Wednesday, August 8, 2007

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.

10 comments:

Tess said...

Peppermint extract, good call. I bet they were extra pepperminty. I was going to make these this weeknd, but I was considering using...ANDES THIN MINTS. AWWWW YEAH.

Do you think the peppermint extract AND the thin mints would be overkill?

email said...

Now I don't know which one to do, so knowing me, I'll do both. You know, just to make sure I don't miss out on any kind of chocolaty-minty goodness. Andes thin mints? Okay, three batches then.

Swistle said...

Mmm, great idea! I'll bet that chocolate chips plus peppermint oil isn't enough different from mint chocolate chips (which are just chocolate chips plus peppermint oil) to change anything, but I'm glad to hear the Crisco worked because we're out of butter and I feel like if I don't have more of those cookies I'll die.

Sara said...

@#$%!! DIET!!

Cookies sound so good right now....

Swistle said...

Okay, I am back! I tried them with Crisco instead of butter, and they are good but I think the butter was a little better--but I'm not sure, it might just be "different" not "better." But I was very very glad to know that it works, because I did not have butter and things were looking sad without cookies.

LoriD said...

Oooh. So now we have a comparison between the butter and the Crisco. Can I interest you, Swistle, in trying the next batch with an Andes Thin Mint pressed into the top?? :-)

Misty said...

You girls are bad bad bad. So many cookie recipes...I love cookies, but I never make them from scratch.

Also, I am proud of you for still keeping up with the walking to work thing. Wish I could walk to work. Of course, I would melt. You obviously live somewhere where the heat index isn't 110, like it was here yesterday. Right? Right?

LoriD said...

Misty - today's temperature is much nicer (about 26 celcius, which is about 76 F), but yesterday was a little nasty (about 40 with the humidex, which is 104F). But, I can't imagine 110... that's hot!

artemisia said...

Whole wheat flour! That is awesome! What kind/brand do you use? I use Montana Wheat whole wheat flour and it is much softer than some of the other stone ground stuff. Do you ever use whole wheat pastry flour?

LoriD said...

I use whatever kind is on sale... ww flour has come a long way from a couple of years ago when it felt like you were eating dirt! I don't even buy white flour anymore.