chocolate mint thumbprint cookies

I really wasn't in the mood to bake these cookies. The guys from Baked say that they should be made year-round, and not just at christmas time, but the combination of mint and chocolate, plus the thumbprint cookie format, just screams christmas!

So I made the dough one day, baked them the next, filled them two days after that. Can you tell I wasn't very motivated? After making the white chocolate mint ganache, and seeing the cheap chocolate I used turn it a yucky yellowish color, I decided to tint it green to hint at the mint taste in the cookies.

Yeah, didn't turn out too great! The ganache looked like green slime! So I decided to pretend they were Halloween cookies, and that was that. On the upside, I kinda like these pics, and the chocolate kinda broke up the pumpkin and apple recipes I have posted, and have planned for the blog!

The cookie batter tasted kinda bitter when raw, but turned out pretty good once cooked and cooled. Quite rich, and the mint taste wasn't very present in the cookie, but it could be the mint chocolate I used. I liked the texture, it wasn't crumbly, or dry, but pleasant, and the sugar crust gave it a nice crunch, and it sparkled beautifully! The cool, minty ganache center was a nice creamy contrast to the crunchiness of the cookie. Best part, they last forever in the fridge.

I used a squeeze bottle to fill the centers of my cookies and that went superbly! When my husband saw the pools of green slime in the middle of the dark cookies, he suggested Halloween cookies, and we found that bloody bone candies left over from last year's clearanced baking decorations added just the right amount of gross, like a ladle in a cauldron of boiling magic potion.

To get the recipe for these, head over to the new Baked Sunday Mornings website, and see how the others fared too! Next up for our group in two weeks: Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins!