Chocolatey Chocolate and Mint Chip Cookies

Do you like chocolate? Do you like cookies? Perfect, lets have a chat. These cookies are fantastic and wonderful and you will love them. If you aren't a fan of mint or have never even seen mint chips don't give up on me yet. I am going to give you a list of variations that will please any chocolate lover.

I adapted this recipe from Nigella Lawson who adapted it from Elinor Klivans and lets face it, you'll probably adapt mine as well. Isn't that the way cookie making works?



Ingredients: 4 oz of semisweet choclate, 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (sifted), 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup softened butter, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (what do you mean you can't see it in the picture?), 1 egg (cold from the fridge), 2 cups of chips... I used Dark Chocolate and Mint chips.



Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Melt the 4 oz of chocolate. I used chips and melted it in the microwave. Start with 30 seconds and then increments of 15 seconds stirring in between.

A word about measurements. 4 oz is NOT 1/2 a cup when it comes to weight, not volume.

4 oz works out to approx 2/3 cup of semisweet chocolate.



Measure 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt into a small bowl and mix. Mix gently otherwise you'll find yourself in a cloud of cocoa powder.



Cream together 1/2 cup softened butter, 1/2 cup of light brown sugar and 1/4 cup granulated sugar.



Fun Fact (for a heart attack): Last year my mom and I went thru 16 pounds of butter in our holiday preparations.



First add in the melted chocolate and mix well. Then add in the vanilla extract and cold egg.



Then mix in all the dry ingredients. It will be a sticky batter.



Now add in your chips. But we have much to discuss in this area.

What you need are 2 cups of chips. The original recipe calls for semisweet. I found the bag of dark chocolate and mint and had to try it. You can also do dark chocolate, white chocolate or a mixture of several.

Another good option is to throw in say peanut butter or butterscotch BUT I consider those to be the sweetest of the chips so try doing part semisweet and part peanut butter chips.



Mix in your chips, the dough will coat them all and you won't really see the colors but don't worry about it.

One more thing about chips. A standard bag of chips is 12 oz or 2 cups. However, the specialty bags of chips are 10 ounces! So fill a measuring cup with what you have and top it off with semisweet.



I used a cookie scoop that was about a heaping tablespoon and this was perfect. Otherwise you two spoons or any scoop like device. I got 25 cookies out of the recipe.

Place them on a lined cookie sheet (parchment or foil both work) about 2 1/2 inches apart and do not flatten as they will drop and spread.



Cook them for about 17 minutes. You can test them with a toothpick to make sure it comes out semi-clean without a lot of batter but I find that I keep piercing chips. Allow them to cool on the sheet for 4 minutes or so and then transfer them to racks. They will harden as the cool.



Nigella suggested making huge cookies using a ice cream scoop thats about 1/4 cup measurement. She scoops out all the dough and freezes half on the cookie sheet. When its frozen she picks up the mounds of dough and puts them in a bag in the freezer.

The big cookies are an awesome option, especially if you want to serve this as a dessert. If you are having people for dinner just pop these in the oven, giving your guests some time to relax and smell those baking cookies.

Then when you take them out of the oven don't wait for them to cool. Use a wide spatula and transfer them to a bowl, then top with vanilla bean ice cream.

If you happen to have the right dishes you could cook these individually pizookie-style.



I really like these warm as the chocolate chips are all melty. In fact I may have, at one point heated up a few for breakfast. Maybe.

Enjoy!