Chocolate and Fresh Mint Cookies
June 24th, 2011
Chocolate and Fresh Mint Cookies
The other day I did a post about some homemade thank you packages that I made. (By the way, thank you for your overwhelmingly positive feedback and encouragement!) Besides the fancy wrapping, the heart of that present was a stack of dark chocolate cookies with fresh garden mint baked right inside of them.
This is a really wonderful recipe to me, and in my mind I was saving it for something special- but then I realized- what is more special than sharing it with you guys? I feel so blessed to be able to share my thoughts, parties and recipes with you on a regular basis and absolutely love hearing about when you are able to use them in your own lives. So, please consider this recipe a thank you to all of you for coming and sharing with me here a couple times a week. It really means so much to me.
Speaking of you lovely readers…. This recipe was actually conceived last summer after a request from Lisa (Lisa are you still out there?!) asking for ideas on how to use up her overgrown mint. Suffering from the same problem 9 months out of the year, I really started using mint in a ton of dishes. (See examples of my mint frenzy such as: mint chocolate ice cream, kopanisti, potato salad, summer crostini.) That was when the idea of the cookies came along. Baking the leaves right into the cookie dough was something that I had never seen, tasted or heard of before, and boy was it good!
So pluck that fresh, fragrant mint and get baking,
Oh by the way, speaking of baking! please take notice of my new favorite baking item: my brand spanking new, shiny GLASS mixing bowl for my kitchen aid mixer! I did not even realize that this was an option until recently, and now I am in L-O-V-E. It feels huge! I also love that I can see when the bowl needs to be scraped down and the kids love that they can see what is going on in the bowl and whether or not they want to hang around and lick the bowl. How very convenient for them…
Chocolate and Fresh Mint Cookies, makes 2 dozen
-1 cup butter
-1 cup brown sugar
-1 cup white sugar
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 cups flour
-¾ cup cocoa
-1 tsp baking sodas
-½ tsp salt
-2 cups chocolate chips
-2 cups chopped fresh mint
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 3 sheet pans with parchment or silpats.
2) In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together the butter and both types of sugar.
3) When it is nice and creamy, add the vanilla and the eggs.
4) Beat together until fluffy.
5) In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients together.
6) Add the dry ingredients to the mixer and combine.
(I like to place a dishtowel over the mixer so the cocoa doesn’t fly everywhere!)
7) Roughly chop the mint leaves.
8) Add the chocolate chips and the mint to the cookie batter and mix until well combined.
9) Scoop the dough onto the prepared pans (8 cookies fit at a time.)
10) Bake the cookies at 350 for 12 minutes. Remove immediately and let cool on a rack.
I need to have that problem of the over grown mint! These cookies are a great idea. i love to use fresh mint with chocolate.
7:21 am on June 24th, 2011
its easy Marla! Plant 1 tiny mint plant in your garden and sit back and watch it take over!
7:28 am on June 24th, 2011
yeah, my mint hasn’t taken over anything…i think it has something to do with the fact that my house is the place where things go to die…
7:53 am on June 24th, 2011
WHAT!? creepy Jen! what does that mean? just house plants I hope :)
7:55 am on June 24th, 2011
[...] baking and cooking. One of my favorite bloggers, Heather Christo, just posted this recipe for chocolate mint cookies. I’ve been waiting since Wednesday when featured the cookies in a post about thank you [...]
8:08 am on June 24th, 2011
I am in love with everything about these cookies! great recipe!
9:39 am on June 24th, 2011
WOW – I could not read this post face enough! I can’t wait to try these!!!!! I have tons of mint and only use it in homemade lemonade. What better thing could there be on this sweet earth than a cookie made with chocolate AND mint?!!! Yum, yum. Thanks as always Heather!
1:00 pm on June 24th, 2011
What chocolate/cocoa did you use? Did regular cocoa and milk chocolate chips make the cookies that dark?
2:29 pm on June 24th, 2011
Ignore previous post!! In an effort to ease the problem of mint taking over the corner, I made these cookies today. Did nothing fancy. Semi-sweet choc chips and Hershey’s cocoa. Using a No. 60 scoop, I put 12 cookies on each Silpat. I did not press them down. Yield was 5 doz. (plus 2 practice cookies) 2 1/4 inch cookies. They are dark and chewy and the mint makes them very rich. Great recipe!! Thank you.
