Chocolate Mint Christmas Cream Cookies

My office hosts an (unofficial) Cookie Day every year during the holiday season. This was the first year I was able to participate, so I wanted to make a cookie that would make a great presentation and impress my co-workers. So I went with a chocolate cookie with pastel buttermints.

What's great about this recipe is that is requires ingredients you might already have in your pantry: chocolate chips, brown sugar, butter, and flour. It doesn't require extract, and you don't need to soften the butter. The only ingredient you need to go out and buy is the bag of  buttermints. However, it's possible to use an alternative, because any candy or treat will work with this recipe. (Pastel candies look best, of course.)

The cookies take four minutes to bake. You can whip through the pans in no time, making this a great last minute Christmas cookie.

I had my mom e-mail me the recipe. I've copy and pasted her e-mail here:


Chocolate Mint Christmas Cream Cookies

Here is your recipe:

1  1/4  cup all purpose flour

1/2  tsp. baking soda

2/3  cup packed brown sugar

6  TBL  butter

1  TBL  water

1  6 ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips----1 cup

1  egg

1/2 to 3/4 pound pastel cream mint wafers or kisses

Stir together the flour and baking soda.  In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.  Add the water and the brown sugar, then melt in the chips, stirring mixture until chips are melted.  Do this over LOW HEAT, so as not to burn the mixture.  Remove from heat, pour into a mixing bowl, and cool--approximately 15 minutes.  When cool, beat the egg into the mixture.  Stir in flour mixture till well blended.  Dough will be soft.  Cover and chill for 2 hours or till easy to roll into balls.  (I tend to chill dough overnight.)

Shape into 1 inch balls.  Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cooky sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees about 6 minutes.  This will depend on your oven.  You will want the cookies to be set but not hard.  If using a non stick pan, this baking time will be shorter.  Remove from the oven and immediately top with the mint buttermint wafer or kiss.  Let sit a moment and then swirl with a knife to "frost" the cookies. 

Sometimes it is necessary to return the pan to the oven to help melt the mint topping, but I tend to not do that.  If you opt for that method, be sure not to overbake the cookies.  Also, I do not always "ice" the cookies--sometimes I decide they look pretty without spreading the mint, though if you do spread it, you get mint in every bite of cookie.  You will have to decide.  This mints can be purchased at the Hickory Farms Christmas stand or some specialty stores.  Sometimes I get pastel mints from The Candy Kitchen, and sometimes, if we do not have them that year, I get the white kisses with green and red sprinkles from Hickory Farms.

This recipe is from my Better Homes And Gardens Cookies For Christmas cookbook that Aunt Renee and I both received from Grandma Genny for St. Nicholas Day in 1988.  One day while walking through the Kirkwood Mall, Grandma saw a table outside Montgomery Wards which had been set up to sign up people for a Montgomery Wards charge card.  If you signed up, you received a free cookbook.  Grandma Genny really wanted these books, so she signed up for a card.  She then insisted Grandpa John also sign up for a card so Aunt Renee and I could both have a book.  Grandpa John hated Montgomery Wards and did not want their charge card, but Grandma insisted, so he did, we got the books, and they never used their cards. 

Love, MOM