Mint Cookies and Cream Cookies
I love mint cookies and cream ice cream. There’s nothing like a mint cookies and cream blizzard on a hot day. There’s something about the cooling mint and creamy chocolate cookie bits that go so well together. It’s like a dipping an Oreo in minty milk and eating it.
The color of the ice cream always takes me back. I feel like a kid again when I treat myself to it. I’m not entirely sure why. I don’t recall eating them all the time or anything. There’s just something special about it to me. Grab a few scoops of the ice cream and plop them in a bowl. If you use an ice cream scoop they look like little balls of joy.
The best thing is that the dough for these cookies also look like little scoops of ice cream.
This was a fun recipe to create as I had something in mind and just went for it. A few bits of trial and error and some research led to some awesome ice cream flavored cookies. You can skip the food coloring if you don’t have it, but that’s really half the fun. You eat with your eyes first!
Here’s some behind the scenes on this recipe. I had an idea of what I was looking for going into prep. The one on the left, in the above photo, was the first attempt. The middle one was my second and failed attempt hence I bailed on the food coloring in that batch. They still taste great, just not what I was aiming for. The last one, on the right, is exactly what I wanted. It’s mint cookies and cream ice cream in cookie form.
Let’s discuss what we learned here. I wanted to try out a larger cookie so these are 2.5 Tablespoons of dough. In the first one I nailed the flavor and amount of crushed cookies. The color is way off, not enough food color, and too long of a bake. They also spread more than I wanted. They’re a thin and chewy cookie so if that’s your jam go for it.
A bit of research led me to an article on Sally’s Baking Addiction. I can’t always remember when to use baking soda or baking powder. She spelled it out with an easy to remember mnemonic. Soda spreads, powder puffs. That’s great. Now all I need to do is a test batch with baking powder. Yeah, well I failed and did baking soda. I realized it right as I added the dry ingredients to the wet. Fail. They still taste great, they’re just basically the first batch with a bit less spread and no color.
The last batch was perfect. I probably quadrupled the food color to give it that lovely light green associated with mint ice cream. I removed all of the baking soda and used baking powder. They react differently, but baking powder is baking soda with cream of tartar (an acid) already in it. Brown sugar is also a bit acidic so that really helped these cookies get the puffy cake like cookie I was going for.
What did we learn? Soda spreads and powder puffs.*
Ingredients
1 Cup unsalted butter
1 Cup granulated sugar
1/2 Cup dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon mint extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (1 teaspoon for thin chewy cookies)
(for a thin chewy cookie add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda)
2 1/2 Cups All Purpose flour (2 cups for thing chew cookies)
24 drops green food coloring
1 1/2 Cups crushed Oreos
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
Cream the butter with the granulated sugar and dark brown sugar in the bowl of your mixer with the paddle attachment
Beat in the eggs one at a time until mixed
Mix in the mint extract
in a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, and baking powder (and baking soda if making chewy cookies)
Slowly mix in the dry ingredients into the wet
Add in the food coloring
Add in the crushed Oreos until just combined
Scoop out the cookies using a 2 1/2 Tablespoon and place on a parchment line baking sheet
Bake for 12 minutes (avoiding any browning for best visual results)
Let sit on the pan for 2-3 minutes
Move to a wire rack to cool
