Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think we’ve just about exhausted the possibilities for mint chocolate chip desserts.  Seeley has made ice cream and cake, and now I'm doing cookies.  Ever since Hubby saw a picture of mint chocolate chip cookies online somewhere, he’s been wanting me to make them.  More than the mint and chocolate, I think it was probably the green color that caught his attention.  Initially, I had the fabulous idea of juicing mint leaves to use for coloring.  As it turns out, mint leaves don’t produce green juice, it’s brown.  Ok, perhaps not such a fabulous idea.  I thought about using spinach instead, like I did when I made these colorful cookies, but I was afraid the idea of spinach in mint cookies might turn people off a bit.  (Although, I can vouch for the fact that you can’t actually taste spinach juice in cookies.)  Anyway, in the end, I broke down and bought some natural food coloring. 

And for the mint flavor, I used this.  It’s just peppermint oil mixed with sunflower oil. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• ½ cup butter
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon peppermint flavoring
• Food coloring
• 1 ½ cups flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

 

Cookies come together fairly quickly, so go ahead and preheat your oven to 350° before you begin.  As usual, your ingredients need to be at room temperature.  If you didn’t plan ahead, see what to do here.  Drop your butter into a mixing bowl along with the sugar. 

Whip them together until it becomes light in color and fluffy.

Add the egg. 

Mix until the egg is completely incorporated, scraping everything down a time or two. 

Add the vanilla and peppermint. 

When those are incorporated, start adding your food coloring.  If you’re using natural food coloring, it will take way more than the scary artificial stuff.  I ended up using probably a teaspoon between the blue and yellow. 

Continue to add a little at a time until you arrive at a color you’re happy with. 

Add the flour, soda, powder, and salt. 

Mix until that comes together, scraping everything down again, then add the chocolate chips.  I took out a bit of my dough and added white chocolate chips because I love mint and white chocolate together.  For the rest, I used dark chocolate.  You’ll need a total of about 1 cup of whatever kind of chips you decide on. 

Fold those into the dough. 

Spoon balls of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet, leaving plenty of space between them.  Mine were probably about 2 tablespoons each, which make cookies that are something like 3 inches across.

Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or so.  They should look dry on top and be starting to brown around the edges. 

The cool peppermint flavor mixed with the warm chewy cookie and the creamy, gooeyness (yes, that’s a word) of the chocolate is a perfect combination.

As for the color, I think next time I’ll go with spinach.  It really does give a better color than the food coloring. 

What mint chocolate dessert have we missed that you’d like to see us make?

Chocolate Crepes

We have definitely not met our chocolate quota for the month.  In fact, it’s been about two months since our last chocolate recipe was posted.  Well, I am going to rectify that with this simple but amazingly luscious dessert.  Chocolate crepes filled with even more chocolate and strawberries.  They really are every bit as delicious as they sound. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 egg
• ⅔ cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup flour
• 2 Tablespoons cocoa
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Strawberries
• Cocoa almond spread

In a mixing bowl, sift together your flour and cocoa.

It’s really important to always sift your cocoa, or you’ll end up with these lumps in your finished dessert, and that’s not fabulous.  Just push them through the sieve with a spoon or even your fingers.

Add your sugar and salt to the bowl.

Then mix everything together and set it aside.

In another vessel combine your milk, egg, and vanilla.  (Ignore the extra egg in the ingredients picture.  There's only one in this recipe) I like to just measure the milk and add the egg and vanilla to the measuring cup. 

Whisk until it becomes foamy.  I like to use a handheld mixer because I’m lazy, but you could just use a whisk if you prefer. 

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix until it is smooth.

I like to pour the whole thing back into my (quickly rinsed) measuring cup.  It makes for easy pouring into your pan. 

Now before you start cooking your crepes, you need to prep the filling ingredients.  Wash, hull, and slice some strawberries.  Figure 2 – 3 berries per crepe. 

For the chocolate filling, I used Trader Joe’s Cocoa Almond Spread.  If you have a Trader Joe’s within a two hour drive, it’s well worth the trip.  If not, have a friend ship you some… or if you really can’t get it, I suppose you could substitute Nutella. 

Now it’s time to make the crepes.  Place your pan over medium heat and put a little butter on a paper towel. 

Spread the butter over the pan leaving just a trace across the whole surface. 

Pour a small amount of batter (maybe ¼ depending on the size of your pan) into the pan and tilt it in slow circles, allowing the batter to run to the edges.  You want it to be a very thin layer.

Seeley has some good pictures of this process in her crepes post.  When it looks just about dry on top, carefully lift one edge with a spatula, then give it a few seconds to cool slightly and just grab it with your fingers and peel it up and flip it over. 

Technically you don’t have to flip it.  It’s really already cooked all the way through, but I like to do it for good measure.  Seeley also showed how to keep the crepes warm in the oven while you cook the rest of them.  I’m going to just right to the filling.  Spread a thin layer of the cocoa almond spread over half of the crepe. 

Lay your strawberry slices over that, leaving a gap in the middle where it’s going to fold. 

Fold the top down.

And fold the whole thing in half. 

Sprinkle with a generous amount of powdered sugar and enjoy.  The delicate chew of the crepe filled with rich luscious chocolate and fresh berries is simply to die for. 

What’s your favorite Trader Joe’s product?

 
*This post was not brought to you by Trader Joe’s, I’m just slightly in love with many of their products. I have to admit, though, I am slightly peeved that I lived in Utah for 30 years, and now that I’ve left, they’re finally opening a store there.