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By 300 Sandwiches
Posted in Dessert, recipes | Tags : chocolate, Christmas, cookies, family, holidays, ice cream, mint, mom, recipes, sandwiches
Home for the holidays means so many things.
It means crowded airports with long security lines and packed airplanes and the perfect time for Laguardia International Airport’s baggage sorting equipment to break and not be able to load bags onto flights, inevitably losing dozens of passengers’ luggage filled with fragile Christmas gifts. Including mine. (Really Delta Airlines? You’re like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas!)
It means snowy weather and an ice storm that knocked out power in our house right when I went to turn on the stove to make Christmas cookies. Lots of Christmas cookies.
It also means baking will go on, even in the dark.
E was flying to the Midwest on Tuesday, so before he came, I took Sunday to park it in the kitchen and whip up all of my dough for Christmas cookies to make dessert sandwiches for us when he arrived.
Before I got cooking, I pulled out all of my mother’s cookbooks to look for her old recipes, particularly a yummy shortbread cookie one she made each year when I was a kid. My mom used to go crazy on the Christmas cookies, baking up three or four different types for the neighbors and my school bake sales, including classic chocolate chip, almond crescents and sugar cookies. Now I take over the kitchen and try and give her a break from baking.
Just when I got out the bowls and ingredients, the power kicked back on. A Christmas miracle!
The first batch I baked up was something mom never cooked when we were younger, but something I liked to make as an adult: mint chocolate chip cookies. I like peppermint because it screams Christmas. I thought mascarpone filling would be great to make sandwiches with, until mom dug out the vanilla ice cream and scooped a spoonful in between two warm mint cookies. “That’s good, Stef,” she said. I think E would agree.
Just as I finished the batch of mint cookies, a delivery guy from the Kalamazoo Airport arrived with my luggage. I grabbed it, and opened it quickly. My gifts were all there, still wrapped, nothing broken. Thank you, Delta Airlines. Christmas was saved.
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons peppermint extract
1 cup dark chocolate cocoa
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking power
1 pinch salt
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 pint vanilla ice cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets with butter or cooking spray.
Mix flour, baking soda, baking power, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
In a large bowl, blend butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Then add eggs and peppermint extract. Then add in the flour mixture until well blended. Finally fold in the chocolate chips.
Scoop out tablespoon-size portions of cookie dough onto baking streets, leaving a few inches between each. Press down slightly to spread out the dough in an sphere. Cook about 10 minutes, or until tops are just set. Remove from sheet with spatula and let cool on cooling rack or paper towel lined plate.
When cool, scoop a teaspoon size ice cream scoop onto a cookie, top with another, and enjoy. Makes about 2 dozen sandwiches.
In my travels I seem to have lost my old recipe for mint chocolate cookies, but this one looked so enticing I used this as a base). I used super dark cocoa in my recipe, hence the dark as tar results you see above. My father came over while they were baking and said they “looked like terds.” He was sort of right. But they tasted AMAZING, even if they don’t photograph well. No cookies for you, Dad!
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