Today’s cookies Mocha Mint Cookies were inspired by a bag of dark chocolate mints I found at Trader Joe’s – “Mint UFOs” to be precise. They must have been placed in the store by aliens because I never liked mints until I tried these and the only explanation is that I was abducted and implanted with a mint-appeal chip. If the aliens are observing (which they are) then they know the mint-appeal chip worked which means the other implants worked too. “Cookie Madness Phone Home! Cookie Madness Phone Home!”
Sorry. I’m feeling a little off today. But these cookies are really good! If you live near a Trader Joe’s watch out for unidentified flying objects and the UFO mints. This is what the packaged look like before I was overcome by a sudden urge to break into it.
If you can’t find UFO mints, use any other mint flavored dark chocolate. I did an Internet search and saw Endangered Species makes a mint dark chocolate and so does Green and Black’s. Mint chips would probably work too.
This recipe is adapted from one by Nancy Baggett, but she used white chocolate and a lot more espresso powder. If you absolutely hate mint and want to try the white chocolate version, just use that and up the espresso to a heaping tablespoon.
Recipe
Fat & Fudgy Mocha Mint Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 stick 4 oz unsalted butter (115 grams)
- 5 oz about 1 cup Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
- 2 large eggs
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 heaping teaspoon espresso powder dissolved in a tablespoon of hot water
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons natural cocoa I think Dutch might make the cookies flat
- 6 oz mint flavored dark chocolate chopped**
Instructions
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. Add chocolate chips, remove from heat and stir until chocolate is melted with residual heat.
- Let cool for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the eggs, salt, vanilla and sugar together in a large bowl using an electric mixer for about 3 minutes or until light and slightly thickened. Beat in the espresso/water, followed by the melted chocolate chip butter mixture.
- Mix together the flour and the cocoa, then add to batter and stir until absorbed. Stir in the chopped mint chocolate. Chill for 1 ½ hours or until dough is thick enough to shape into balls
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper. Scoop dough up by well-rounded tablespoons and shape into 1 ½ inch balls. Bake for 9-12 minutes. Let cool. Dust with powdered sugar IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT. No need. I only did it for the photo.
- Not sure of the yield yet because I haven’t baked them all, but I think it will be around 16 18 cookies.
Anna
Hi Valerie,
I am so sorry to hear your cookies failed. Bummer! A few people have mentioned things that helped the cookies stay puffly. First off, using natural cocoa (not Dutch process) is more important that one might think. Natural cocoa has more acid in it and in some recipes, that acid is needed to react and cause the air bubbles to expand and the cookies to rise. Also, unbleached flour can often contribute to flatter cookies. Bleached (as mentioned by Joan) is better for puffy cookies. Cooling the chocolate mixture is important, too. About the semi-sweet chocolate, I think in your case that might have been the problem. Semi-sweet chocolate has more sugar than bittersweet and more sugar = more spreading. Still, I am really sorry things went awry and I hope you try the recipe again with the bittersweet chocolate, maybe some bleached flour, and cooled chocolate.
Valerie
Wow, I was so excited I decided to quadruple the batch for a cookie exchange without ever doing a test batch. My cookies came out so flat, the kitchen walls were jealous! So sad!, Epic cookie fail. It must be me, but I measured and weighed everything and followed recipe to the "T" EXCEPT used semi-sweet instead of bittersweet...maybe too high of fat content and that's the problem?!?
I have to try these again, because I WILL achieve fat and fudgy!!! Oh yes, I will!!!!!!!
Justine
Upon making these for a third time, they finally didn't flatten! My family loves these cookies.
joan
Hi Anna, I did give these another go, and they did not come out flat this time. I used natural cocoa (not Dutch processed). I also used bleached all-purpose flour this time, because I read on Rose Levy Beranbaum's blog that unbleached flour could result in a flatter product. I live in King Arthur country here in New England, so I typically use their all purpose unbleached flour. I also cooled the chocolate mixture a bit more, used room temperature eggs. I didn't have enough UFO's for the recipe, so I added some Nestle's dark chocolate & mint chip mixture, plus these crazy mint-covered malted milk balls. The mint malt balls added a little crunch, but then sort of stuck to my teeth.... I'm not sure I would use them again as an ingredient, but I might use them as a decoration on top of some minty concoction. Thanks for you help. I love this recipe!
