Weekend Dish: Double Chocolate Mint Cookies

By Catherine Toth Fox • January 16, 2013 • Food, Weekend Dish

There’s a flavor combination that I just love: chocolate and mint.

So I’m always looking for recipes that combine those two delicious flavors.

I stumbled across this one — by celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis — that seemed fairly easy. And I actually had all of the ingredients on hand. (Those two characteristics are always the most important to me, especially since I tend to bake on a whim.)

I’m gonna be honest here: I broke the cardinal rule in baking. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, and you really should when you’re trying out a new one.

What I did was skip the last instruction where you’re supposed to swap tray positions in the oven. I was just too lazy. And hey, the cookies came out alright, though it didn’t puff up the way they should. So keep that in mind.

But if you love chocolate and mint as much as I do — hello, Thin Mints! — then try this. Even the unbaked dough is delicious.

Chop your chocolate

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Using a sharp knife, chop the chocolate into small chunks. This will make melting the chocolate faster and easier.

Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
Courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients:

6 ounces semisweet or bittersweet (60 percent) chocolate, chopped
2 T. unsalted butter
1 c. flour
2 T. unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 c. sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 5-ounce package chocolate mint thins such as Andes, eat cut into thirds

Directions:

Place one oven rack in the center of the oven and another in the bottom third. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line two large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the bittersweet chocolate and butter. Place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and stir occasionally until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Cool.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, 2 T. water and vanilla extract. Gradually add the dry ingredients. Fold into the cooled chocolate. Stir in the chocolate mint pieces. Chill the dough for 10 minutes to firm slightly. Using 1/4 cup measuring cup, drop 6 mounds of batter onto each prepared sheet, spacing evenly apart.

Bake the cookies for nine minutes. Reverse the baking sheets (top to bottom) and continue baking until the cookies are slightly puffed and dry-looking, with some cracks on top, 9 to 10 minutes longer. Cool the cookies completely on sheets.

Makes 12 large cookies