minty goodness

I've always been a huge fan of chocolate and mint. When I was little, I would only eat green mint chocolate chip ice cream and After Eight mints were always a holiday staple in our house and I'd always manage to find my dad's secret hiding spot for them.

When I saw the mint chocolate chip cookie recipe on Crystal's blog (she makes them at the Austin Folk House) I kept them in mind for future holiday baking. This afternoon when I headed out to refill my coffee supply from the local Italian market, I noticed a lonely bag of mint chocolate chips for only a dollar. I immediately popped them into my basket. It was destiny! I practically ran home to whip up a batch. These cookies were beyond fantastic and I'll definitely be making them again during the holidays.

Crystal notes that the cookie dough is a bit stiff. Luckily, I've got my hearty Kitchen Aid mixer working for me...but if you don't, be prepared for a bit of a workout.

Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies (I didn't use name brand chocolate chips!)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 bag (12 ounces) Andes mint chips (my bag was only 10.5 oz but the resulting cookies were still minty good!)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips. Drop by well-rounded teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

i scream, you scream

Last night, Cornelius and I were craving ice cream and decided to put our honeymoon gift (a prettyprettypretty teal old-old fashioned) ice cream maker to the test. We had actually used it in August to make a batch of strawberry ice cream and though the results were good, they weren't super-fantastico. Last night I tried a new recipe and decided to make mint chocolate chip ice cream. The recipe I chose was a custard based recipe from Bruce Weinstein's book, The Ultimate Ice Cream Book. It turned out fantastic and it may be the best mint chocolate chip ice cream that I've ever eaten. I'm a full believer that hand-churning makes ice cream taste extra special.

Mint ice cream
3/4 c sugar
2 large eggs
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 cups half-and-half (I used only 2% with a small glug of heavy cream)
2 tsp peppermint extract
6 drops of green food colouring (because i don't like straight green as the results end up too limey, I added 3 green and 3 blue for a perfect minty shade!)

I also added 3/4 c of chopped chocolate chips half way through the churning process.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat the sugar into the eggs until thickened and pale yellow. Beat in cornstarch and set aside.

Bring the half & half to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan. Slowly beat the hot half and half into the eggs and sugar. Pour the entire mixture back into the pan and place over low heat. Stir constantly with a whisk until the custard thickens slightly. Be careful not to let the mixture boil or the eggs will scramble. Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly, then add the heavy cream, peppermint extract and food colouring. Cover and refrigerate.

At this point in the recipe, I decided to cool the mixture in the fridge in a shallow baking dish to cool off faster. It worked like a charm. Once cooled, we just poured it into the prepared container and started churning. We added the chocolate chips when the ice cream was semifrozen. When churning became difficult, we stopped and put the mixture into an empty ice cream container and we licked the beater and ate up whatever wouldn't fit.

I can't wait to try more recipes and make up some of my own!