Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Chocolate Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Deep rich chocolate cookie dough studded with mint and chocolate chips freezes beautifully so you are ready to bake up homemade chocolate chips by the time the oven preheats. These will disappear as fast as you can bake them.



You’d think I would know better.  I should know better!  Most of my adult life I’ve lived in places where I either needed to bring special items with me from the States or stock up quickly when I see them in the stores.  Reams of expat correspondence and countless conversations through the years have been devoted to where to buy what and, “Oh, my goodness, the soft toilet paper has come in at CV Central!” or “The advent calendars are here at Marks and Spencers!” and the like.

But I’ve gotten complacent living in Dubai.  I can buy most everything I need and it usually comes in great abundance.  Sometime too great.  I happen to know, because I have watched it with horrified interest, that the delivery of Borden’s Eggnog from the last Christmas season is still on the shelves at my local grocery store.  (The “best by” date is September 2013 but it’s covered by a sticker in Arabic.)  But I didn’t anticipate the run on Hershey’s Mint Truffles Kisses at all.  They appeared last week and I picked up a bag and fondled it but I didn’t buy because I didn’t have a plan.

Then I made a plan, for a mint chocolate make-ahead Christmas cookie that would be even more fabulous with a mint truffle Kiss on top. And now BOTH of my nearby grocery stores are out, fresh out, already. So I’ve left some plain (still fabulous) and topped some with peppermint Kisses and still others with dark chocolate Kisses. If you can find the mint truffle Kisses in the green bag, give them a try and send me a photo. I think they’d be beautiful. And if you are a fellow expat, don’t bother saying, “You should know better.” I do. I really do. Deep sigh.

This month our Creative Cookie Exchange group is baking up cookie dough that can be made ahead and frozen until you are ready to bake so make sure to scroll down to the bottom and check out the rest of the links.  We’ve got some great ones for you!

Ingredients for about 3 dozen cookies
These were a gift from my sister, brought from the States.
1 cup or 225g butter, at room temperature
1 cup, firmly packed, or 200g dark brown sugar
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour
1/3 cup or just over 26g unsweetened cocoa powder (I used the special dark.)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 oz or 283g bag mixed dark chocolate chips and mint chips

Optional to decorate: A variety of Hershey’s Kisses

Method
If baking right away, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your baking pan by greasing it lightly or lining it with parchment paper.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine your flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.


With electric beaters or in your stand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar, until they are light and fluffy.


Add in the flour mixture and beat until just combined.



Now add in the chocolate and mint chips and beat again briefly.


Roll the dough up into a thick sausage shape with cling film and chill for about 10 minutes in the freezer.  (Or for as long as several weeks if you aren’t baking immediately.  In this case, let the dough thaw for about 10 minutes before trying to cut your slices.  This also gives your oven time to preheat.)

It's not pretty but it is pretty delicious. 


Cut slices of the dough and lay them out on the prepared pan with enough space between them so they don’t run together as they bake.

This dough had been frozen for about 30 hours, then thawed for 10 minutes before slicing.


Once your oven has preheated, bake for 10-12 minutes or until just set.   Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for about 5-7 minutes before adding the Kisses or trying to remove them from the pan with a spatula.

Just out of the oven! 


If you’ve added Kisses, do not touch the candies until they have had a chance to harden up again.  The whole Kiss gets soft from the heat.  You can pop the cookies in the refrigerator if you are in a hurry.

With Kisses

Enjoy!

Unadorned but still delicious

To join in the fun of the Creative Cookie Exchange, just complete the steps below:

1.  Write a blog post with recipe and original photo. The theme this month is make-ahead freezer cookies for the holidays.  The post should describe how to freeze the dough and also how to bake the dough when you are ready. We would like the recipe to be one you’re making for the first time, and photos must be original.
2.  Post the Cookie Exchange badge somewhere on your blog so others can join in the fun:
Badge Code: should work for all types of web sites, blogger, self-hosted and free.

Creative Cookie Exchange

3.  Make a good faith effort to visit and comment on the other cookies in the Linky party.  We all love cookies so that should be easy!
6.  LINK your blog post below using the Linky tool.

You can also just use us as a great resource for cookie recipes.  Be sure to check out our Facebook page, our Pinterest Board, and our monthly posts. You will be able to find them the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!  

Here are this month’s great make-ahead recipes:

18 comments :

  1. THESE LOOK SOOO DELICIOUS!!!! Chocolate and mint are so good together, esp. around Christmastime!

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  2. Adorned or unadorned they look delicious!! I love this recipe!!

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  3. YUM. What festive cookies! I connected with your grocery store woes. When we lived in Bermuda the same thing would happen. If you saw something in stock (particularly something from the States or from England) you just had to buy it before all the expats got to it! Happy memories, thanks!

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  4. These sound irresistible! I think I like the unadorned ones better. Will have to try these.

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  5. You are ready for Christmas, Stacy! And yes I feel your pain about product availability. Wish I could mail you the chocolates you need...Is the postal service more reliable in UAE than in Qatar? Of course, there is the issue of heat..At any rate, thank you and bravo for a splendid holiday recipe =)

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  6. Oh my gosh, Stacy...I'm crazy for those Kisses! Your cookies look delicious :)

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  7. I love the green chips. Your cookies kind of remind me of Andes Mints. Hmmmm. Wonder if Andes Mints would be good in these... =) Your cookies look so good and I love your story.

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  8. Boy oh boy do these look fantastic! I love the red and white striped kisses on top - so festive looking! Do you mix any regular cocoa in the 1/4 cup dark? I used all dark once and something awful happened to the cookies and Pam (from Om nomalicious) suggested it was because I used all dark chocolate - of course it was more than 1/4 cup.

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  9. It was all the Hershey's Special Dark. I've used it a few times all alone. Did you see when I made the "almost Gwyneth's fudgy brownies"? Man, they were almost BLACK but so rich and chocolatey. And those took a whole cup of cocoa.

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  10. I did and I they looked marvelous! I LOVE dark chocolate - I have some Hershey's special dark so I will use that! :)

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  11. Oohhh Wee! YOu are on a cookie binge and I want to be eating all the fruits of your labor. I think I like these best of all!

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  12. Stacy your post rings so true for me too. After living in Guam, where I got so used to hearing "no, we aren't stocking that anymore because we can't keep in on the shelves" or "we won't have that until the next boat arrives in a couple of months time" I tend to overbuy when I see something. People may be surprised that even though I live in part of the US, things disappear so quickly, or never even get to the shelves here. For instance, I've never seen those Nestle chips.
    Your cookies look amazing, and the darker the chocolate the better for me. I am looking forward to having a freezer full of yummy cookie dough.

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  13. It was COOKIE WEEK! My freezer is full. :)

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  14. I still have a bunch in my freezer, Renee. Even though I am not much of a sweet eater, I find myself slipping out a couple at time. They are also very good still almost frozen. :)

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  15. I was eyeing those toll house chips at the store today. Now I really wish I would have bought them.. oh well there's always tomorrow :)

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  16. Oh, you can NEVER go wrong with chocolate and mint. I lived in Spain for six months this year, so I definitely understand the struggle to find typical American ingredients. I had to stock up on brown sugar, crisco and vanilla extract to take with me when I moved there. These look completely delicious! Perfect for the holidays!

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