The Startup Cook - Chocolate Mint Cookies

Whenever I need some chocolate mint relief and the refrigerator is empty of any After Eight, I resort to my Chocolate Shortbread Cookie dipped in a mint glaze. It’s a scrumptious and very fulfilling recipe, I absolutely love it. But I also do really love Nigella and she has her own remedy for a chocolate mint crave, which looked amazing and easy enough.

As a result on one dismal weekday night, I decided to pay homage to my favourite domestic goddess and satisfy a very specific hankering by making her rendition of Chocolate Mint Cookies. This particular cookie is perhaps one of the best homemade cookies one can have. And it is not because I harbour a private shrine for Nigella Lawson that I am saying this.

Nigella’s Chocolate Mint Cookies scream powerhouse chocolate. If you don’t particularly fancy the taste of mint, you can of course opt out of using it. You will still have a delicious cookie to snack on - It will be chocolatey, cakey and extremely satisfying. However if you do wish to stick to the original, you will not regret it because you will be chewing in to folds of chocolate followed by a subtle yet divine hints of mint.

This unadulterated bliss is definitely worth trying…

Ingredients

1 cup of flour
½ cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of cocoa powder (sifted)    
80 – 100g of cooking chocolate (dark)
4 ½ tbs of butter
1 egg
1 tsp of vanilla
½ tsp of baking powder

Glaze

½ cup of icing sugar
1 tbs of cocoa powder
2 tbs of water
½ tsp of mint essence

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare a baking sheet and set it aside.

In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar.

Chop the cooking chocolate and set it aside.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together.

Whisk in the dry ingredients (above flour mixture) in to the butter mixture.

Add the egg and the vanilla to the mixture, whisk until the ingredients are well incorporated.

Gently fold in the chopped chocolate in to the mixture.

Now using your hands, gently knead the mixture until it forms in to dough.

Scoop out tablespoon size cookie dough, knead and slightly flatten it in your palm, and place it on the prepared sheet.

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes.

After the cookies have baked, take it out of the oven and let it cool down in the baking sheet.

Then transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Place newspaper underneath the cooling rack.

Place all the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat and stir until all the glaze ingredients are well combined.

Using a teaspoon, drizzle the glaze over the cooling cookies.

Disasters, Warnings and Tips

I was chomping on these heavenly delights while typing this article.

Chopped cooking chocolate functions as chocolate chips here.

It really depends on your version of tablespoon, but I got about 15 cookies with this recipe.

Have you seen this? Its a few years old but I recently discovered this thanks to Nigella’s Instagram. An absolutely stunning image.

Something about the combination of mint and chocolate make these cookies for an ideal dessert.

I have unashamedly become an Instagram addict.

Do refer http://life.dailymirror.lk/article/10434/chocolate-shortbread-cookies for another version of chocolate mint cookies.

You can never have enough of Chocolate Mint Cookie recipes.

Heat your glaze ingredients on a low flame or you will risk burning it.

By Shazzana Hamid