Mint Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Infusing a key ingredient with mint upgrades these Mint Chocolate Chunk cookies from good to great. Mint & chocolate goodness in one cookie!Adapted from Dessert for Two
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.
Notes
If you don’t want to deal with infusing butter with mint (although it’s so simple!), you can substitute ½ teaspoon peppermint extract, adding with the vanilla.
For the pictures, I made one batch of dough to bake half as cookies and half as bars, so I used one baking sheet and a 9- x 9-inch baking pan. These bars baked for 20 minutes.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 cookieCalories: 238 kcalCarbohydrates: 33 gProtein: 3 gFat: 11 gSaturated Fat: 7 gCholesterol: 34 mgSodium: 213 mgPotassium: 124 mgFiber: 2 gSugar: 20 gVitamin A: 376 IUVitamin C: 1 mgCalcium: 28 mgIron: 2 mg