For those of you who don't know my mom's Christmas baking traditions, she makes about 20 different types of cookies throughout the month of December and freezes them so that they're ready to mail out to relatives and friends right around Christmas time and serve at our family Christmas Eve party. One of the staples is her Andes mint cookies.
She's been making these for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, my job was to unwrap all of the mints for her so they were ready to stick on the cookies as soon as they came out of the oven (she did the rest). I've never attempted to make these by myself until now, but they turned out to be super easy and a huge hit.
Andes Mint Cookies
Original recipe from RecipeTips
MAKES 48 COOKIES
Ingredients:
¾ cup butter
1½ cups brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
12 ounces chocolate chips
2 eggs
2¾ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
48 Andes mints (2 packs)
Christmas sprinkles or candy canes for crushing
Directions:
Melt the butter, sugar, water and chocolate chips in a saucepan over medium heat until everything has melted. Let cool for 10 minutes, then add the remaining ingredients (all but the Andes mints and the sprinkles/candy canes).
The dough should be pretty snappy when it's done. Chill it for 1 hour before baking. I wrapped mine in parchment paper and stuck it in the fridge:
Once it has chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Form 1 or 1½ inch balls and place them on a cookie sheet with plenty of space in between. Bake for 8-9 minutes.
Meanwhile, unwrap your Andes mints so they're ready to go when the cookies are out of the oven.
My mom usually puts Christmas themed sprinkles on top of the cookies, but I chose to use crushed candy canes. If that's what you decide to do, crush the candy canes in a Ziplock bag with a hammer (make sure you leave the bag unzipped so there isn't an air bubble to pop).
As soon as the cookies are out of the oven, place an unwrapped mint on top of each one.
Let them sit a few minutes until the mint has started to melt, then swirl the tops of the cookies with the back of a spoon to create a swirly mint chocolate layer.
Top each cookie with your crushed candy canes or sprinkles.
I brought most of the batch to work and forgot to take a before photo of my Christmas tin, but here's what it looked like around 11am:
These are so delicious and so simple - I highly recommend whipping them up for a holiday party or Christmas Eve/Day!