Chocolate Mint Cookies

In case you haven't noticed, I have not baked sweet stuff in quite a while, since the Chinese New Year. We did have some ant problem and hubby banned baking. So that's why you saw more food being cooked. However, I've been wanting to bake something sweet and so decided to make these cookies. The recipe come from a magazine that I got free at the MRT station one morning, sometime before Valentine's Day. I loved that it had mint in it. I would never have thought of adding mint to chocolate cookies. Hmm... That is kind of silly, considering how well mint and chocolate go together.

This is a soft cookie and I added something a little extra in the middle, sort of as a surprise, but also, I thought the cookie needed something more. Plain is ok, but not that great. Well, I kind of deviated from the original recipe a bit.

Chocolate Mint Cookies (Makes 36 cookies, but am very sure mine had more)

Ingredients -

3/4 cup butter
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tbsp water
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used chocolate block 70% cocoa)
2 eggs
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
36 chocolate mint sweets (I didn't use these. Instead I used block Cadbury chocolates, not mint, and broke them into squares to put inside each cookie)
** I used about 1/2 tsp mint essence in the dough mixture as I did not use mint chocolates for the topping.

Method -

1. In a large pan, over low heat, melt butter, sugar & water until butter is melted. Add chocolate chips and stir until partially melted. Remove from heat & continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into a large bowl and let stand for 10mins to cool off slightly.

2. At high speed, beat in eggs, one at a time into chocolate mixture. Add essence. Reduce speed to low & add in dry ingredients, beating until blended. Chill dough about an hour.

3. Preheat oven to 175 deg C (350deg F).

4. Roll dough into balls with a piece of chocolate square in the middle & place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 10 - 15mins.

For original recipe, do this -

Do not add chocolate squares to the middle. While cookies are baking, unwrap mints and divide each in half. When cookies are out of the oven, put 1/2 mint on top of each cookie. Let the mint sit for up to 5 mins until melted, then spread the mint on top of cookies and enjoy!