Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
I am an unlikely baker. I don’t have much of a taste for sweets; most nights you can find me reaching for the potato chips (just like my mother) after dinner instead. When I do put forth a dessert, my Dad will kindly appease my requests and take a bite, or two if I’m lucky. So it’s not my fault that I lean towards savory! It’s just in my genes. But if there is one sweet weakness I do have… it’s chocolate. Dark, dense, delicious chocolate. Lava cake? I’m there. Triple chocolate torte? Sign me up! Double chocolate chip brownies with candles on top? It’s my birthday and I’ll eat what I want to!! (Can you hear me singing the song?) When I received a box of Mint Chocolate Frangos from my Aunt in a gift exchange this year, I looked at them and thought, how in the world will I ever use these up? At the rate I consume sweets, I’ll be lucky if I finish them by next Christmas. And then it hit me- throw them in some cookies. Super dense, daringly dark and minty cool. I have to admit, these cookies happened by accident. I was looking at Food and Wine’s Staff Favorites, and was inspired by their recipe for “Chocolate Brownie Cookies” (p.250). For whatever reason (perhaps my inclusion of frangos, cold eggs, monkfruit sweetener, or lack of an electric mixer), they turned out nothing like the picture, and for that matter, weren’t at their peak when warm like most brownies are. But a day later…. Oh… my… gosh. Even my friend Georgina, who doesn’t like cookies, told me she was in love with these (I had given her some for her birthday). So below is how I winged these cookies (with definite help from Food and Wine) and was pleasantly surprised. I hope you love them just as much as I do!
8 oz semi sweet chocolate chunks
2 tablespoons salted butter
2 large eggs (straight out of the fridge is fine)
¾ cup monkfruit sweetener (or white sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
15 mint chocolate Frangos, chopped
Turn a small saucepan to low heat. Melt 8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chunks and 2 tablespoons salted butter directly in the pan. Swirl often with a spatula to prevent burning
In a large bowl, whisk 2 eggs and monkfruit sweetener with a fork for roughly 3 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and 6 grinds of salt and whisk some more.
Using your spatula, add the melted chocolate to the sugar mixture and whisk with your fork to evenly dissolve/distribute the chocolate. Add the flour and stir to a THICK mixture.
Coarsely chop 15 Frango mint chocolates and add to the dough. Combine evenly, then place in a glass pyrex and freeze for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out balls of dough on to the pan, spacing to fit 12 each. Cook one pan at a time, checking the cookies at 13 minutes. If the edges are not firm, return to the oven for another 1-2 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes on the pan. If you want, eat them warm. But I promise, they’re even better the next day, at room temperature, when the coolness of the mint can really shine!