1:52 pm on June 26th, 2011
I’ve never baked with fresh mint! I bet these cookies have such great flavor!
3:38 pm on June 26th, 2011
What a wonderful post. Those cookies look just incredible. I so envy your mixing bowl. I want one for mine too!!!
6:21 pm on June 26th, 2011
The mint is not real strong, but it is there and does add a richness. Of course, I used tall mint with big leaves. May have had more mint flavor with smaller, younger mint leaves. Next time.
7:37 am on June 27th, 2011
sorry Dave for late response!! I used Hershey’s dark cocoa (my favorite for dark chocolate color and taste) and semi-sweet chips, which look like milk next to that dark cocoa!
8:01 am on June 27th, 2011
These look amazing! I’ve got tons of mint, too, and like to use it whenever I can :)
11:05 am on June 27th, 2011
I actually have some growing. This will be such fun to try.
1:02 pm on June 27th, 2011
Just took the cookies out of the oven and they are sooo good. Going to try them as ice cream sandwiches.
5:20 pm on June 27th, 2011
[...] Part 2 post I wrote about how one of my favorite bloggers, Heather Christo, posted a recipe for chocolate mint cookies and how excited I was to try them. I bumped the cookies up to the top of my to do list and I made [...]
6:53 pm on June 28th, 2011
Heather,
Would you please share how you measure cocoa powder? I’ve tried a few recipes with them that came out way too strong (needing more sugar) and I am NOT one of those people who likes things sweet. I’m pretty sure it was the measurement. Does it need to be sifted?
Thanks, in advance.
The cookies look amazing!
1:18 pm on June 29th, 2011
Hi Danielle, I don’t usually sift my cocoa unless I am baking a cake, (even then I am pretty lazy about it!) If you feel like the cocoa is too overwhelming in a particular recipe, I would recommend cutting it by a third, (like in the cookies you could cut it to a 1/2 cup) and then add that 1/4 cup back in flour You may also want to consider using a cocoa powder that is lighter in flavor, as the dark varieties are certainly stronger! But don’t just add more sugar- that will often make baked good spread too much. I hope this helps some?!
2:39 pm on June 29th, 2011
Thanks!
I made your chocolate raspberry tart and the crust came out wrong. It was soooo bitter when I tasted the dough (and I actually LIKE things on the bitter side) I knew I couldn’t serve it. I tried to fix it by adding more powder sugar which made the whole thing dry and hard, of course. (I knew I should have added more butter as well, but was lazy) I used Ghiradelli dutch processed; maybe it is strong?
I’m looking forward to trying this recipe though. Thanks for the feedback.
4:56 pm on June 29th, 2011
DUTCH PROCESSED!!! That is the problem. Dutch Processed cocoa powder has a different chemical makeup! Try using good old Hershey’s Dark! or any non Dutch processed cocoa.
7:52 pm on June 29th, 2011
Thank You for this recipe! The cookies are wonderful. I adjusted slightly to use bakers chocolate squares and they came out soft and chewy (the way I like them).
5:57 pm on July 12th, 2012
These are delicious!!! I wonder if I can freeze some mint to make these over the winter?
5:27 am on July 13th, 2012
I would certainly think so! Glad that you like them!
7:27 am on July 13th, 2012
[...] and I thought surely a body could put fresh mint in a cookie, right? I eventually found this lady’s culinary blog and her recipe for chocolate and fresh mint cookies! I used to do a lot of baking, mostly before college. I did crazy things, like triple layered cakes [...]
8:55 pm on July 22nd, 2012
I cooked your Fresh Mint and Chocolate Cookies. Do they harden up as mine are very soft or are they supposed to be like that. Taste wonderful.
12:17 am on March 10th, 2013
probably stay pretty soft from all of the cocoa powder- glad they taste good!
7:53 am on March 10th, 2013
These are just plain amazing! I did only use 1/2 cup of cocoa, I think having a little less cocoa brought out the mintiness. Bravo!
2:27 am on March 12th, 2013
[...] Chocolate and Fresh Mint Cookies [...]
12:20 pm on May 1st, 2013
Last night my fiance said he wanted mint chocolate chip cookies and I got curious! I can’t wait to try making these! :) thank you for sharing!
9:15 am on June 12th, 2013
they are so good Julia! enjoy!
9:16 am on June 12th, 2013