When we recently had a problem with a leaky bathroom faucet, our very handy and extremely generous friend Jim offered to come over to install a new one for us. Since Jim and I are federal government lawyers, we both had Columbus Day off from work, and he came over with his older daughter McKenna. While Jim worked on the faucet, McKenna and I worked on a little baking project. I wanted to pick a recipe that was easy and fast, both so that McKenna (who is almost four) would be able to help and so that the end product would be ready by the time Jim was done.
I just got a copy of Simply Sensational Cookies by Nancy Baggett and I thought that McKenna and I should tackle her recipe for "Chocolate-Andes Mint Drops." Not only did I happen to have a couple of boxes of Andes mints on hand, but McKenna's mother Colleen loves mint brownies, so I figured it would be a good cookie for Jim and McKenna to take home with them.
Every recipe in the cookbook has a difficulty rating, and this one is "Easy" -- although this term is somewhat nuanced, as other ratings include "Super Easy," Extra Easy" and "Fairly Easy." To make the dough, you beat room temperature eggs, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a mixer with the whisk attachment until thick and pale; mix in flour; and then mix in bittersweet chocolate, Andes mints, and butter that have been melted together. You let the dough stand for 10 minutes to firm up, and then scoop and bake. When the cookies are almost done baking, you pull them out of the oven, top each cookie with a piece of an Andes mint, and put the cookies back in the oven for a minute to partially melt the mint. The recipe calls for an entire box of Andes mints (28 mints), with 20 being melted and incorporated into the batter and 8 being saved for garnish.
McKenna and I made these cookies very quickly; we had almost all of them baked by the time Jim was done installing the faucet. The recipe says it yields two dozen cookies that are two and a quarter inches in diameter; I used a #40 scoop and I got 16 cookies that were slightly larger (I garnished each cookie with half of a mint, instead of a third as suggested in the recipe). The cookies were very flat and cracked on top. The Andes mint garnish became soft in the oven during the one minute of baking, but it re-solidified when it cooled and it did not melt into the cookie at all (as you can see in the picture above, the mints are entirely intact).
This cookie was lightly minty, and I wished I had added a little bit of mint extract; I prefer my chocolate-mint cookies to be very minty, like the "Chocolate Chip-Mint Cookies" from Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu. Also, I was hoping this cookie would be very chewy, like the similarly flat and crackled "Giant Chocolate-Toffee Cookies," but the cookies were not chewy at all. That said, the cookies were pleasantly soft and chocolate-y, and I really liked the firm texture of the mint garnish on top.
McKenna did a great job helping me with the cookies. Among other things, she unwrapped all of the Andes mints, and since I made a double batch of cookies, there were a lot of mints to unwrap. I had her unwrap the 40 mints that would be melted and mixed into the batter first. McKenna asked if she could snack on one of the remaining 16 mints, and I explained that we needed to save those to decorate the cookies at the end. McKenna looked at me and politely asked, "Can I save one for my mouth?" When I said no, she didn't complain. She and Jim enjoyed warm cookies fresh from the oven and packed some up to take home in a bakery box that McKenna decorated in her spare time while the cookies were in the oven.
I was already immensely grateful that Jim was doing us the favor of installing a new faucet (did I mention that he has also assembled our gas grill and repaired our fence?), but given that I had so much fun baking with his daughter while he was squeezed under our bathroom sink, I feel that he really got the raw end of the deal!
Recipe: "Chocolate-Andes Mint Drops" from Simply Sensational Cookies by Nancy Baggett.
Previous Posts:
I just got a copy of Simply Sensational Cookies by Nancy Baggett and I thought that McKenna and I should tackle her recipe for "Chocolate-Andes Mint Drops." Not only did I happen to have a couple of boxes of Andes mints on hand, but McKenna's mother Colleen loves mint brownies, so I figured it would be a good cookie for Jim and McKenna to take home with them.
Every recipe in the cookbook has a difficulty rating, and this one is "Easy" -- although this term is somewhat nuanced, as other ratings include "Super Easy," Extra Easy" and "Fairly Easy." To make the dough, you beat room temperature eggs, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a mixer with the whisk attachment until thick and pale; mix in flour; and then mix in bittersweet chocolate, Andes mints, and butter that have been melted together. You let the dough stand for 10 minutes to firm up, and then scoop and bake. When the cookies are almost done baking, you pull them out of the oven, top each cookie with a piece of an Andes mint, and put the cookies back in the oven for a minute to partially melt the mint. The recipe calls for an entire box of Andes mints (28 mints), with 20 being melted and incorporated into the batter and 8 being saved for garnish.
This cookie was lightly minty, and I wished I had added a little bit of mint extract; I prefer my chocolate-mint cookies to be very minty, like the "Chocolate Chip-Mint Cookies" from Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu. Also, I was hoping this cookie would be very chewy, like the similarly flat and crackled "Giant Chocolate-Toffee Cookies," but the cookies were not chewy at all. That said, the cookies were pleasantly soft and chocolate-y, and I really liked the firm texture of the mint garnish on top.
McKenna did a great job helping me with the cookies. Among other things, she unwrapped all of the Andes mints, and since I made a double batch of cookies, there were a lot of mints to unwrap. I had her unwrap the 40 mints that would be melted and mixed into the batter first. McKenna asked if she could snack on one of the remaining 16 mints, and I explained that we needed to save those to decorate the cookies at the end. McKenna looked at me and politely asked, "Can I save one for my mouth?" When I said no, she didn't complain. She and Jim enjoyed warm cookies fresh from the oven and packed some up to take home in a bakery box that McKenna decorated in her spare time while the cookies were in the oven.
I was already immensely grateful that Jim was doing us the favor of installing a new faucet (did I mention that he has also assembled our gas grill and repaired our fence?), but given that I had so much fun baking with his daughter while he was squeezed under our bathroom sink, I feel that he really got the raw end of the deal!
Recipe: "Chocolate-Andes Mint Drops" from Simply Sensational Cookies by Nancy Baggett.
Previous Posts:
- "My Cake Has a New Set of Clothes: Grasshopper Cake," January 24, 2012.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Grasshopper Bars," August 14, 2011.
- "A Dish Best Served Cold: Chocolate Mint Thumbprints," March 24, 2011.
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