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!
3ounces(85grams)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 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.
Storage instructions: 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.
Make-ahead instructions: 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.
Recipe Notes
As a guide, one 1-ounce package of mint will yield about ½ cup (15 grams) of mint leaves. If you don’t want to deal with infusing butter with fresh mint (although it’s so simple!), you can substitute ½ teaspoon peppermint extract, adding it with the vanilla.To make 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. 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.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.