Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
So my obsession with the holidays has me thinking of more and more ways to celebrate and put my own spin on the traditions we all know and love. I’m also in the midst of trying to plan for my holiday party this week, and I love to give my guests a little of the familiar and a little of the unexpected. That (and a deep craving for mint and chocolate!) was the inspiration for this recipe.
To be completely truthful, this recipe, like others I’m doing for this party, is a sneaky way to save time and be efficient. I can make this dough at the beginning of the week, freeze it in long skinny cylinders, and then cut them into little rounds. During the party, I can throw them into the oven towards the end of the night for 5 to 10 minutes, and voila! Everyone gets fresh-baked, mini cookies, and my apartment smells like heaven…
I wanted to create pillowy, moist, brownie-rich, chocolate chip cookies scented with peppermint. Who doesn’t love that? The ingredient that adds a bit of the unfamiliar is ground cardamom; the spice has a menthol-like quality that works beautifully with the mint. I’m a dark chocolate girl myself, but I threw in some white chocolate chips for the creaminess – it helps offset the bitterness of the dark chocolate and blends seamlessly with the mint. Enjoy!
Ingredients
Yields approximately 2 dozen cookies (size-dependent)
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup white sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup dark chocolate chunks or chips
½ cup white chocolate chunks or chips
Procedure
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cardamom and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer using a paddle attachment, cream together butter and both sugars. Add the egg and peppermint and vanilla extracts. Add flour mixture and mix until almost completely incorporated. It should mostly be sticking to the paddle at this point. Scrape down, add in chips and mix for another 15 to 20 seconds until uniform.
At this point, I like to turn the cookie dough out onto plastic wrap, form into a cylinder, and freeze for about 10 minutes. This makes it easier to cut into even sized, round cookies. Also, at this point, you can freeze the dough for later use – overnight or longer. Conversely, you can just drop rounded spoonfuls a few inches apart onto prepared baking sheets.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes depending on how chewy or crunchy or what size you made the cookies. Remember to add a few more minutes if you froze the cookies ahead of time and are putting them straight in. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.