Baking extravaganza Part I

I love to bake. I don’t do it that often. I should remedy that.

My sister and I are on a baking extravaganza that will complete over the course of three days. Yes, three. Why give presents when you can give baked goodies to your closest family and friends…? Exactly, that’s what I thought.

I’ve talked about my and V’s famous chocolate mint cookies before, and I’ve posted many photos of their perfection on my Flickr, but now I shall share the recipe with all you out there. You should feel special. No, really, you should. DO IT.

Cast of stars:
• 3/4 cup of butter
• 1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I used light but you can use dark…whatever you have)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 36 Andes mints (I just ended up using two packs of them – 24 come in one package)

Start with the butter. Yeah, I know it’s a lot but you can’t skimp when it comes to these cookies. Besides, it’s the holidays. Isn’t the gym for the resolutioners any way…?

In a large saucepan, cook the butter, brown sugar and water together until melted. Add in the chocolate chips and stir to partially melt. Remove from heat and continue stirring to completely melt the chocolate. Pour this mixture into your mixer bowl, or into a larger bowl.

Beat the eggs at high speed, one at a time, into your chocolate mixture and mix until blended. Reduce the speed to low and add in your dry ingredients and mix until blended and a dough forms.

Chill the cookie dough, uncovered, in your fridge for up to 1 hour.

When the dough has set and hardened (I pulled the bowl out after about 45 minutes), take a little bit, roll into a ball and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Don’t they look magical? I thought so too.

Bake at 350ºF for 8-10 minutes. You’ll know they’re done because the cookies will spread and be kind of cracked on top.

While the cookies bake away, unwrap the Andes mints. Try to contain yourself and not eat them as you unwrap. But that’s why you buy three packages…mwahahaha.

When the cookies come out, this is when the magic really happens.

Immediately after the cookies come out, place one mint on top of each cookie and let them melt into ooey-gooey-melty-amazingness (yes, thats is a word).

Then be patient and let them melt for up to 5 minutes. Once they’re kind of melted, you can use the back of a spoon to spread the chocolate all over.

Patience is a virtue, isn’t it? This is what you end up, and it’s amazing and wonderful and delicious.

Go ahead. Tell V and me that we’re awesome bakers. Actually, thank her sister-in-law. I think it was her who gave us this recipe. She’s basically my hero. Srsly. My hero. This is a staple made every Christmas now. Even if I can’t make it with V, they get made. And they’re delicious. Happy Holidays!