Double Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies

It’s Sunday and vacation’s over. I can’t really be upset because I had a nice 9 days of non-working time down the Cape.  Maybe I’ll bring my beach chair to work tomorrow for an easier transition. But my coworkers need their cookies, so it’s back to the city for me tonight once Google Maps stops showing all red and a skull face every time I check the traffic report. I’ve included some highlights of the week at the bottom of the post, including some patriotic baking challenges.

If you know anything about me, you know I am a big fan of CVS. Not only because I once (twice) starred as their hand model in a video, but also because I am an ExtraCare coupon afficionado. So when I saw these Dove mint promises on sale this week, I decided to throw a few bags in the freezer for a future  baking adventure. I took a regular double chocolate chip cookie recipe and adapted it for these. If I had peppermint extract on hand, I think a teaspoon of that would up the ante on the mint in these.

 

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 30 unwrapped (frozen) Dove Mint Promises
  • 1 dark chocolate bar, coarsely chopped
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars together. Add in eggs and vanilla extract.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Mix into the wet batter until well incorporated.

Step 3: Coarsely chop the Dove promises and dark chocolate bar. I find freezing them helps with the chopping but if you didn’t get a chance to pop these in the freezer that’s fine. Add both to the batter and mix until evenly distributed.

There were 30 inspirational words of wisdom for me to unwrap with these candies.

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Step 4: Place even-size balls of dough on a sil-pat or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Be careful not to burn these, which is hard with the double chocolate cookies.

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These came out pretty good. But being the perfectionist that I am, I would recommend a little peppermint extract as a flavor boost if I was to make these again.

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But if we’re going to just cut right to the chase, I had quite the baking conquest this week. I was all about baking anything patriotic earlier in the week. Last weekend’s post was red, white and blue cobbler. Then I made these patriotic blondies with the red, white and blue M&Ms.

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I adapted my cinnamon bun cookie recipe and made these “sparkler” cookies using red sugar.

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But none of those felt patriotic enough. Until, I saw this recipe on Betty Crocker for an American Flag cake. My dad suggested I should not make this given the mess it would make in the kitchen right before we had company coming over. So obviously I did what any good daughter would do, and decided now I MUST make this cake. I have just a touch of competition in me, so I needed to complete this challenge. Anticipation was running high when we cut into this birthday cake for America Thursday night. No one knew if it would even semi-resemble an American flag or if it would look like a flag from a made up country. But let me tell you. George Washington himself would be proud of this cake.

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What did it taste like?  Freedom. Liberty. Justice for all.

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In addition to celebrating America’s birthday, it was my mom’s birthday on July 4th as well.

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I also walked in my first fourth of July parade in Chatham this year for our friend’s clothing company Mahi Gold. I coordinated my outfit with this mister Griff.

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Walking in this parade was one of the coolest experiences. And a lot more fun than in middle school when I would fake play a clarinet in the memorial day parade.

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And I did a whole lot of this on vacation. I’m sure I’ll be having beach withdrawals at my desk tomorrow morning.

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