Donna Andert's Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies
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(as adapted by Bill Evans)

all-purpose flour    610   g
unsweetened cocoa     65   g
salt                 a ceremonial amount

butter               2 1/4 cup (4 1/2 sticks)
brown sugar          220   g
granulated sugar     300   g

large eggs           3
vanilla extract      3     tsp
peppermint extract   6     tsp

milk chocolate chips 3     cup (two 11.5 oz packages)

Allow the butter to soften so it's easy to mix in the sugars. My favorite method is to take your largest mixing bowl, the one you'll be using for the cookie dough. Remove the sticks (and the half stick) from their wrappers and place them in the bowl. Place this bowl in the oven and fire up the oven for about 115 seconds. (Adjust the 115 seconds through your own experience.) Then turn off the oven and let the butter sit for a few hours.

Mix dry ingredients together. Set aside.

Mix butter and sugars together.

Into that, mix the eggs, vanilla, and peppermint. Then mix in the dry ingredients.

Add the chips, preferably by abandoning the mixer and using your fingers.

350 degrees, about 14 minutes, less for fresher flavor, more for structural intecgrity. Your kilometerage, and oven, may vary; in my previous oven, that would have been 11 minutes.

NOTES

Salt or no salt? Your choice. Salted butter or unsalted butter? Your choice. I prefer no salt at all in these cookies.

I like to open the eggs into a separate, very small bowl rather than straight into the dough. That makes it easier to fish out tiny bits of eggshell.

If a bit of eggshell is in the small bowl, you can chase it out by scraping it up the side of the bowl with the side of an ordinary table-style teaspoon.

Since the recipe calls for 6 tsp of peppermint extract, if you buy a 1 fluid ounce bottle, it'll be tempting to just dump the whole thing in there. If the brand is McCormick, that could be a mistake. I've often found their 1 fluid ounce bottle to be generous enough that the mint flavor becomes far, far too strong.

For placing the cookies on the cookie sheet, I recommend using a 3 tablespoon ice cream scoop, the kind with a curved blade inside the scoop to release the content easily.

Sun Jun 25 16:42:50 PDT 2023