Anna
I tested these again using more bittersweet chocolate in place of mint. The cookies came out fat, so I think the issue with Joan's flat batch might have been the cocoa.
Vanessa
Oh my this is AMAZING, I am making these ASAP!
Anna
I think it might have been the Hershey's Dark. I like Hershey's Dark, but I've had other types of cookies come out flat when I substituted it in place of natural. So *maybe* that's the problem.
Also, when you make the second batch, weigh the flour (50 grams) or make sure you don't measure it too lightly just to be safe.
I'll try these again too. I'm actually going to test with a non-mint flavored chocolate.
joan
Anna, Thanks so much for getting back to me. Yes, I did beat the eggs quite a while. They were light and pale yellow when done, but I didn't time the beating exactly. Maybe I overbeat them and the bubbles collapsed? I did, indeed, use Ghiradelli chips, the 62% cocoa ones. I am kind of an impatient baker, so I might not have cooled the chocolate butter mixture long enough, and maybe that made the bubbles collapse. I used Hersheys dark cocoa, which I believe is 1/2 natural and 1/2 Dutch process, so maybe that was the culprit! You are a genius! Now I am dying to try these again (I have some leftover UFOs) to see if I can get them to bake up to look like yours. Thanks SO much, Anna.
Anna
Argh, I'm sorry Joan. Let's trouble-shoot since mine were definitely fat and there aren't any typos in the ingedient list.
First off, did you use Ghirardelli bittersweet Baking chips or did you try to sub regular semi-sweet chocolate. I've noticed that when I used melted chips in certain cookie recipes (as opposed to bar chocolate), the cookies come out fatter. It must be due to something in the chips that helps give them structure.
Second, did you beat the eggs for the full 3 minutes? These cookies don't have any leavening other than air, so you have to really beat a lot of air.
Third, did you use Dutched cocoa? I used natural which is more acidic. Maybe the acid in the natural cocoa made the cookies rise more? I'm not sure if that's the case since there's no other leavening to react with, but maybe the recipe just needed acid to rise. That's a stretch, but I'm trying to cover all bases.
And then of course, it could have been the flour. Still, with a such a small amount to begin with I don't think the flour would make much of a difference.
joan
Hi Anna, I , too, have the madness, and I LOVE your blog. I had to rush over to TJ's so I could try these. My cookies came out delicious, but they were more like "Thin and Fudgy Mocha Mint Cookies." I chilled the dough for over 2 hours, and even then there was no way I could shape the dough into balls. So I just plopped out dollops of the dough onto the silpat, chilled the cookie sheets with the dough on them in the fridge, and baked. No one complained while eating them. Any thoughts? More flour, one less egg, add some leavening?
AJ
"Rich, delectable spheres of minty dark chocolate." Well who *wouldn't* get sucked in?!?
Really like this recipe; reminds me of one my mom and I used to do for Christmas every year (my choice). We melted Andes mints on the top and made green and brown swirleys with the melted candy. Good times.
Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)
My husband has fallen in love with those mint UFOs, too, and now that Trader Joe's has opened in Rhode Island, it's all too easy to get our hands on them. I've always been a fan of chocolate and mint together, whether in a cookie or in ice cream.
Therese B.
Yum a luma ding dong these look great!
I wish that we had a Trader Joes! However,
I have seen the endangerd species chocolate in the stores!
I am still eating those out of this world
candy in a oatmeal cookie...they have stay
fresh for a long time!
Lisa Ernst
My kind of recipe -- lots of chocolate, not much flour. These look enticing! There's also a good option in the Valor 70% with mint bar.
Fallon
I've had those UFO mints before. I know exactly how you feel!!!
These cookies would definitely fix a chocolate craving.
LisAway
Oh, I need some of these. I'm a sucker for all things mint and chocolate. I'll definitely be trying these out!
Monica Erskine
They look out of this world!
Monica Erskine
Endangered Species Chocolate
Katrina
What a great post. No TJ's here. So no UFO's. I AM surprised to see you liking something minty as I knew you didn't. "They" must have done something to you.
The cookies sure look good! I personally enjoy the chocolate/mint combo!
cookienurse
Thanks for the cookie, Anna. Looks delicious as always! Hope you will be feeling better soon...