Cookies!

Yesterday (or maybe Monday, I’m not sure) Swistle posted a recipe for Chocolate Mint Cookies. It was her post-workout treat. Last night the weather was a little gross, so Luke’s soccer game was cancelled. He was devastated and I wanted to do something that would make him feel better. It was his idea to make cookies, so I instantly thought of Swistle’s recipe and proceeded to pull out the ingredients.

The problem was that I didn’t have all of the ingredients. My mom told me that “baking is science”, which means you can’t mess with the basic formula of liquid:dry or baking soda:salt. So, I modified the recipe, while still respecting the science of it.

First, Swistle's recipe:

Chocolate Mint Cookies

2/3 cup butter (1 stick plus a scant 3 tablespoons), softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup flour
approx. 1 and 1/4 cups mint chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter and sugar; add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add baking soda and salt and mix well. Add cocoa powder and flour very carefully or you will have cocoa powder on more surfaces than you thought possible; cocoa powder is not bound by the laws of physics and I have found it coating the underside of the base of the mixer. Add mint chocolate chips. You can put in a full bag (which is about 1 and 2/3 cups), but I thought it was better with fewer (I know--I'm as surprised as anyone). Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8-9 minutes; err on the side of underbaking, because they'll set up more after they come out of the oven.

Yummmm, right?

Here's mine, using ingredients I had on hand:

2/3 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder ( a mistake that didn't seem to make a difference, or maybe it did, but not a bad difference)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream wet ingredients. Combine dry ingredients, then add to wet and mix well. Add chocolate chips. The cookie dough is thick and looks and smells like fudge. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8-9 minutes. Makes 4 dozen cookies.

These cookies were A.MAZING! Seriously. If I had a cookie contest to enter, I would enter these. Did I ever mention that I won a cupcake contest a few months ago? Well, depending on the audience, I either won a cupcake contest or a photography contest, but either way, I won!

Of course, I ate way too many cookies. But, I walked my route to work this morning in 45:54, which is almost 3 full minutes ahead of my last best time. So there.