Mint Brownie Cookies

Last year, when I was student teaching, I had a student bring in cookies her mom made for Valentine's Day. Let me tell you, they were amazing. 

I later asked her mom what was in the cookies and for the recipe. She told me she wasn't entirely sure of the recipe because when she bakes, she just adds a little of this or a handful of that. She said it was a chocolate shortbread with mint chocolate chips.

The cookies were so gooey they reminded me of a brownie. So I looked up a brownie cookie recipe and modified it to have mint chips! The recipe I use now is modified from Jen's Brownie Cookie recipe at Jen's Favorite Cookies. 

These cookies are just like brownies. They are gooey in the middle and chewy around the edges. Plus, they taste like Thin Mints!

Mint Brownie Cookies

Printed Recipe

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 c butter, cut into chunks
• 2 10 oz bags Nestle Dark Chocolate and Mint Morsels*, divided
• 3 eggs
• 1 c + 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 c flour

Nestle Dark Chocolate and Mint Morsels

*I found these around the holidays and stocked up. If you can't find the mix, you can use Hershey's Semisweet Mint Chips or even Andes Mints (plus, who knew they made Andes Baking Chips?)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a double boiler, melt butter and 1 bag of the dark chocolate and mint chips together, stirring until melted. The chocolate won't get as smooth and runny as you'd think it should. The mint in it stifles the glossy sheen you'd think you're looking for. Once it's all melted and combined, you should be all set. 

While the chocolate is melting, mix together the eggs, cocoa powder, and sugar. Beat on high for 3-4 minutes.

Add your melted chocolate to the egg-sugar mixture. Mix well. The chocolate has a tendency to fall to the bottom of the mixture, so make sure it's all incorporated.

Add the vanilla, salt, and baking powder. Mix. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Remember, we are making brownie cookies, so the mixture is brownie-like.

Fold in 1/2 c of the dark chocolate and mint chips. 

Using a tablespoon, scoop batter onto a cookie sheet, placing about 2" apart. These cookies will spread.

I recommend using parchment paper for a more even bake and to keep them from sticking as it is a wet batter.

Bake for 10-12 min. 

It's kind of difficult to tell if they're done. I just lifted up the parchment slightly to check underneath. If they lifted off the parchment fine, they were done!

These cookies are becoming a favorite among my friends and family so be warned! However, I have had some trouble keeping their amazing texture for more than a day or so. (Though it's hard to keep them in the house that long anyway!)

Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake

Finished cake!

Every year, my family and I maintain a small garden in the backyard. We planted zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber, tomatoes, and jalapeno. This year, it exploded. The yield we're getting for only having 2 of each plant is insane.

So, we have been eating zucchini as a part of dinner for a few weeks now and needed to do something else with it. Then I remembered chocolate zucchini cake. Perfect!

I searched for recipes until I found this one on The Washington Post website. It was originally in Bon Appetit in 1995. Let's hope it stands the test of time.


Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake 

Printed Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, plus more for pan
• 2 1/4 c flour, plus more for pan
• 1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 c vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 c cooled espresso or strong coffee
• 2 c grated zucchini
• 1 c semisweet chocolate chips
• Powdered sugar for dusting, optional

Prepping the zucchini:

The original recipe calls for a medium sized zucchini. It's best to grate the zucchini over a strainer or colander in order to allow the excess water to drain a bit. (I used my new mandolin! I wanted to try it out. While it did save my fingers, I think I'll stick to my box grater if I do it again. I think it would go faster.)

In order to have about 2 cups once grated. I chose one of my smaller zucchinis and wound up with 4 cups! Oh well, I might have to make a second cake. ;) 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F. Coat the inside of the bundt pan with butter (get in those nooks and crannies!) then coat the inside of the pan with flour. Shake the flour around the pan to coat. Turn the pan over and gently tap to remove excess flour. 

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar using a mixer. The recipe stated to begin on low then increase the speed to medium until it becomes incorporated and creamy. Well I threw out my first attempt because it was so sand-like. Attempt #2 still did not get creamy even after about half an hour of mixing. I have no idea why. It was certainly incorporated though, so don't fret if yours does the same mine did. I figure it's the ratio of butter to sugar. 

