Infusing a key ingredient with mint upgrades double chocolate chip cookies from good to great. When you make these soft and chewy Double Chocolate Mint cookies, you'll have mint and chocolate goodness in one delicious treat!
[July, 2022: I've reworked the recipe and updated this post with all new pictures. Enjoy!]
Why this recipe works
- Infusing butter with fresh mint is a great way to add bright mint flavor into cookies
- The dough is easy to make
- Make this recipe as individual cookies or as a batch of bar cookies
I love baking with mint. It has a bright flavor that's wonderful any time of year (not just at Christmas).
Chocolate and mint are especially wonderful. Mint and chocolate balance each other without either being dominant. Whether you're having Double Chocolate Peppermint Brownies or Double Chocolate Mint Chip Ice Cream, you know you'll be in for a treat.
These soft and chewy Double Chocolate Mint Cookies are not only made with mint, they're made with fresh mint. And just how we use the fresh mint in the recipe might surprise you!
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What you need
The ingredients needed for a double chocolate mint cookie recipe are the standard ones used in a chocolate chocolate chip cookie recipe: flour, cocoa powder, sugar, brown sugar, an egg, butter, vanilla, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips.
The difference here is the addition of mint in the cookie dough. Making a mint chocolate cookie dough adds brightness to what otherwise would be a basic chocolate chocolate chip cookie.
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Another difference with this recipe is how the mint is introduced into the dough. Here fresh mint is infused into the butter, rather than just adding ½ teaspoon peppermint extract in with the vanilla (which you can do if you don't have fresh mint available). The resulting mint butter is then used to make chocolate mint cookie dough.
How to make Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
Step 1: Make mint butter
Combine the butter with the mint. Heat over medium heat to melt the butter, stirring occasionally, for about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let the mint butter steep for 30 minutes (photo 1).
Strain the mint butter through a fine mesh strainer into a medium bowl. Allow it to cool to a semi-soft texture, chilling for about 10 minutes (photo 2). This will help the creaming process if it's not too hard or still liquid. Set aside.
Step 2: Make the cookie dough
Once you have the cooled mint butter, you can proceed with making the dough as you would any other double chocolate chip cookie.
Sift the flour and cocoa powder together to remove any lumps I like this sifter), then whisk in the baking soda and salt (photo 3).
Cream the sugars with the mint butter with a hand mixer until the mixture is light and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until combined (photo 4).
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low speed until the dough is just combined, scraping the bowl as necessary. Fold in the chocolate chips (photo 5). The dough will be thick.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour (or up to 3 days).
Step 3: Bake the cookies
Divide the dough into 12 equal portions, rolling it into 12 balls. Place six balls each on 2 half sheet baking pans lined with a Silpat silicone mat or parchment paper, spacing them out to accommodate the spread. Press a few chocolate chips into the top of each cookie.
Bake at 350˚F for 11 to 12 minutes for cookies, switching the shelves and rotating the pans from front to back at the half way mark (photo 6).
Let the cookies cool on the baking pan for 2 minutes, and then use a large spatula to move them to a wire rack to cool completely (photo 7).
Questions asked and answered
Here are some questions that you might have...
The secret is to infuse melted butter with mint. Just allow the mint to steep in melted butter for about 30 minutes, then strain it out, chill the mint butter, and proceed with your double chocolate mint cookie recipe.
The same infusing technique can be used for other flavors that you want present in a recipe that uses butter, like lemon, rosemary, lavender, etc. You can also infuse heavy cream with flavor the same way, like with Chocolate Mint Marshmallow Ice Cream.
You can also infuse flavor into oils (garlic oil, anyone?) or sugar (the last by letting the flavoring agent sit in granulated sugar for a time). Get creative with it!
Pro Tip: How to make Double Chocolate Mint Cookie Bars
Just as you can make chocolate chip cookies into chocolate chip cookie bars, you can do the same here and make Double Chocolate Mint Cookie Bars.
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a 9- x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the long side to assist lifting. Press the prepared dough into the baking pan as evenly as possible (you might use plastic wrap on the dough pressed with a pie pan roller). Top the dough with some extra chocolate chips. Bake the bars for 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan half way through (photo 8).
You can control if the bars will be crisper than the cookies by baking a half recipe in a 9- x 9-inch baking pan, as seen in the pictures below. A half recipe baked for 20 minutes in an 8- x 8-inch baking pan will give you a softer, thicker cookie bar.
Allow the bars to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then use the parchment paper overhang to lift the slab onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cut the slab into 1- x 2-inch bars (photo 9).
Mint + Chocolate = Cookie Happiness
These double chocolate mint cookies are soft, chewy, with a lovely mint flavor balancing the chocolate chips and cocoa.
You can store the cookies one of 2 ways: freeze the portioned unbaked dough in a ziplock bag or freeze the baked cookies in a freezer-safe, airtight container. Both ways can be stored in the freezer for at least a month or two.
For the unbaked dough, when you're ready to have freshly baked cookies, bake them directly from the freezer at 325˚F for about 12 to 14 minutes.
Like with all chocolate chip cookies, these are great with a glass of milk or your preferred dairy-substitute. I had mine with a wee dram of Irish Cream.
Hmmmm…there’s still some cookie dough left in the freezer...gotta go!
Slainté! L’chaim! Cheers!
Tammy
Related Recipes
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Recipe
Double Chocolate Mint Cookies (Soft & Chewy)
Equipment
- hand mixer
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup fresh mint, see Recipe Notes
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 ounces chocolate chips, (½ cup), plus extra to press into top of the dough
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, combine the butter with the mint. Heat over medium heat to melt the butter, stirring occasionally, for about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let the mint butter steep for 30 minutes.
- Strain the mint butter through a fine mesh strainer into a medium bowl. Allow it to cool to a semi-soft texture, chilling for about 10 minutes. This will help the creaming process if it's not too hard or still liquid. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, sift the flour and cocoa powder together to remove any lumps, then whisk in the baking soda and salt.
- Cream the sugars with the mint butter with a hand mixer until the mixture is light and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until combined.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low speed until the dough is just combined, scraping the bowl as necessary. Fold in the chocolate chips. The dough will be thick.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour (or up to 3 days).
- 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, rolling it into 12 balls. Place six balls each on the prepared baking pans, spacing them out to accommodate the spread. Press a few of the reserved chocolate chips into the top of each cookie.
- Bake for 11 to 12 minutes for cookies, switching the shelves and rotating the pans from front to back at the half way mark.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking pan for 2 minutes, and then use a large spatula to move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- You can store the cookies one of 2 ways: freeze the portioned unbaked dough in a ziplock bag or freeze the baked cookies in a freezer-safe, airtight container. Both ways can be stored in the freezer for at least a month or two.
- For the unbaked dough, when you're ready to have freshly baked cookies, bake them directly from the freezer at 325 °F for about 12 to 14 minutes.
