Chocolate Mint Cookies

Chocolate Mint Cookies:

• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp mint extract
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs and extracts to the butter mixture, and beat until well combined, scraping the bowl as needed.
5. Add the combined dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
6. Stir in the white chocolate chips.
7. Scoop cookies to desired size and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (I made cookies that were about 2 Tbsp each).
8. Bake for 10-13 minutes (and enjoy while reading below about my struggles with mint extract). 
9. Yield ~2 dozen cookies

About a month ago, I was browsing Pinterest for ways to use up some of the herbs that were taking over the garden, when I came across homemade mint extract and thought, “I have herbs and vodka!” (More accurately, my dad had vodka. And while he was intrigued by extract-making at first, by the time I had ordered a couple dozen vanilla beans on Amazon and was pouring vodka into my fourth jar of soon-to-be extract, his enthusiasm faded.)

But ANYWAY, I cut a bunch of fresh mint, put it into a mason jar and covered it with vodka- easy and cute as hell. 

I laid out all my ingredients and retrieved my extract from the dark cabinet it had been living in. I was hype- I had tiny bottles ready to go, found a funnel somewhere in the kitchen, and opened the jar for the first time in weeks and … oof.  Let me tell you. It smelled like minty rubbing alcohol and lightly rotting leaves. Not what I had in mind. 

Extract making is misleading! One day in, that jar was bright green and vibrant and full of promise! A few days later, it was brown- but such is the nature of leaves, so I wasn’t too worried. They’re soaking in vodka, what’s the worst that could happen??

Well. This.

As you can imagine, what I was feeling at this point could only be described as complete devastation. Here I was, staring at a counter full of cookie supplies, and getting dizzy from the fumes of my failure. Ironically, the day before, I was cleaning through my baking supplies and found 2 bottles of mint extract and foolishly thought “why would I keep these since I have my own extract-making production underway?” I came thiiiiis close to tossing them. But the universe knew that my experiment had failed before I did- so my cookie making was able to go on with the store-bought extract- woo!

(Don’t let those sprigs of garden-fresh mint fool you, it had no role in these cookies other than for a pop of color in the photographs)

I learned two things from this minty meltdown.

Number one: there are certain things that should be left to the professionals. Extract making is one of them (pray for the four jars of vanilla extract still sitting in my cabinet for another 5 months).

Number two: although the headache you will get from deeply inhaling the scent of your failed extract (repeatedly, because maybe it doesn’t smell quite as rancid the fifth time) will be strong, it will fade long before the disappointment. The cookies help to soften that blow.