"Creamed" butter and sugar

After bringing together with spatula

Scrape down the sides of your bowl. Add eggs one at a time. (After the second egg, the mixture will feel thick. Once you add the next ingredients, it won't.) Add oil and vanilla, beating the mixture on medium until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again. 

With the mixer on low, alternate mixing in the dry ingredients (the flour mixture we set aside earlier) and the espresso or strong coffee. I happened to have instant espresso in my house from making tiramisu so I used that. 

Remember, when alternating wet and dry ingredients, always start and finish with dry. 

Add one cup of the dry ingredients, then half of the espresso (1/4 c), then another cup of dry, then the last 1/4 cup of espresso, and finish with the last of the dry ingredients.

Now add in your zucchini and chocolate chips. It'll get kind of thick, so stir with a wooden spoon.

Now all that's left is to put the batter into your prepped bundt pan and bake! I have a gas oven (and also opened the oven door partway through to see how it was doing) so my bake time was about 1 hr 10 min, instead of the recipe's stated hour.

I did, however, figure out a good way to spend the time.






Once you've made sure the cake is finished baking by inserting a toothpick in halfway between the walls of the pan and having it come out clean, take it out of the oven. Allow it to rest about 15 min before transferring to a cooling rack and taking it out of the pan. 

This is the moment of truth- whether or not we prepped the pan well enough. My bundt pan isn't as decorative as some so I usually have good luck getting the cake out of the pan in one piece and without much hassle.

TA-DA!

Once the cake has completely cooled, you can add powdered sugar or a glaze to finish it. I opted for the more traditional powdered sugar. 

It was so good! You would be hard pressed to find evidence of the zucchini in this cake- no green specks. I really liked how you could taste the cinnamon. It really added a lot to this cake. 

Easter

So for Easter of this past year, my grandma bought an ice cream cake for dessert as I was teaching and she thought I would be too busy. Granted, I do get stressed if I'm baking on a timeline, which is why I didn't go into baking as a career. 

Anyway, my brother and I decided we couldn't just have a normally iced ice cream cake for our Easter dessert, so we redecorated. (I wasn't thinking blog at the time, so forgive me for no progress pics!)

To do yourself:

1. Scrape off most of the icing on the top of the cake. (You can always add more whipped cream later if you scrape off too much)
2. Freeze the cake! This will help your new top set.
3. Make royal icing flowers. I went with some springy flowers like violets, daisies, buttercups, etc.
4. Bunny-butts! We went the muchkin route:
1.  Buy munchkins (aka donut holes) from a local shop. 
2. Cover in white chocolate and sprinkle with shredded coconut. 
3. For the tails, cover mini marshmallows in white chocolate and sprinkle with shredded coconut.
4. Stick the tail to the body with a small dab of white chocolate.
5. Bunny feet:
1. I made a template on parchment paper in the shape I wanted- somewhat oval but slightly curved in the middle (like feet!). 
2. Pipe white chocolate over the template
3. Color white chocolate with some red gel coloring or use some red chocolate candy melts and mix with white chocolate until you get the desired shade
4. Pipe the pads of feet and toes
5. Assemble just before serving! As the cake started melting, some color got on the whipped cream it was touching, but not much! I was pleasantly surprised. 

First post!

AH! My first blog post. I guess I'll post a little more about myself.

I graduated in 2015 with my bachelor's degree in Childhood Education (Grades 1-6) and became certified soon after. This past school year I worked part time at a Catholic elementary school teaching technology. I began my graduate studies while I was teaching, but decided that for this coming school year it would be a better choice for me to finish my graduate degree. As part of my graduate work, I decided to focus on teaching math at the middle- and high-school level, so I just applied for my certificate in Mathematics 7-12. I should be receiving my certificate before the end of the summer!

So this blog will be both about my career in teaching math and baking. I have a list of bakes I want to tackle over the summer:

• Pate a choux
• Creme Pat
• Chocolate Mousse
• Sandwich Bread
• Baguettes

I guess you could say I'm rather ambitious. 

In the comments, let me know of any ideas you'd like to see me tackle on this blog.