Friday, December 19, 2008

Christmas Baking Part I : Chocolate and Peppermint Cookies

playing with picnik!


"I am late in my Christmas baking!" I told OCT when I realised it's less than 2 weeks before we celebrate our 4th Christmas here.

Earlier this week, I baked 4 different kinds of cookies and have them packed and shipped, the seconds they cooled down.

I have wanted to attempt fancier cookies and spread our cookies love to more friends overseas, but things are crazy around here. We have no choice but to abort our grand plan.

One of the cookies on my baking list is the Not- Neiman Marcus's Chocolate Chip Cookies from Nancy Baggett's "The All American Cookies book". I can't believe I have quietly made them so many times without telling you! This is one of my favorite cookie recipes. During Christmas season, I like to add chopped Andes peppermint thins into the batter to make a chocolate and peppermint cookies. It is not a complicated recipe, but the cookies benefitted from the use of oat flour, (which is basically rolled oats grinded in a food processor),various kind of sweeteners and chocolate. It is everything that a good cookie should be, at least in my book!

Tis the season to make cookies


Whenever I make this cookie, OCT openly wonder why the author has to incorporate peppermint chips as an ingredient.
"The cookies would be better without the peppermint chips!" He said.

Of course, I never let on the truth - that "special touch" is my stroke of brilliant! If you are not a peppermint fan too, simply omit it and substituted chopped milk chocolate to the batter. Nuts are optional too.


Here's some of the cookies I made last year:
Cherry Garcia Biscotti
Nutella Two Tone Cookies
Rugelach
Pinwheel Cookies
Decorated Sugar Cookies
Coffee Hazelnut Cookies
Hot Chocolate Cookies
Peppermint Cookie and Cream Brownie



Chocolate and Peppermint Cookies (aka Not Neiman Marcus's Chocolate Chip Cookies)
adapted from Nancy Baggett's " The All- American Cookie Book"

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats (grind to a fine powder in a food processor, blender or coffee grinder)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 bag (11.5 oz) semisweet/ bittersweet chocolate chips
3.5 oz chopped Andes Peppermint Thins (or chopped milk chocolate)
1 cup (4 ounces) chopped walnut (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the grinded oat, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and mix well, set aside.

In a mixer bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter unil light and fluffy. Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar and corn syrup and beat until well blended and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. Beat in about half of the flour mixture. Beat in the chocolate and peppermint chips, nuts (if using), and remaining flour mixture until evenly incorporated. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the dough firms up just slightly.

Depending on how big you want the cookies, use an ice cream scoop or teaspoon to drop rounds of dough onto parchment paper. Bake the cookies for 6-12 minutes, or until tinged with brown and just beginning to firm up in the centers, for very moist cookies. Becareful not to overbake. Bake longer if you prefer crispy cookies.

Transfer baking sheet to a wire rack and let stand until the cookies firm up slightly, 3-4 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely before storing in airtight container. Cookies keep for 1 weeks or can be frozen for up to 1 month.

10 comments:

Y said...

Yummy - I love chocolate and peppermint together :)

Lovlie said...

Those look great! I've actually never had any peppermint cookies! Maybe I should give them a try!
This is my first time. Interesting blog! I'll be coming back to read some more of your posts!

Manggy said...

I've never had mint in baked goods before-- including the famed grasshopper cake :) But if you say it's good (and it looks so moreish, by the way), I trust you! I mean, I love Andes thins! Husband is being mean, hee hee :)

Anonymous said...

oh wow, these cookies look delicious! one of my favorite things about the holiday season is all the chocolate + peppermint recipes that spring up :)

Anonymous said...

i have never had peppermint cookies
either but i'm thinking about giving these a try. would oat flour work ok in place of the ground oats? and if so, would it be a 1:1 subsitution. or would the texture be different between the flour and the ground oats?

daphne said...

aww! Those looks awesome! The colours looked wonderful and choc and mint sounds too good to be true in a cookie! Merry Christmas!!

Snooky doodle said...

these look great :) I love the addition of the peppermint they look so festive :)

Anonymous said...

Been browsing through Nancy Baggett's book myself. So many recipes I want to try in, including this.

Maris said...

Yum! I tried making peppermint candy cane cookies yesterday but they looked so ugly I wound up throwing the whole thing out. Haha! I wish I'd made yours instead :)

Mandy said...

jacquie,
to be honest, I have never baked with oat flour. But I think you can substitute the same weight of oat flour for the grinded rolled oats, since the recipe requested for the oats to be grinded into fine powder.

good luck with the recipe and let me know how it goes!

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