So...I know I shouldn't be surprised. And I know it shouldn't be a shock...but what was with this temperature drop this week?!?! One morning it's pouring rain and smells like spring, and then I leave my office that afternoon to seemingly freezing temperatures. I supposed it is December, which means it should be cold out...but come on! A little consistency would be nice.

At least December does mean it's COOKIE SEASON :)!

As we begin to wrap up cookie week on the Holiday Saute, I have to share some exciting news. We now have a new FAVORITE cookie. I didn't think it was possible, but it is. These Chocolate Mint Cookies that I found the other day on www.allrecipes.com blew us away! These are so delicious. If you make one type of cookie this holiday season, please-try this one! The melted Andes mint is unbelievable on this cookie. Absolutely amazing.

Chocolate Mint Cookies (found on All Recipes)
Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients:
¾ cup butter
1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
2 tbsp water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
36 chocolate mint wafer candies (I'd recommend Andes Mints)

Directions:

1. In a large pan over low heat, cook butter, sugar and water until butter is melted. Add chocolate chips and stir until partially melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into a large bowl and let stand 10 minutes to cool off slightly.
2. At high speed, beat in eggs, one at a time into chocolate mixture. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients, beating until blended. Chill dough about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
4. Roll dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes. While cookies are baking unwrap mints and divide each in half. When cookies are brought out of the oven, put 1/2 mint on top of each cookie. Let the mint sit for up to 5 minutes until melted, then spread the mint on top of the cookie. Eat and enjoy!

Rate it!:
Rating: A
Level of Difficulty: Moderate. These are much more time consuming than most cookies I've made. Just additional steps-but totally worth it.
Cost: Roughly $13.00
Cost per Serving: $0.37/cookie
Bad Breath Factor: This has mint in it!!! It's a refreshing, delicious dessert-no bad breath worries!

Suggestions:
1) Know that these cookies take extra time. Because you need to let the dough sit in the fridge for an hour, the total time these cookies take is about 2 hours.
2) When melting the sugar/butter/chocolate chips, be sure to stir often. Burned chocolate doesn't taste great.
3) When you add the chocolate chips to the melted butter/sugar, the chocolate chips will probably start to melt after about 1 minute. I removed the pan from heat the minute the chocolate looked like it was starting to melt. That way, I didn't burn anything. Just continue stirring and the chocolate chips will quickly melt.
4) Use Andes mints. They are AMAZING on these cookies
5) I kept the cookies on the cookie sheet when I was allowing the mint to melt. Once I spread the melted mint over the top of the cookie I moved them from the cookie sheet to the cooling rack.
6) I used the back of a spoon to smooth the melted mint all over the cookie top.
7) Let the cookie completely cool and the melted mint completely harden on the top of the cookie before eating. They still taste great when the mint is still gooey, but they taste absolutely AWESOME when the mint has hardened. And once it is completely hardened-then you can stack them and put them away.


These cookies are really the best I've ever made. And I cook a lot. These take a little extra time and a few extra steps, but they are absolutely worth it.

These cookies are so good, in fact, that if you like to bake your own holiday gifts-use these! These baked cookies are refreshing, have lots of chocolate, and are flat out amazing-they'd be a great gift! We'll be baking a couple batches of these to give to friends and family this Christmas.

Happy Holidays, Ballston!