Mint Chip Dip Cookies

 Hands down, these are the best cookies ever. Basically; they’re mint cookies, dipped in chocolate. Um, yes, yes, and YES PLEASE. These take some time, but are completely worth it. 

• Butter. Duh, every good cookies starts with a good chunk of butter, in this recipe we’ll use 1 cup of very soft salted butter.
• White sugar.
• Brown sugar.
• Eggs.
• Vanilla. Just to add a little flavour! 
• Peppermint extract. In mint cookies, you’ll need to add mint flavour, of course! We’ll use a half a tablespoon. This may seem like a lot, but we want a good, strong minty flavour.
• Green food colouring. This will tint our dough to make it look minty. This is completely optional.
• Flour. We’ll use this to bind our butter mixture into a dough.
• Baking soda. 1/2 a teaspoon will keep our cookies from turning into pancakes! Read an interesting article about the difference between baking powder and baking soda here.
• Salt. This will help to balance out the sweetness.
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips. We will dip our finished cookies in melted chocolate. You may temper the chocolate, if you like. This is optional, though. Here’s a great article, read it by taping this link.
• Sprinkles or flakey salt. These are optional, but if you wish to decorate your cookies, you’ll need about 2 tablespoons of your choice. These cookies are also great plain!

Let’s bake!

Mint Chip Dip Cookies

Time: 1 hour and 20 minutes

Difficulty: medium

Yield: aprox. 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup very soft butter
• 2/3 cup of granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup of brown sugar (packed)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 tablespoon peppermint extract
• Green food colouring, optional. (As much as you’d like)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 2–2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate (I use chips)
• About 2 tablespoons salt or sprinkles, optional.

To make:

1. Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. 
2. Cream together butter and both sugars in a stand mixer (or hand mixer, if you’d like) until light and creamy, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the egg, vanilla, peppermint and green food colouring, if using. Continue to cream for 5 more minutes.
4. Decrease speed to medium-low, and slowly add in the flour, baking soda and salt.
5. Scoop small (ish) balls of dough onto two lined cookie sheets. Be sure to spread the dough balls a little apart, as the cookies will flatten out. You may need a third sheet.
6. Bake for 9-12 minutes, until lightly golden brown.
7. Let cool for 20 minutes, until completely cool and set.
8. Melt chocolate, you can temper it (this is optional) or, simply, melt it in the microwave for about 40 seconds on full power. 
9. Dip your cookie in the melted chocolate, halfway up. Use your spatula to scrape off the excess chocolate. Place the cookie on a lined baking sheet. (You can use the same cookie sheet you used to bake the cookies, but make sure it is not too hot)
10. If you’d like, sprinkle some flakey salt or sprinkles onto the wet chocolate.
11. Put into the fridge for about 20 minutes to harden the chocolate.
12. Store in an air-tight container. If you’re keeping these for a long time, store in the fridge. If not, store on your counter.

These cookies are an absolute crowd-pleaser. Enjoy them with friends, maybe with a mug of hot cocoa?

Enjoy!

Nancy-Ju