Tag Archives: Mint

Surprise Packages – Andes Candies Cookies

3 Feb

Image borrowed from “Taste of Home”

My aunt and I always bake cookies together for major events, and this particular recipe is one of our favorites! Give em a try and find yourself in love with the minty-chocolate taste! 🙂

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 Cup – Butter (Softened Preferably)
  • 1 Cup – Sugar
  • 1/2 Cup – Brown Sugar
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 & 1/2 TSP – Vanilla
  • 3 Cups – Flour 
  • 1 TSP – Baking Powder
  • 1/2 TSP – Salt
  • 1 Package of Andes Mints (Set aside 42)

DIRECTIONS

  • Heat oven to 375 Degrees
  • Mix together the butter and sugar (White & Brown) until smooth.  Add in the eggs and vanilla, and mix it well.   Add in the Flour, Baking Powder, and Salt and Mix.  
  • Refrigerate it for 2+ hours (it’s a soft mixture and needs to harden until you can mess with it.  
  • Unwrap the 42 Candies while waiting.
  • Now take the dough and form 1 TBSP of dough around each candy.  
  • Bake 10-12 minutes each.
  • Remove and set on wire racks over top of wax paper.

TOPPING

Use a Saucepan and put the remaining candies in. Melt them and then drizzle the chocolate over the cookies. The wax paper should catch the extras. If necessary, add them back into the pan and re-heat for more chocolate.

ENJOY

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Mint Chocolate Dipped Cookies

15 Nov

This started as an experiment with altering the tried and true Peanut Butter filled Dipped Ritz cookies (I actually made some of those too). I have some family members who actually prefer mint to Peanut Butter and friends allergic to peanuts, so I thought I would try out something new for the Christmas season.  Happily, these yummy alternatives were quite the success! And they really are quite easy to make!

Ingredients

  • Filling
    • 1 Box of Ritz Crackers – Plain
    • 1 (10 oz) package of Nestle’s “Winter Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels.
      • Andes Candies would probably work just as well; or try plain chocolate chips with an extra teaspoon of peppermint extract.
    • 2/3 Cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
    • 1 tsp of Peppermint Extract
    • 2/3 Cup of Powdered Sugar
  • 1 (20 oz) package of Almond Bark
  • Double Boiler (or a pot to melt Chocolate in)
  • Wax Paper

Directions (approx. 1 hour)

  • Make the Filling (approx. 30 minutes)

Chocolate Chips

  • Take out a glass microwavable bowl and add in the Chocolate Chips and Whipping Cream. I saved out a handful of chocolate chips to put on top at the end.
  • Set your microwave on half power (or Soft Melt) and microwave the mixture for 1-2 minutes. Stir after ever 30 seconds. When done, it’ll look kind of like a syrup–thick liquid.
  • Add Peppermint Extract and Powdered Sugar.  Stir it all together until the powdered sugar is as dissolved as possible. 
  • Now set it aside until it firms (approx. 20 minutes). It should have the consistency of icing (like you’d buy from the store).
  • Use 2 Ritz Crackers and Icing to make little sandwich cookies.  I used about 2 and a half packages of crackers to use up the chocolate mix.
  • Now take a Double Boiler; it has two parts and looks like this:

    • Add about 1″ of Water to the bottom and set it on to boil. Add 4 bars of Almond Bark in the top and stir it until melted.  You will probably have to keep melting more chocolate, but if you do too much at once it’ll take longer and harden before you’re done dipping.
    • Now you have everything ready to start dipping!  I use hot dog pinchers to hold the sandwiches when dipping them. Makes it easy to grab on and keep hold.  After covering them in chocolate, lay them out on the Wax Paper to harden. I crushed up the handful of chocolate chips left out and added them on top of the sandwich while the chocolate was hot. 

    They’re ready for you to enjoy!! Let me know what you think; I’m kind of proud of this recipe!

     

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