Chocolate Mint Dreams

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Edith Taylor sent in a recipe for Chocolate Mint Dreams, a decadent sandwich cookie.

Day 19 of the Free Press's 21 Days of Holiday Cookies features Chocolate mint dreams. We will be publishing one cookie recipe every day -- Monday to Saturday -- till Christmas.

Edith Taylor sent in a recipe for Chocolate Mint Dreams, a decadent sandwich cookie.

Chocolate Mint Dreams

170 g (3/4 cup) shortening

250 ml (1 cup) sugar

1 egg

56 g (2 oz) unsweetened chocolate, melted

5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla

500 ml (2 cups) all-purpose flour

10 ml (2 tsp) baking powder

2 ml (1/2 tsp) salt

Filling:

28 g (2 tbsp) butter, softened

375 ml (1 1/2 cups) icing sugar

30 ml (2 tbsp) whipping cream

1 ml (1/4 tsp) peppermint extract

Few drops green food colouring

With an electric mixer, cream shortening and sugar until fluffy, beat in egg and mix until smooth, and then stir in melted chocolate and vanilla. In small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to shortening mixture and blend until well combined. Gather dough into two balls, and on two pieces of wax paper form each ball into long log, about 5 cm (2 in) in diameter, and then use wax paper to help roll into a cylinder. Chill for about 45 minutes (longer chilling will make dough crack). Preheat oven to 190C (375F) and cut rolls very thin, into .3 cm (1/8 in) slices. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets for about 10 minutes, or until slightly crisp but not dark on the bottom. Cool. Meanwhile, make filling by creaming butter and gradually adding icing sugar, alternating with the whipping cream, and beating until smooth. Stir in peppermint and green food colouring. Make sandwiches by taking one cookie, spreading with filling, and topping with another cookie. Store in sealed container in the fridge but let soften before serving.

Tester's notes: A great combination of minty buttercream and dark chocolate cookie, but I found the dough a bit crumbly to work with. If the rolls are cracking as you cut them, try kneading the dough, letting it warm up a little, and then reforming the rolls. These cookies also reminded me of the dangers of estimating: I felt like I was cutting the cookies into 1/8 inch slices, but once they were baked and sandwiched, I could see I actually cut them twice as thick.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 22, 2010 D1