar
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 C. (2 sticks) unsalted softened butter
• 1½ C. sugar
• 3-6 drops of green food coloring (depending on how green you want them to be, use less if using concentrate)
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp. peppermint extract
• 1-2 C. semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (original recipe calls only for 6 oz. but I almost tripled that)
• 6 oz. Andes creme de menthe baking chips or about 25 pieces foil-wrapped Andes mints (unwrapped and chopped coarsely)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Set aside.
3. Whip together the butter and sugar for 3 minutes; it should be light and fluffy.
4. Add in green food coloring, eggs and peppermint extract and beat about 1 minute.
5. Add dry ingredients, mixing only enough to incorporate (not more than 30 seconds).
6. Add in chocolate chips and Andes mint by hand (so as not to overwork dough).
7. Refrigerate dough until firm (1 hour should suffice) and then form into balls. I then refrigerated them slightly but you could probably put them in the preheated oven at this point.
8. Larger cookies will take about 15 minutes, smaller close to 12 (depending on size and how cold the dough is).
9. Either way, pull cookies when they no longer look wet and edges are starting to turn golden (if you like a crisper, less chewy cookie cook for another minute or so),

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