So I discovered a few things this weekend.
1. Thin Mints aren’t thin at all. They’re phat and fat.
And I’m suddenly like the people who spent millions on the studies that found buttery movie popcorn and Mexican food is, gasp, fattening.
Shocking. I know.
But what I didn’t know, or I didn’t realize, is just how bad /evil that these minty minis actually are. For instance, 1 thin mint cookie equals 1 Weight Watchers point. And since you only get like 20 points a day, and since I’ve consumed about 114 cookies; well, I’m not saying that I’m great at math, but by my calculations, I’m screwed.
2. Heidi Swanson figured this out long ago.
3. Smart, cool Rebecca from The New Awesome introduced me to 101 Cookbooks and the brilliance of Heidi Swanson. More specifically, she introduced me to Heidi’s homemade and all-natural Thin Mint recipe. (The above photo is from there too.)
“No shortening, no trans-fats from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, no weird, processed cake mix cookies – just good old-fashioned butter, cocoa, vanilla, sugar, chocolate, whole grain flour! and peppermint turned into delicious, thin minty goodness.”
And, I know. This is salad month, and this little ditty is so much more in line with last month’s designation, but I’m going to share it anyway. Because I need all the all-natural good Karma I can get to work off those additional 94 points. Plus, Peppermint Tea: Fun Monday #8 and all. No worries, we’ll be back to salads shortly.
homemade and all-natural
Chocolate Wafers:
8 ounces organic butter, room temperature
1 cup organic powdered sugar, (I use Wholesome Sweeteners brand)
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
1 cup cocoa powder (I use Dagoba’s cacao powder)
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
Chocolate Peppermint Coating:
1 pound good quality semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 teaspoon plus a couple drops of natural peppermint extract (I use Flavorganics brand, avail. at Whole Foods)
Preheat your oven to 350. Racks in the middle zone.
Make the cookie dough: In a mixer cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and cream some more, scraping the sides of the bowl a couple times if necessary. Stir in the vanilla extract and then the salt and cocoa powder. Mix until the cocoa powder is integrated and the batter is smooth and creamy, sort of like a thick frosting. Add the whole wheat pastry flour and mix just until the batter is no longer dusty looking, it might still be a bit crumbly, and that’s o.k. You don’t want to over mix and end up with tough cookies.
Turn the dough out onto a counter, gather it into a ball, and kneed it just once or twice to bring it together into once nice, smooth mass. Place the ball of dough into a large plastic bag and flatten it into a disk roughly 3/4-inch thick. Place the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill.
Rollout and bake: Remove the dough from the freezer and roll it out really thin, remember how thin Thin Mints are? That’s how thin you need your dough, about 1/8-inch. You can either roll it out between two sheets of plastic, or dust your counter and rolling pin with a bit of flour and do it that way. Stamp out cookies using a 1 1/2-inch cutter (this time I used one with a fluted edge, I’ve done hearts and other shapes in the past). Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a baking rack if you’ve got one.
Make the peppermint coating:
While the cookies are in the oven you can get the coating ready. I use a makeshift double boiler to melt chocolate (a metal pan over a saucepan of gently simmering water), but I know many people who swear by melting chocolate in the microwave. Slowly melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until it is glossy and smooth. Stir in the peppermint extract. If you think the chocolate needs a bit more peppermint kick, add more extract a drop or two at a time – but don’t go overboard.
Finishing the cookies: You are going to coat the cookies one at a time and then gently set them on a parchment-lined baking sheet to set. Drop one cookie into the chocolate and (using a fork) carefully make sure it gets fully coated. Lift the cookie out of the chocolate with the fork and bang the fork on the side of the pan to drain any extra chocolate off the cookie. You are after a thin, even coating of chocolate. Place on the aforementioned prepared baking sheet, and repeat for the rest of the cookies. Place the cookies in the refrigerator or freezer to set. They will set at room temperature, it just takes much longer, and I prefer them straight out of the freezer anyways 
Make 3 or 4 dozen cookies.
And, if you would rather not count any points at all, and again give Weight Watchers the chocolate bird, then leave a comment.
That’s right, we’re having another QUESO GIVEAWAY. Hooray.
Comments will be open until midnight CST on Tuesday. And the Hurricane-chosen winner will receive four, brand-new, assorted boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Two of these boxes just so happen to be Thin Mints. And as always, you can keep them or pass them on to a friend. (They might just be the fruitcake of the two thousands.)
