Mint Surprise Cookies
Cookie Baking 2011 has begun at our house. Today I made an old time favorite, Mint Surprise Cookies. The original recipe, I believe, was from the first Pillsbury bake off. It came to us via my Aunt Eva in Minnesota.
In the 50's Mom would buy Rockwood Mints to make the cookies, but those mints are no longer available. We used Andes Mints for a while, 1/3 of a mint in each cookie. Recently, I tried using the Deep Forest Mint chocolate from Endangered Species for a more 'grown up' cookie flavor. I use 1/2 of a square in each cookie (so 30 cookies can be made with each bar). They're expensive but well worth it. Each cookie is topped with a pecan half (Mom used walnuts, Aunt Kay used pecans).
Here's the recipe:
Mint Surprise Cookies
Yield: Approximately 80 cookies
Preheat oven to 375F.
Sift in bowl: 3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Cream in separate bowl: 1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
Add: 2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Mint Chocolate
Pecan or walnut halves
Blend dry ingredients gradually. Mix thoroughly. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours. Cut the mint chocolate into pieces no more than 1/2 inch square. Cover each piece of chocolate with a thin layer of dough to form a small cylinder no more than 1/2 inch high and 1 inch in diameter. Top each cookie with half a pecan or walnut. Place on an ungreased baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes. Do not overbake. Remove from oven, place on wire rack to cool. Pack these cookies separately from other cookies as their mint flavor will 'infect' other milder flavored cookies.
Enjoy!
My Mom used to make these! Haven't had them in decades but, boy-oh-boy, is my mouth watering with memories!
Was the original mint a soft mint or a hard mint, they do still have the pretty little mints that you used to get in resturants, they are a soft one, and I bet they would be good too!
Hi EvaB,
The mints used in the cookies are hard mint chocolates - like a chocolate bar. I've never tried them with soft mints, not sure what the soft centers would do when baked (if they would retain their flavor or turn into something not so tasty with the oven heat).
Linda
I wonder if I could use Ice Mints, they are little chocolate mint things like little chocolate bars individually wrapped, I see them in one of the stores I get to every so often (it involves a whole day and an 80 mile one way drive) they are sort of icy feeling when you eat one, hence the ice mints appelation. Will have to look around and see if I can find some closer to home and try out the cookies, otherwise will have to try something else.
The soft mints are mainly a sugar thing with mint flavouring which I think would be fine in baking, may try them out too. Of course the chocolate mints would be better!