Not all cookies have a story. Sometimes they just happen…
Two years ago as part of my Christmas treat bag, I wanted to make a chocolate cookie with mint chips. I know, original right? But even so I didn’t find many recipes at that time that made me want to bake them. What I finally did find was a chocolate chocolate chip recipe on All Recipes that had great user reviews… Winner, winner chicken dinner.
So, two years ago, I made the chocolate chocolate chip cookies and replaced the chocolate chips with mint chips. And they were good cookies. So I filed away the recipe to use again someday. This year I wasn’t planning to make these cookies. At all. But then there I was last week, walking through Target, when all of a sudden… duh duh duhnnnn… a bag of dark chocolate and mint chips jumped into my cart. I swear, it just flung itself at me. So really, what else could I do?
It didn’t matter that they weren’t originally scheduled to be part of the 12 days of cookies (I’m not very good at following a schedule anyway…). The chips had spoken.
This time I used a mix of both brown and white sugar instead of just white sugar. This made the cookie chewy. And the mix of dark chocolate and mint chips was better than all mint chips (it was minty but extra chocolatey at the same time… which in my book is better than good).
[Factoid: brown sugar is more hydrophilic than white sugar. Which means it attracts moisture from the air. This can help to make cookies chewy and moist. Whereas if you want a crisp cookie you want to use more white sugar.]
Chocolate chocolate mint chip cookies
(adapted from All Recipes)
Bonus points: This cookie dough freezes well. Scoop the dough as you would when baking it and line up as many of the dough balls on a baking sheet that will fit. Then place the baking sheet in the freezer until all of the dough balls are completely frozen. At that point, you can put all of the dough balls into a freezer bag. Voíla, instant cookies. To bake from frozen, extend the baking time to 10-12 minutes.
Makes about 4 dozen.
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 10 ounce bag of mint or mint+chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 cups)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla.
- Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Stir into butter mixture until well blended.
- Mix in the chips. Drop by a rounded tablespoon onto an ungreased baking sheet. [I like to use a small cookie scoop and a half sheet pan lined with a silpat or parchment paper]
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or just until set. Cool on pan for about 2 minutes then cool completely on a wire rack.
- Sit back and listen to the Mmms and Ooohs.
- This cookie dough would also be good with peanut butter chips, regular chocolate chips, white chocolate chips,… I’d guess most any kind of chip. It’s just a really good chocolate cookie dough.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been on a mint-n-chocolate thing lately too…in fact, I had seen yesterday’s post on the Chocolate Crinkles and have decided to make them for Friday’s potluck at work, but with an addition of a splash of peppermint extract. Num…
Oh, and thanks for the tip on the white sugar/ brown sugar thing…you truly do learn something new every day! =)
These look yummy. How about using Andes mint chocolate candies? Andes now sells bags of tiny squared mint chocolate goodness. Can’t wait to see what you make next!
I bet Andes would be great in these cookies. I haven’t seen the tiny squares… hmm. I may have to look for them now :)
I have bought them at both Target and Wal-Mart. I first discovered them when I was making a Mint Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake.
I made these cookies for Christmas last year and everyone begged for me to make them again this year. I didn’t grab an extra bag of the chocolate & mint but I did have a bag of Ande’s Mints. I cut them up and used them in a batch. The only thing is the Ande’s Mints cookies didn’t taste nearly as delicious as the morsels. I had a houseful of guests to tell me.
Those same Dark Chocolate and Mint Chip dove into my cart, too….but I made them into FUDGE, using the simple fantasy fudge recipe on the Marshmallow Fluff jar. SO good.
I want to make these right now. If I weren’t proctoring my students’ final exam right now, I would be at the grocery store buying mint chocolate chips haha.
Oh, you have to tell me who makes this fabulous bag of dark chocolate and mint chips. I must have them! : )
Nestle… I found the bag at Target in the Christmas candy/baking area. I haven’t looked for it anywhere else though (the bag says it’s a “Limited Edition” so it might be gone after Christmas).
Nestle…I could only find them @ Target. The recipe on the package is great!
When a recipe like this calls for cocoa, is this the unsweetened cocoa? Have made chocolate cookies with unsweetened in the past.
hi morgan,
Yes, I meant unsweetened cocoa powder. Sorry about that, I’ve updated the recipe.
Made them today and they came out great :)
These are simply amazing! I love my cookies a little chewier, so the addition of the brown sugar is great. I decided to combine this with another recipe and I “iced” each cookie with half an Andes candy. Set the candy on the cookies as soon as they come out of then oven, once the candy is soft, you can swirl it with a knife. Thanks for a great recipe!
Tried these today and they turned out even better than I’d hoped! I used a mixture of whole wheat/all-purpose flour and thought for sure I’d messed the whole batch up but they turned out great!
I was at a friends house a couple Weeks ago and she happened to score and find mint chips on sale since Christmas is over. She made similar cookies and they were tasty. I was craving those cookies the other night but all I could find at target were the andes mints. I froze them, cut them into chunks and then mixed them into the cookie dough. They were so much more yummy then mint chips! Excellent substitute if mint chips are not available.
I make it with one teaspoon of peppermint extract and one teaspoon of vanilla extract, instead of two teaspoons of vanilla. Extra delicious, in my opinion.
I made these for a picnic and a dinner party, and both times my friends absolutely RAVED about them. These fabulous cookies should come with a warning….they are addicting and may cause you to eat several in one sitting!
I used chopped Andes mints and a half teaspoon more of vanilla extract (love my vanilla). The mints worked perfectly….people were asking what the yummy minty flavor was! These cookies came out nice and soft, my favorite. I’ll definitely be making these again!
{ 1 trackback }