When I set the goal of baking 52 batches of cookies, I knew I needed a plan for getting rid of them. Thankfully, there are no shortage of people in this world who welcome homemade cookies, even during a pandemic.
I have been sharing cookies for occasions like birthdays, and when I picked this recipe, I had a particular recipient in mind. I knew they liked mint chocolate chip ice cream, so I tried to figure out what that would be in cookie form.
I first went to my cookbooks, and I realized that the only cookie cookbook is the Sarah Kieffer one I just received. When I looked in the index for “mint”, it referred me to this Chocolate Sugar Cookie with a variation to add mint.
Perfect. Then I had to get mint extract. A few days later, I was fully assembled and ready to bake.
We used to have a sifter, but I broke it, so I just use a metal colander to break up the cocoa powder. Of course, I am not tidy.
The wet ingredients are incorporated in typical fashion: butter first, then sugar, then eggs and extracts. I was a little worried about just adding a full teaspoon of liquid with the mint, so I cut the vanilla slightly.
The batter came together cleanly. It seems like it’s been awhile since I have made cookies without mixing, but I still used the spatula to incorporate fully.
These cookies were also on the large side at 45 grams each and only 8 to a sheet. I felt a little clever by measuring all of the balls first and then rolling in white sugar instead of doing them one at a time.
I was a little worried about handling the dough too much, especially since it was a warm evening, but with the sugar on the outside, they held together well.
The bake time specified 12 to 14 minutes, and I was very skeptical. I first baked on convection, and at 12 minutes, I thought they still looked underdone. However, the tops were crackled, and the edges could have been set, so I pulled them out. 5 minutes later after cooling, they looked perfect.
I baked the second batch on conventional and gave them the full 14 minutes. They came out noticeably flatter but still done throughout.
The last batch were slightly oversized due to having a little extra dough. I actually don’t remember what oven setting I put them on, but they were extra-tall and less crackled.
Despite the variation in baking techniques, all of them actually tasted about the same. The taller, smaller ones were slightly chewier, but after a day, you couldn’t tell a difference.
And they were really good. Some people liked the mint, and some thought it could have done without, but like Kieffer’s chocolate chip cookies, there’s a good balance of crunch and chew, and the flavor is great.
You can find the recipe on food52 along with a few other variations.