Feeling Like a Girl Scout? Chocolate Mint Cookies

From Michelle Bradbury.

The Girl Scouts are gone. They still exist, obviously, they just no longer hang out outside the grocery store on weekends and my thin mint supply has run dry. Thin mints might be the perfect cookie: I want them year round, no matter what. In the winter they go nicely with a cup of hot cocoa, peppermint hot cocoa style. In the summer they are the perfect frozen treat. In between they are whatever I am in the mood for that day. Perfection.

So, every year around this time, I find myself feeling rather sad because, inevitably, I have run out of thin mints and I want my frozen, minty, chocolately, crispy treat.

But this year, I found Ming. Ming makes cupcakes, but also cookies, and right on top of his cookie list: “Homemade Thin Mints.” So, I think mint and chocolate sounds perfect just about now.

Chocolate Mint Wafers

Check out Ming‘s original.

Ingredients

Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cups cocoa
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp mint extract (I could only find peppermint which worked perfectly!)

Chocolate Topping

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 tsp mint extract

Directions

Cookies

1. Mix flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda in a bowl and set aside.
2. In stand mixer or with electronic beaters, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar until fully incorporated and the mixture is smooth (about 1 minute). Add liquids (milk, vanilla, and mint extract) and beat about a minute until everything is incorporated.
3. Slowly add the dry ingredients. I do this in about three batches, and beat until mixture starts to form dough and gets pebble-y.
4. Take dough and form into a ball, then roll into a log about an inch to an inch-and-a-half wide (about the width of a thin mint). Wrap the log in wax paper and move to fridge for at least 2 hours. (I would assume you could leave this overnight, but I wouldn’t leave much more because I don’t know if the log will start to pull apart or dry out.)
5. Slice log into thin rounds and bake on cookie sheets with parchment paper for 10-12 minutes. They will puff up slightly, but don’t really expand.
6. Set aside to cool completely, they should get crispy as they cool.

Topping

1. In a double boiler (or a pot in which you can set a heat-safe bowl), bring water to a simmer and melt chocolate, stirring regularly; add in mint.
2. Coat tops of cookies (they must be completely cool because if they are still warm they will crumble into the chocolate) with chocolate by dipping or frosting with a knife or small spatula.
3. Set aside for chocolate to set. Possibly in the freezer so your thin mint is cold and delicious when you go to try the first one!

Have any other Girl Scout Cookies you are jonesing for? Let me know, I make no promises, but I will give it a shot!

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