I love the holidays and the opportunities to spend extra time with my family. Today’s post is an extra-special treat, because my older son (affectionately known as Thing 1 on my blog), decided to don an apron and come up with a cookie recipe for you. He loves to bake and has developed some of the most popular recipes on my site. So without further ado, here is Thing 1’s post to share with you!
Thing 1 writes: Making these cookies was supposed to be quick and simple, but ended up turning into a 2-day process. You might ask, how? Initially, I tried to use a chocolate glaze recipe that I found on that magical place called the internet. The recipe looked easy enough, so I thought what could go wrong? Well, after I combined the ingredients and melted the chocolate chips to the point where the mixture was drizzle-able, it immediately started to seize up. Ok. I thought, I’m not gonna to let this get to me, it happens!
While I still had hope, I decided to try just melting plain chocolate chips, which seemed to work wonderfully until I realized that they were too thick to be drizzled. Though I suspected that it would not turn out well, I still decided to add some vanilla extract to thin it up. I ended up with a solid, unusable (but delicious, LOL) block of chocolate. So my mom and I ran to Walmart and picked up some chocolate melts and disposable candy bags, but by the time we got home, I was done for the night!
The following morning I microwaved the candy melts and they worked like a charm. To create the snowflake shape, I used a cookie press with a snowflake cutout disc, and to get the desired size of Oreo crumbs I used a small food processor. Unfortunately (or fortunately, haha!), I overestimated how many cookies I needed and so I also ended up with a bowl full of leftover Oreo crumbs. Have you ever eaten crushed Oreos with a spoon? They melt in your mouth like you wouldn’t believe! (Yum!)
I learned through experience with these cookies that it was a good idea to drizzle the chocolate on a few cookies at a time and sprinkle the crumbs while the chocolate was still pretty soft, otherwise they didn’t stick well. Also it helped to keep the chocolate warm during the process. This is a great recipe to play around with different cookie shapes, colors, and chocolate designs to make them your own!
Mint Chocolate Shortbread Snowflakes
Makes about 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
- 3/4 pound butter (room temperature)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon mint extract
- 3 and 1/2 cups flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2-3 drops green food coloring
- 6 ounces chocolate melts
- 10-12 Cool Mint Oreos
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl, then add vanilla and mint extracts.
- In a separate bowl, sift together flour and salt. Once combined, slowly add to wet ingredients while mixing.
- Once dough has formed, add a drop of food coloring and mix. Repeat until desired color is reached.
- Place dough in a cookie press, or roll dough to about 1/4 inch thick and cut cookies using cookie cutters of desired shape. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 18-20 minutes.
- While the cookies bake, crush the Oreos (best done in a food processor).
- Once cookies are cool, melt the chocolate candy melts according to the package directions and transfer into a candy decorating bag. Cut of the corner tip of the bag and use it to drizzle the cookies with melted chocolate.
- After drizzling chocolate on 3-4 cookies, sprinkle them with the Oreo crumbs so that they will stick. Repeat the process for 3-4 cookies at a time until they are all covered.
Thank you, Thing 1! Don’t those cookies look delicious? And thanks to all of you and to Cathy for your hospitality today. I hope you will stop by my blog, Dizzy Busy and Hungry, and check out some of the other family-friendly recipes I have or follow me on social media!
Enjoy!
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