Chocolate Mint Cookies

So now I'm back from vacation with a tan and crutches.

The day before I was leaving for the DR, I had to get an MRI because my leg was hurting and it turned out that I have a stress fracture which literally sucks. After many tears, I was forced to get crutches, and this was all at 5 o'clock and I hadn't even packed yet. Anyways, I still had a great time away (my friends gobbles up the muffins at 5 in the morning), but now I can't run in the outdoor track season. However, I am obviously going to all the meets and therefore still must make the team treats for after running.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons peppermint extract

2 cups flour

2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350°F and lightly grease cookie sheets.

Beat together the butter, brown sugar, eggs, peppermint and vanilla. One well blended, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. 


Stir in the chocolate chips so they are evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Drop the dough by rounded teaspoons about 2 inches apart onto your prepared sheet. 


Bake 10 minutes and let cool before removing from the cookie sheets.

Yeah, those blobs don't look to appetising.

These cookies are incredibly easy to make and are moist with the right blend of chocolate and peppermint. 

My friend Olivia who loves peppermint is on the team too and I actually made her these cookies as a good luck for getting into Dartmouth and she did!

Ready to bring to the team.

Mint Chocolate Cake Truffles

When I was doing the little studying I did do for my European history midterm I came accross Marie Antoinette's quote, "let them eat cake," and I thought, well, why not?

For this treat I decided to combine two things everyone loves; cake and truffles, and even though it took some work, I found it was definitely worth doing again (maybe even try it with new flavors).

Ingredients:

Cake-

1 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup sugar

1/3ecup butter

1 egg

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup cold milk

Frosting-

2 cup powdered sugar; sifted

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Chocolate Coating-

2 cups semi-sweet/dark chocolate chips

12 crushed up chocolate wafer cookies

Directions:

Stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and baking soda into a bowl. Beat together the sugar and butter on high speed of mixer until fluffy, and then beat in the egg, vanilla, and peppermint extract. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating with milk and beating well after each addition.

I didn't crumble in the edges of the

cake since they were crispier.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9" round cake pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes and cool 10 minutes.

For the frosting, beat together the sugar, butter, extract and enough milk to make smooth consistency. Add the cocoa powder and mix well.

Using your hands, crumble bits of the cake into the frosting. Now, using a spoon or your hands, mix the frosting and cake until well mixed.

Mixing the frosting & cake together.

Take the frosting-cake mixture and form into small truffle-sized balls and place them onto a baking sheet.

Place the baking sheet in the freezer for 45 minutes to an hour or the refrigerator for several hours.

Remove the cake drops from their cool place and place the semisweet/dark chocolate chips in a saucepan and heat them over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until melted.

Using a spoon, take each individual cake drop and roll it around in the chocolate. Tap off excess chocolate and place onto a baking sheet covered with wax paper. After a minute, roll each ball into the crushed up chocolate wafer cookies (if you wait too long the chocolate will harden and the cookies won’t stick). Place the cake truffles back on the sheet and let them cool and harden. You may place them back into the freezer or refrigerator for a couple minutes to harden them as well.

Pure chocolate goodness throughout-I keep mine in the

fridge so they stay cool, but you can do whatever you want.

The result was a soft mint chocolate center with a subtle crunch of the cookies on top, all held together by a layer of chocolate. So why just "eat cake" when you could eat a cake truffle?

Chocolate Covered Peppermint Patties

Today I decided to bake for my friend Olivia who loves peppermint and chocolate (yes this is a different friend from the one who got into college and the one I owed money to, surprising that I have more than 2 friends right?). I’ve made her many peppermint chocolate desserts before so I wanted to try something out of the ordinary. I had some peppermint chocolate candies in the cabinet so I thought to try covering them with chocolate dough to see how it would turn out.

Recipe for chocolate covered peppermint patties and mint truffle kisses:

Recipe:

Ingredients:

2/3 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp fresh baking soda


1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp milk

15-20 mini-peppermint patties

Mint Truffle Hershey's kisses (optional)

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl mix together the butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, and vanilla and blend. In a separate bowl sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add this to the already mixed wet ingredients, and mix well.

Crimping the edges.

Refrigerate dough about 1 hour or until firm. Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly grease cookie a sheet. When the dough is done chilling, shape small portions of the dough around the mini-peppermint patties, completely covering the candy. I had a little extra dough (only 13 patties to cover), so I took out some mint truffle Hershey kisses and made balls of dough around them with the extra batter.

Place these on the cookie sheet, flatten slightly and crimp with a small fork’s prongs (this is not necessary on the cookies filled with the mint truffle kisses).

Bake 10-12 min. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute, and then move the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

It's like cracker jacks, a treat with a surprise inside!

Both these mint treats were tasty, but I think that the covered peppermint patty beats the mint truffle kiss.