God I hope you win.
http://mediobestias.blogspot.com/
They look so delicious, we are a family of mint lovers so I must give it a go.
I love mint too and it looks very delicious!Thank you!
Someone's going to call the authorities on me, but I have to confess–I hate Girl Scout cookies. Not because they have a zillion calories, but because they taste bad. I always buy about a hundred boxes because my daughter has made it all the way through the GS program (end up giving most to friends). Those annoying things get smaller and more expensive every year. Give me a good Fig Newton over a GS cookie anyday! Having said that, I can't wait to try these home-made ones. They sound like they taste the way a decent thin mint should taste!
Holy crap. That recipe's like a novella. I'll just stick with the snackwells.
Girl, I am so sick of seeing/eating them, I can't even tell you. We've just about passed all our orders out though, and can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Thank God!
I would totally send them to a pregnant friend. To Play It Forward.
You crack me up. And I'm so lovin' that 101 Cookbooks.I wonder if she has a "healthy" version of theseThin Mints? Which I find highly addicting.
I gotta give it a shot for the kiddos. they finished their last box of GS cookies this past week and so the sad little faces.
The stupid girl scouts never come to my house. Can't wait until my daughter is old enough to join so I can get my fill. Until then I'll have to use your recipe or satisfy my desires with the Edy's Special Edition GS cookie ice cream in Thin Mint, Tagalong and Samoans.
You never miss things until they are gone. . .no GS cookies in Ireland. Shocking that Thin Mints were so bad for you. Not that I was under the delusion they were healthy. . .
No thanks. I was the Cookie Captain for my daughter's troop 3 years in a row. Having thousands of boxes stacked in my garage as well as the hundreds we bought cured me of ever wanting them again.
I heart thin mints! I've been dying for some, but there just aren't swarms of girl scouts pounding the neighborhood in my neck of the woods. Doh!
mmm. nice with coffee, enidd would bet.
Good gracious, with "natural" this, "organic" that, and "whole wheat" the other, these are HEALTHY for you! I don't care WHAT anyone else says, lol. HEALTH-EEEEEEEE.And I like the little heart shape, 'cause then it's like they're heart healthy. Let me believe the lie
.
I have no problem begging for GS cookies. Please! Give me the cookies! My dogs just ate three boxes of my Girl Scout cookies. It's true, I just wrote a post about it.Until I win (har) I'll just have to make that recipe. The look delish.
I love Thin Mints! They are the only cookies I love!Those, and the cookies that used to be called Samoas and are now called something else. Organic Thin Mints?! Weird. Part of the love is KNOWING that they are bad for you, but so limited in their availability. But it's very clever.
I do NOT want the cookies but I wanted to acknowledge how great The New Awesome is and that I LOVE 101 Cookbooks…. I have a whole list of food blogs that I love to read… I will be making these soon… yummmy
I always send our extra* girl scout cookies to soldiers. They appreciate them because they can not get them where they are. http://www.anysoldier.com if anyone is interested.*extra cookies are the ones I buy specifically for this purpose and hide so we don't eat them before I mail them.
yum….but very frightening that now I can make these anytime of the year I want and not have to wait for those little girls to come a calling!
okay, if I win the cookies I will send them to anysoldier.com. Not that 'Cane can be influenced.Even if he DOES have a cool "Peace, Love & Cookies" t-shirt. And I think he should wear that shirt for the drawing.
im confused. the recipe seems to be lacking in the main ingredient. no girl scouts?And I've always been a fan of the samoas. How bout a diet samoa. i think one of those is 20 WW points.
weight watchers be damned. . . I still haven't had a girl scout cookie this year. This cannot go on.
One day the Hurricane will pick me. I know it.
oooohhh, me,me…I LUFF thin mints, so thin,so minty. I sold a bizzilion dollars of these…infact, you probably bought a few boxes from me. anyway, nepotism and all, pick me harry and I'll slip you some treats under the table…
I heart Thin Mints. Thanks for the recipe, I'm excited to try it out. I don't think mine will be cute hearts, though.
*Snort!* I too have had about 114 Thin Mints in one day – thank God I didn't know anything about Weight Watchers points at the time.
Plus, there are apparently no Girl Scouts in the greater Chambana area.
Queso, you must choose me. I am on Day 11 of The Great American Nap Strike and I am too tired (lazy and fat) to make homemade organic cookies. I'm begging. I'm DYIN' here.
I want these!! I don't know any girl scouts to buy cookies from and I haven't had any forever!
Lordy, just what I need – a recipe for thin mints…