Infusing a key ingredient with mint upgrades these Mint Chocolate Chunk cookies from good to great. Mint & chocolate goodness in one cookie!
I love baking with fresh mint.
Take Mint Chocolate Chunk Scones, for example.
Steep mint in heavy cream, then use the cream in my Chocolate Chip Cream Scones recipe. You can even reserve some cream to make a lovely minty glaze with which to finish them.
Another idea for using fresh mint is in these Mint Chocolate Chunk Cookies.
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Make a mint chocolate cookie
The original idea came from Dessert for Two's Mint Chocolate Chip cookies recipe. The batch my older daughter made was tasty, but the mint flavor was subtler than she wanted.
I decided to try the recipe for myself, taking her suggestion to increase the amount of mint we’d use. I wanted a bolder mint chocolate cookie recipe.
She also mentioned that it would be nice to make double chocolate mint cookies, like a York Peppermint Patty in cookie form, or a Girl Scout Thin Mint.
I took her ideas and ran with them, increasing the mint by 50% and substituting cocoa powder for some of the all-purpose flour. By using extra mint, I upped its flavor presence so that it could stand up to the chocolate cookie dough.
I also used chocolate mint that I'd purchased from Still Life Farm at my local Farmer's Market (just like I did when I made Mint Lemon Lime Bars last summer).
Make a mint-infused butter
(So how does the mint get in to the cookie?)
The secret is to steep roughly chopped mint in melted butter, then strain it out.
The result? Mint-infused butter for cookies, cakes, or anything else you’d want to have flavored with minty yumminess.
This same technique can be used for other flavors that you want present in a recipe, like lemon, rosemary, lavender, etc.
Make the cookie dough
Once you have the melted minted butter, you can proceed with making the dough as you would any other double chocolate chip cookie.
There was a lovely minty aroma as I was beating the butter and sugars together. Just from that I knew this recipe would be a winner.
I made my cookies two ways, one as regular cookies and one as mint chocolate chip cookie bars. I give you instructions for both. It’s good to have options.
Questions asked and answered
Here are some questions that you might have...
The secret is to infuse melted butter with mint. Just soak mint in melted butter for about 30 minutes, then strain it out.
This recipe called for infusing butter with mint the same technique applies to other foods. Try infusing cream (like for scones), oils (garlic oil, anyone?), or even sugar (the last by letting the flavoring agent sit in granulated sugar for a time). Get jiggy…er…creative with it!
The crispness of your cookie bar will depend on the size of your baking pan. An 8- x 8-inch baking pan will give you a thicker cookie than baking in a 9- x 9-inch baking pan. So baking the bars for 20 minutes in a small pan will yield a softer cookie.
Minty goodness in cookies and cookie bars
The cookies were soft, chewy, while the bars were a little crispier. Both were delicious!
Overall, both versions of these Mint Chocolate Chunk Cookies have a minty chocolate-y goodness.They're great with a glass of milk or your preferred dairy-substitute (actually, I had mine with a dram of Irish Cream).
They freeze well also so…hmmmm…there’s still some cookies left in the freezer.
Gotta go!
Slainté! L’chaim! Cheers!
Tammy
Recipes using mint
Love mint? These recipes feature the bright flavor of fresh mint. Enjoy!
Recipe
Mint Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Equipment
- hand mixer
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ¾ cup fresh mint, firmly packed and roughly chopped
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ cup chocolate chunks, plus extra to press into top of the dough before baking
Instructions
- Make the dough: Place the butter and mint in a small saucepan over medium heat. Melt the butter, swirling occasionally. After about 2 to 3 minutes, when you can smell the mint, remove from heat and let the butter continue to steep for 30 minutes.
- Strain the butter through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl, pressing the leaves to extract all of the butter from the leaves. Allow butter to cool to a semi-soft texture (it will help the creaming process if the butter isn’t too hard or still liquid).
- Add the sugars to the butter and beat with a hand mixer until everything is light and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat for an additional minute.
- In a small bowl, sift the flour and cocoa powder together to remove any lumps, then whisk in the baking soda and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat a low speed until just combined, stopping to scrape the bowl as necessary. Fold in the chocolate chunks.
- Remove the cookie dough from the bowl, wrap in plastic wrap, and press flat into a disk. Chill for at least 1 hour (or up to 3 days)
- To make cookies: Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Line two half-sheet baking pans with a Silpat silicone mat or parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal portions (I use a small cookie scoop), rolling into 12 balls. Space six balls on each cookie sheet (the cookies can spread considerably). Press a few extra reserved chocolate chunks in the top of each cookie.
- Bake for 11 to 12 minutes for cookies, rotating the pans half-way through.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, and then use a large spatula to move to a cooling rack and cool completely.
- To make bars: Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Line a 9- x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang to assist lifting.
- Press the dough into the prepared baking pan as evenly as possible (use plastic wrap on the dough and a small pie roller if possible). Press some extra chocolate chunks in the top of the dough.
- Bake bars for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then use the parchment paper overhang to lift bars onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Cut into 48 approximately 1- x 2-inch bars.
