Chocolate Midnight Mint Cookies

Good Sunday Greetings,

It's chilly here, in The Valley of The Sun. Supposed to get another rainstorm, and the locals are
VERY excited. Yesterday, a cashier at the grocery store asked: 'Has it started raining, yet'? Sounded just like a hearty Midwesterner asking: 'Has the blizzard started, yet'?

When it gets chilly, here (that means 60 degrees), locals say it's 'soup weather'. The said same hearty Midwesterners break out the charcoal and brats.

Because we are hearty Midwesterners, we're breaking out the charcoal. Mr. Restaurant Quality is taking over the kitchen, today. He's making his very tasty Ka-Larry's (his version of Kabobs).
Marinated beef Ka-Larry's and marinated chicken Ka-Larry's (each in its own marinade). Recipes will follow on another blog. The Chocolate Midnight Mint cookes are not to be co-opted.

I digress............

Here's how these cookies came to be in my cookie jar (but not for long).

Fabulous Daughter #1 brought over a bag of Guittard green mint chips (look just like chocolate chips, except green and mint flavored). Her comment: 'I thought if you had these, you'd have to find something to do with them.' Smart girl, that daughter of ours, because she knows her household is a direct beneficiary of whatever comes out of the Restaurant Quality kitchen.

The cookie recipe is adapted from Dorie Greenspan's 'Baking From My Home To Yours'. Her recipe is 'My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Cookies'.

Chocolate Midnight Mint Cookies
about four dozen

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. salt
3/4 t. baking soda
2 sticks (16 T.) unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 t. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temp
1 cup chocolate chips*
1 cup mint chips*

* if you cannot find mint chips, use a bag of Andes Candies baking bits instead of the chocolate chips and the mint chips


Center a rack in the oven. Preheat to 350 degrees.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Whisk the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

With a stand mixer or hand mixer and large bowl, beat butter on medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth.

Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well blended.

Beat in the vanilla.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg is added.

Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated.

On low speed, or by hand with rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate and mint chips.

WARNING: the dough tastes like chocolate mint fudge......

Chill in refrig for 30-45 minutes.

Using a cookie scoop or slightly rounded tablespoonfuls, place on baking sheets, with about
2 inches inbetween.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for about 10 minutes. Rotate the sheet at the midway point, which would be at 5 minutes. Cookies will flatten and be 'crackly'.

Pull sheet from the oven and allow to rest for 1 minute before placing on cooling rack.




My Notes:

I call them Chocolate Midnight Mint Cookies, because they are as dark as midnight. (and, I think it's a cool name..........)

If you cannot readily find mint chips, try an upscale type store, like Sendik's (to exceed your
expectations, I just called Sendik's on Rawson Ave. in Franklin ---- they have the mint chips).
Whole Foods (again I am exceeding your expectations) does not carry the mint chips.

I chill the dough before scooping it. I found it to be much too soft for scooping without chilling.
(but not too soft for tasting..............)

These cookies are slightly labor-intensive because they are baked just one sheet at a time. I filled two cookie sheets initially. Baked one, took it out of the oven, popped in the second.

While the second sheet was baking, let the first batch rest for the one minute, then onto a cooling rack.
Put the now-empty cookie sheet in the freezer to cool for a couple minutes. Then, scooped more cookies onto it, so it was ready to go in the oven, when the 'second' cookie sheet was finished.

Get a somewhat organized assembly line going.

Life is good...............