How To Make Homemade Thin Mints
By Molly Durham in Food on Feb 28, 2012 7:00PM
Every year we find ourselves asking: "When will the Girl Scout cookies arrive?" Selling them for only one month out of twelve is cruel and unusual punishment. We'll never know for sure why they don't just sell them in grocery stores and make bank. False scarcity doesn't have to be a problem for you though, because you can make Thin Mints, the most popular Girl Scout cookie, any time of year.
Sure you can use the Girl Scout Cookie Tracker to find them near you and race to a grocery store to stock up, but you don't have to wait. Have a Thin Mint craving in October? No problem! Want a hint of mint in July? Cool! Make these. They taste strikingly similar to the real thing and could put those girls out of business if someone wanted to put in enough effort.
Homemade Thin Mints:
Ingredients
For the cookies:
8 ounces butter
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
For the coating:
10 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate
1 ½ teaspoon peppermint oil
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter until light and fluffy, then add the powdered sugar and mix until combined. Stir in the salt, vanilla and cocoa powder. Mix until the cocoa powder is integrated and the batter resembles a thick frosting. Add the flour and mix just until the flour is combined, making sure to not over mix.
Form dough into a ball. Knead a few times to bring together, then flatten into a disk between half an inch and one inch thick, cover in plastic wrap then place in freezer for 15 minutes.
Remove dough from the freezer and roll it out really thin on a floured surface, about 1/8-inch. Cut cookies using 1 1/2-inch cutter (any shape or design you like, we ended up using the lid of a small orange juice bottle since the circle was the perfect size). Place cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack. While the cookies bake, make the peppermint coating. Chop the baking chocolate into very small, thin pieces. Place in a glass measuring cup or similar container and microwave in short 15-20 second bursts. Stir in the peppermint extract. Feel free to add more peppermint as you see fit.
Gently drop the cookies, one at a time, into the coating. Turn to coat entirely, then lift the cookie out of the chocolate with the fork and bang the fork on the side of the pan until the extra coating drips off. Place on a parchment or plastic wrap-lined baking sheet, and repeat for the rest of the cookies. Place the cookies in the refrigerator or freezer to set.
These will be best eaten from either the freezer or fridge, since they start to get a bit melty when outside. They should last for months in the freezer so you can enjoy until the Girl Scouts come around again... or til you want to make another batch.