Minty Munchy Crunchy Cookies and a walk down memory lane

In our circle of family and friends my sister and I are known as the bakers, the ones who are never far from the kitchen, and never show up to a party empty handed. Baking has been a shared passion between Jess and I from a very young age. When we were in primary school we would bake cookies and cupcakes for Dad to take to work to sell for pocket money, we would charge about 50c per item and save the money to pay for Christmas or wedding anniversary presents for our parents.
Now that we are older Jess and I still cook together, usually scampering around on a week night pulling together something acceptable for the omnivorous and vegetarian melange that is our family. Baking is something that we do in our spare hours which never seem to cross over much any more. This week however I had the pleasure of watching Jess make a batch of Minty Munchy Crunchy Cookies which are based on a cookie recipe that we used to bake batch upon batch of for Dad to take to work and sell to his colleagues. They also incorporate two of my favourite sweet treats, the country mint (hard mint on the outside and chocolate on the inside), and of course dark chocolate.

Unfortunately they were made on wheat flour which is not exactly agreeing with my stomach at the moment. I am thinking of bribing her into making these with spelt flour in the very near future.

Minty Munchy Crunchy Cookies (makes about 24 large cookies)


Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (185g) plain flour
3/4 cup (90g) cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups (280g) brown sugar
180g butter
150g dark chocolate, chopped
3 eggs, lightly beaten
0.5 - 1 tablespoon mint extract, or to taste
200g dark chocolate, chopped, extra
Large handful country mint lollies, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line 2 large baking trays with baking paper
2. Sift flour and cocoa into a large bowl, and stir in the brown sugar making sure there are no lumps. Make a well in the centre.
3. Place the butter and the chocolate into a medium saucepan and stir over low heat until the mixture is melted and smooth
4. Stir the butter mixture into the dry ingredients. Then stir in the beaten eggs and mint extract.
5. Add extra dark chocolate and mint lollies and incorporate into mixture.
6. Drop heaped spoonfuls of mix onto trays, leave room for spreading these babies get big!
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Biscuits will not completely harden until they are cooled so be careful not to over bake.
8. Cool on the trays for at least 5 minutes until transferring to a wire rack to cool.

The finished product

Close up of the chocolate beauty and a melted peppermint lolly - this hardened to a chewy
bonus on the side of the cookie. These ones went first of course.

The world is always better through peppermint glasses!

These are perfect cookies to warm up and serve with ice cream - choc mint of course!