Mint Cocoa Cookies – think chewy girl guide… oh my!

a while back I stumbled upon a very simple idea: mint chocolate cookies.

I was perusing the local downtown bakery, erwin’s, on a lunch break. I felt terribly lucky after sampling a few of these baddies: dark chocolate and a minty chewy/soft loveliness… the most basic, unflowery way I could describe these. anyway, since starting my new job at a coffee shop that shall remain nameless (though I’m sure lots of you know where and what it is) and overhauling the baked-goods menu, I knew I wanted something similar to this awesome cool-weather treat.
enough banter and on with the goods!

spread before you is:

1 1/4 C unsalted butter at room temp
2 C sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp peppermint extract (for the love of god, not spearmint… unless you want toothpaste cookies…)
2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt plus a little more… so more like 3/4 tsp
3/4 C to 1 C good cocoa, dutch processed works

. cream the soft butter with the sugar
. add the vanilla, peppermint extract and eggs and mix

. in another bowl, add all the dry ingredients together. you may want to sift in the cocoa or sift the whole mix before adding it to the wet ingredients. cocoa has a lovely way of being all clumpy and difficult to incorporate…
. dump the dry into the wet and stir to combine
. wrap the bowl with cling film and let it hang out in the fridge for an hour or so

. crank yer oven to 325.
. take the dough out of the fridge and use a spoon to scoop bits of it onto a cookie sheet. you could make them into balls and squish them down with your hand if you like round cookies, but I like mine rustic and fat so I bake ’em as they fall to the pan: wonky
. bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are done but the middle still looks a bit undercooked… though it’s really not

these should end up being soft and chewy on the inside and just slightly crunchy around the edges. if that’s not happening for you, try baking them at 300 or at 350 for different amounts of time to get the right texture

enjoy your weirdly refreshing, house and heartwarming mint cocoa cookies!

best fudgey fucking brownies

yep. they’re so good they’re swear-worthy. these have taken (literally) years to get right, but now, I have them right and so can share them with you. as many baked things in my life, this is a variation of a recipe I got from my mom though I’ve tweaked it quite a bit. these are super dark, super dense and uber chocolatey. they hardly last one day around my place, and I think that’s a good enough reason for you to try them and see how long you can keep them to yourself.

surrounding your eager hands are:

½ C butter
5 squares unsweetened baker’s chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 ¼ C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp coffee (the dregs of a french press are just fine)
1 egg
2/3 C flour
1/3 C cocoa
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

. crank yon oven to 350. grease up your favourite brownie tin
. in a double boiler, melt the chocolate with the butter. stir to combine
. while the chocolate’s melting, mix the egg, vanilla, coffee, and sugar together in another bowl
. in yet another bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt until the cocoa lumps are gone
. once the chocolate butter mix is melted, slowly pour a little bit into the egg sugar mix and whisk as you do so to avoid the egg curdling. once you’ve got that tempered, dump all the chocolate mix in and stir until smooth
. next pour in the dry mix and mix until incorporated. pour into the greased tin of choice and fire into the oven for 30-35 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean.
. allow these to cool to room temperature before eating

these are lovely with a glass of milk, and mindblowingly coma-inducing at the bottom of a sundae…

coffee appreciation: kicking horse – grizzly claw

it’s exciting: getting the kettle filled and plugged in. opening up a fresh bag of coffee, those ever so slightly greasy beans looking up at you in all their reason-for-living-smelling-glory and then pouring them into the grinder and buzzing ’em up. removing the lid and taking a deep breath… it makes the morning (or in our case this afternoon) right and worthy.

while on our jaunt about town running errands and getting groceries, pony and I were confronted with the ever expensive selection of coffee. normally we try to get whatever’s the cheapest per lb. and still organic/free trade, usually ethical bean or kicking horse. both are great, but today we went with the kicking horse grizzly claw blend. now, I’m someone who searches for, and melts into slurs of ‘ohmygods’ over a cup/pot of coffee that resembles chocolate cake. grizzly claw = awesome cake of awesomeness. it’s deep and full, but I find the majority of its flavour is in the middle and end of a mouthful. the taste upon swallowing, is sweet in a dark, roasty, way, but not at all burnt tasting. it’s hardly acidic, and that’s a big ol’ plus in my books.
at the probable chance of losing some tasting credit from the coffee connoisseurs out there, I will happily admit to putting not only demerara sugar in my coffee, but whipping cream too! it’s breakfast that way. however you take it, all done up like me, or hot and black like róny, I highly recommend the grizzly claw.