Chocolate mint cookies
- Preparation 15 min
- Cooking 10 min
- Servings 16
- Freezing Absolutely
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🎁 After Eights at Christmas, in cookie form
These chocolate mint cookies really take me back to After Eights at Christmas. That thin little square going around the table after the holiday dinner. I’ve always been a huge chocolate fan, and chocolate with mint even more. So on the day I spent baking batch after batch of cookies for the site, I thought: why not make a cookie with crème de menthe right in the dough?
It’s kind of a grown-up cookie. But it’s absolutely delicious.
🍃 Real crème de menthe and hand-chopped Lindt mint chocolate
Most chocolate mint cookie recipes lean on peppermint extract or mint candies. This one puts a tablespoon of clear crème de menthe into the dough with the egg and vanilla, so the mint is baked into every bite. Then comes Lindt mint chocolate, one of my favourite chocolates, roughly chopped with a knife. Some of it melts into the dough, the rest goes on top and bakes into glossy puddles. Clear crème de menthe, not green. The green stuff makes a pretty sad-looking cookie.
🍪 Crisp edges, soft centres, made for the holiday cookie tray
The dough takes fifteen minutes and they bake in about ten. Pull them while the centres still look underdone. They firm up on the hot sheet into soft, chewy middles with crisp edges. I put them on the Christmas cookie tray, pack them in a tin as a gift, or set a plate next to the coffee when friends drop by. Want some to give away? Double the batch. Trust me.
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🧈 Beat the butter and sugars for a full 3 minutes
This is the step that decides the texture. Softened butter, white sugar, brown sugar and salt with an electric mixer for 3 full minutes, not two. It should turn pale and fluffy before the egg goes in. All that air is what gives you a soft centre. Butter that’s too cold or a rushed beating, and you end up with flat, dense cookies.
💚 Clear crème de menthe, never the green one
Use the green one and you get a cookie that just doesn’t look very appealing. Go with clear.
No alcohol in the house? Mint syrup works, same amount. Pick a clear one too, so the dough keeps the same colour.
🌿 More mint, or less
I stick with 1 tbsp (15 ml), that’s the recipe. For a stronger mint hit you could go up to 1½ tbsp (22 ml), or down to 2 tsp (10 ml) for something softer. I haven’t tested those myself, but it’s an easy adjustment. Past 2 tbsp the dough can get too wet.
🫓 Press the balls down and give them room
Flatten each ball to a little over half its height with your palm. Too round and they bake unevenly in the middle. Keep at least 5 cm (2 in) between them, no more than 8 per sheet, or you’ll end up with one giant cookie.
⏱️ Pull them while the centre is still soft
This is where most people go wrong. When they come out, the edges are just starting to turn golden and the centre looks raw. That’s exactly right. They’re very soft coming out of the oven and firm up as they cool on the hot sheet.
Wait until they look set in the oven and they’ll turn hard. If you like them crispier, leave them in a little longer. Your call.
🍫 A Lindt mint chocolate bar, chopped by hand
Lindt is one of my favourite chocolates. Chocolate chips are often mediocre quality, and when you buy a bar you can get much better chocolate, which makes better cookies. About thirty knife strikes: the big chunks make puddles, the little shards disappear into the dough. But if you’d rather use mint chocolate chips, it’s the same thing.
📅 Getting ahead
This dough doesn’t sit in the fridge overnight. I like it when the cookies spread, otherwise they come out a bit too thick. What you can do ahead is the prep: flour, baking soda and baking powder measured into a labelled jar, the chocolate chopped, the butter out to soften. While the first sheet bakes, the second one waits in the fridge, just for the length of the bake.
For the holidays, the real time saver is baking them ahead. Once cooled they freeze for 3 months in an airtight bag and thaw at room temperature.
✅ What to serve with my chocolate mint cookies?
A cold glass of milk or a coffee, that’s all you need. On a holiday cookie tray, put them next to the rest of the family: my classic chocolate chip cookies, my chocolate orange cookies, my double chocolate sea salt cookies for anyone who likes it less sweet, and my white chocolate macadamia nut cookies for something sweeter.
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Ingredients
- ½ cup (115 g / 4 oz) unsalted butter, cut into cubes and softened
- ½ cup (100 g / 3.5 oz) white sugar
- ½ cup (100 g / 3.5 oz) dark brown sugar, firmly packed
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) clear crème de menthe (or mint syrup)
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 1⅓ cups (165 g / 5.8 oz) all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) baking soda
- ¼ tsp (1.25 ml) baking powder
- 200 g (7 oz) Lindt mint chocolate, roughly chopped (about 30 ninja knife strikes)
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Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, beat the softened butter, white sugar, brown sugar and salt with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg, mint liqueur and vanilla and beat until just combined.
- Add the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Mix on low speed until no traces of flour remain. Fold in 150 g of the chopped chocolate with a spatula.
- Divide the dough into 16 balls and place on the baking sheets, spacing them at least 5 cm (2 in) apart. Press each ball down to about half its height. Scatter the remaining 50 g of chocolate over the tops of the cookies.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges just start to turn golden and the centre is still soft. For chewy cookies, do not exceed the baking time!!! They will firm up afterwards. Keep the second baking sheet in the refrigerator in the meantime.
- Let cool for at least 15 minutes on the baking sheet before devouring. I know I know, the wait is endless and painful. Patience my friend hahaha. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Real mint and real chocolate. A lot of recipes rely on peppermint extract and mint candies, which can get harsh quickly. I put clear crème de menthe right in the dough and use a good mint chocolate bar, Lindt in my case, chopped by hand. The other half is texture: beat the butter and sugars for a full 3 minutes, and pull the cookies while the centres still look soft.
Yes, but go easy. My first pick for an alcohol-free version is mint syrup, same amount as the crème de menthe, 1 tbsp (15 ml), and a clear one so the dough keeps its colour. If you only have peppermint extract, use ½ tsp (2.5 ml). It’s far more concentrated, so don’t add more than that. The Lindt mint chocolate already brings plenty of mint anyway.
Clear, always. Green crème de menthe tints the dough and you end up with a cookie that doesn’t look very appealing. Clear tastes exactly the same and lets the chocolate do the talking. Same logic if you go alcohol-free: choose a clear mint syrup.
Three to four days on the counter in an airtight container. Once baked and fully cooled, they freeze really well for up to 3 months in an airtight bag. Let them thaw at room temperature. That said, with me in the house, they survive about 47 seconds.
Almost always because they stayed in the oven too long. These cookies come out very soft, with a centre that looks underdone, and they firm up as they cool on the sheet. If you wait until they look set in the oven, they’ll be hard once cool. Pull them when the edges are just turning golden. And if you actually want them crispier, then yes, give them a little more time.
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