Like Thin Mints

When I was younger, I was in Girl Scouts for a few years, so during that time, I had the duty of selling cookies.  I don't remember being particularly enthusiastic about it, other than getting them for our own family.  My mom's favorite has always been thin mints, so when I found a good recipe for something like thin mints, I thought that we had better try it while I was home for Christmas.

Now, when we were making this recipe, we had issues with the chocolate chips that we initially tried to melt in a double boiler on the stove.  They melted, but they didn't get very runny or smooth.  So we just added some peppermint extract (1/4 tsp.), spread it out on parchment paper, sprinkled the top with crushed candy canes, and refrigerated it so it would harden.  It made for an extra and unexpected dessert (also, it was good!)

Okay, so back to the cookies.  Try to keep your chocolate nice and smooth when you melt it...  The recipe is found here.

We made half a batch:
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 egg (or 1 Tbs. water, 1/2 Tbs. vegetable oil, 1 tsp. baking powder)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract
3/4 c. flour
1/3 c. cocoa
a pinch of salt

For the chocolate to dip the cookies in:
6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
2 Tbs. butter
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract

Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the egg, vanilla, and peppermint extract.  Mix in the flour, cocoa, and salt.  Shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for one hour.

Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thick and cut it into circles about the size of thin mint cookies.  Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes.  After you take them out and are letting them cool, slowly melt the chocolate in the microwave because that is easier than the double boiler method.  Stir in the butter and peppermint extract and then dip the cookies into the chocolate.

The process of covering the cookies with chocolate was a bit messy.

Put them on parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and let them cool in the fridge until the chocolate hardens.  Then eat them!