Oregon Transplant: Dark Chocolate and Fresh Mint Cookies

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Dark Chocolate and Fresh Mint Cookies

Well. Something had to be done with the fresh mint!

I've been researching ways to use all this mint. The mint is (easily) my crop that's been overly abundant. People, I am soooooo serious when I say you do not need a green thumb to grow mint. Half the time I forget to water it, and it's still a crazy plant. I got a wild hair to make cookies out of fresh mint, but I wasn't sure you could put fresh mint in baked goods.

Turns out you can. Oh yes, you can.

I found this recipe by Heather Christo, and just knew I had to try it. You'll be surprised by how good these cookies are. They taste like mint chocolate chip ice cream, but better. The hubby and I were munching on a couple, discussing how they turned out and trying to pinpoint why they were sooooo good. We finally figured out that it's the fresh mint. It just tastes fresher than using mint extract. That, and the fresh mint tastes sweet. That's the only way I can describe it. The addition of mint adds a sweet and fresh component to the cookies. They are rich, decadent, and scrumptious. I made the cookies using a 1 tbsp cookie scoop, so they are small cookies. Which means you can eat more than 1 :)

You probably won't eat more than a couple at a time, though. So rich!

While I was doing my research on fresh mint, I've since come up with several ideas of home projects to start. Here's what I'm definitely making:

1. Vanilla Mint Iced Tea (holy yum!)

2. Homemade Creme de Menthe (oh yes!)

3. Blueberry Mint Dog Treats (I'm going to have some friends!)

4. Mint Sugar (because, why not?)

I'm also thinking about making a Lavender-Mint home refresher spray. I loathe using artificial smells in my home, so I'm still tossing this idea around. After all, it's not like the spray is going to smell like Febreze. After using so much air freshener to combat the mold smell in our old rental house, I'm pretty much anti-air freshener. Especially when you have a newly constructed home. However, there are times when having a scent around would be nice. Say for spritzing after using the deep fryer. Y'all know how that smells!

I love how you can see all that fresh mint baked into the cookies.

So, to recap:

1. Plant mint- you can do it. Anyone can.

2. Make these cookies.

3. Fresh mint rules. It's extremely versatile.

It's safe to say you'll be seeing more from my mint this summer :)

Have a great day friends!

Ingredients (makes 4 dozen (1-tbsp) cookies):

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, room temp

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups dark chocolate chips

2 cups fresh mint, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Coat 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. Beat in the vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour through salt. Whisk to combine.

4. Add dry ingredients to wet. Beat until incorporated.

5. Using a spatula, fold in the chocolate chips and mint.

6. Using a 1-tbsp cookie scoop, drop cookies onto cookie sheet, placing about 12 per sheet. Bake in preheated oven 9-12 minutes. I like my cookies slightly under-baked, so I baked for exactly 9 minutes. This resulted in the crispy exterior, yet a soft and chewy interior. Remove from oven, and allow to cool on sheet for 5 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack, and cool completely before storage.

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