I had my first grown-up cookiepalooza last weekend. You know, that weekend before Christmas where you are suddenly compelled to bake at least four kinds of cookies (and an apple tart), despite the fact that you have very few plans for their consumption. And then, post-palooza, you look at your ruined kitchen and the mound of dishes and the bags and bags of cookies and sigh. It has been a good day.

The cookie menu:

• Brown Butter Sandies from Smitten Kitchen - an absolute smash hit, but unfortunately the recipe only made 14 cookies. My mom always used to buy those Keebler Pecan Sandies. When I was 12, I found the texture foul. Now that I am 30, crumbliness without crunch is heavenly. (And I like the symphony now, too. Aging.)
• Rosemary Shortbread from Epicurious - the "savory" rosemary offsets a traditional shortbread with delicious results. Don't worry, it's still a dessert! Another friend of mine reported equally delicious results with sage shortbread.
• Classic Oatmeal-Raisin-Chocolate Chip cookies from Bittman - because you need a traditional chewy cookie in your cookie tin at all times. I used about 1/3 whole wheat pastry flour to add a little more hearty flavor.
• And these, homemade Thin Mints.
  

Yes, Thin Mints, that epitome of Girl Scout cookies and wintertime salve of chocolate-mint addictions. Fine, the Samoas are great with the coconut and chocolate, and Tagalongs are the cookie version of Reese's peanut butter cups. Whatever. Thin Mints are iconic. I loved to pull their plastic-wrapped cylinders out of that green box and unwrap a long stack of chocolately thin wafers. So when I found Heidi Swanson's recipe for all-natural Thin Mints in her beautiful book, I knew I was in for it.

Instead of using a circular cookie cutter, I found an adorable little snowflake. When I put the wafers in the oven, they were obviously snowflakes. When I took them out - and particularly after the chocolate dipping - they were obviously stars of David. So merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and enjoy!


Thin Mint Cookies
from 101 Cookbooks

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
1 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 pound semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped*
1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons natural peppermint oil (or to taste)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Position racks in the middle. Prep two cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper.

In a mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Stir in vanilla extract, followed by the salt and cocoa powder. Mix until the cocoa powder is fully integrated and the batter looks like a thick frosting. Add the whole wheat pastry flour and mix just until incorporated. Do not overmix. Dough should be crumbly.

Put a large sheet of plastic wrap on the counter and turn the dough out onto it. Knead once or twice to bring the dough together, then wrap with plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Chill in the freezer for 20 minutes or the fridge for an hour.

Flour up the counter and your rolling pin. Roll the dough out very thin, to about 1/8 inch. Stamp out cookies with a small floured cutter. Place cookies on your prepared sheets - they won't spread much, so you can put them fairly close together - and bake for 10 minutes. Repeat until you've used up all the dough, or, alternately, until you have too many cookies.** Cool cookies completely before proceeding. Save the parchment for the next step.

To prepare the chocolate coating, put an inch or so of water in a saucepan and set a metal or glass bowl over it. The bowl should not touch the water. Put the chocolate in the bowl and bring the water to a bowl.*** Lower heat and stir the chocolate constantly until melted. Stir in peppermint oil, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, to taste. I kept the mint pretty subtle.

Break out the parchment-lined cookie sheets once more. Drop one cookie at a time face-down into the mint chocolate. Use a fork to flip the cookie over, making sure to evenly coat the entire cookie. Lift the cookie from the chocolate with the fork and gently shake the fork or tap it against the side of the pan to eliminate any excess chocolate. Place the coated cookies onto your cookie sheets. Once you've filled a sheet, put it in the fridge or freezer to cool.

Store the finished cookies in the refrigerator - I think they're best served cold.

*I used a mish-mash of leftover bits of bittersweet baking chocolate and some recently-purchased 70% Ghirardelli. It was fine. While you could break the bank on really fine chocolate, I don't think there's a need.

**The recipe made about 7 dozen 1-1/2 inch cookies, and I still threw away a fist-sized ball of dough.

***You can work in batches here. Just keep in mind that you'll need to batch the peppermint oil along with the chocolate or your cookies might end up so minty they burn.