Mint Chocolate Cookies

Frosted Mint Chocolate Cookies

If you’re looking for a pretty green dessert to make for St. Patrick’s Day, look no further! Not only are these mint chocolate cookies a soft shade of mint green (like a Shamrock Shake!), they are also incredibly tasty.

This recipe pairs the soft and chocolatey cookies from my buckeye cookies with a mint frosting and smooth chocolate ganache. The cookie base is sturdy enough to hold the frosting and ganache, but still soft somewhat like a lofthouse cookie. It’s so good.

These are the latest addition to my collection of anything-but-basic, gourmet cookies. They’re a little more work than your standard chocolate chip cookies, but the end result is absolutely worth the extra effort!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Appearance: these look like bakery-style, gourmet cookies. They are SO festive for St. Patrick’s Day (if you use the green food coloring, that is)!
• Flavor: distinct chocolate cookie base, subtle mint frosting (like a thin mint), and rich chocolate ganache topping. These are a mint chocolate lover’s dream cookie!
• Technique: we’ll start with melted butter, which means we 1) don’t need a mixer for the dough and 2) infuse a rich, buttery flavor throughout. We’ll also take advantage of the warm melted butter to bloom our cocoa powder.
• Time: just 30 minutes of chilling. This creates a thick and sturdy base for our frosting topping!

What You Need

I won’t go over every ingredient we’ll be using, but I would like to mention a few important ones.

• Butter. Yes, that is quite a lot of butter up there. Remember, we are making (almost) two dozen cookies and icing, so it’s necessary! Make sure you use unsalted butter, since we are adding salt ourselves.
• Cocoa powder. I prefer natural cocoa powder in this recipe. I find that Dutch process cocoa is a bit more intense (in a distracting sort of way), and I liked the natural cocoa better. Either will work fine here though!
• Egg + egg yolk. Adding an extra egg yolk makes for tender, chewy cookies. Save your egg white for meringue cookies or candied almonds!
• Peppermint extract. While you may be tempted to reach for the “mint” extract, trust me on this one. Just like when we made my butter mints or cream cheese mints, peppermint extract actually imparts the best mint flavor without tasting like toothpaste (which mint extract would do).
• Food coloring. This is optional, but if you want to color your mint frosting, I recommend using a gel food coloring. I link to the specific one I used in the recipe below. Of course, you could use any color you like, but I personally like mint green for a St. Patrick’s Day look!

Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Mint Chocolate Cookies

Make the Dough

1. Whisk together the cocoa powder and melted butter until well combined. You can do this while the butter is still hot (it will help bloom the cocoa), but just make sure to wait to move on to the next step until the butter has cooled down again.
2. Add the sugars and stir well to incorporate.
3. Stir in the eggs and vanilla, then set aside.
4. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients. It’s important that you do this step gradually, otherwise it will be a challenge getting the dough to come together. Cover and chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Bake

1. Scoop and roll the dough into smooth balls, then bake.
2. Gently flatten the cookies with the bottom of a cup, then let cool completely. Flattening the cookies will give you a flat surface for the frosting, and it will also encourage a more dense, brownie-like texture.

Icing

1. Beat the butter with an electric mixer until smooth.
2. Add the sugar gradually until well combined. Do this on low speed so you don’t fling powdered sugar everywhere (I’ve been there many times)!
3. Stir in the salt and extracts until incorporated.
4. Add the food coloring, if using, and stir well until the frosting is evenly colored.

Ganache/Assembly

1. Make the ganache by microwaving the chocolate and cream until smooth and melted.
2. Pipe or spread frosting on top of each cookie.
3. Spoon ganache over the frosting and let set before enjoying.