… and St. Patrick’s Day, St. David’s Day and my birthday… but that’s another story. But hey, I do share my birthday with the Girl Scouts and when you speak of Girl Scouts…

For many years I was a devotee of the Girl Scout Mint Cookies, something that I haven’t had in over 4 years now and I do kind of miss now and then. This mint chocolate cookie isn’t like those GS cookies, but they are pretty darn good, if I do say so. The mint isn’t super strong and you can add more if you’d like yours a little stronger. The cookie dough is also easy to pat flat to make the crust for a Shamrock Mint Pie or any other pie that might want a chocolate crust. You can leave out the mint if you’re using it for a pie that doesn’t call out for a mint crust.

Mint Chocolate Cookies

1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Sugar Substitute
1 tablespoons Water
1/2 cup Sugar-free Chocolate Chips
2 tablespoons Cocoa Powder
1 Egg
1 Egg White
1 1/3 cups Low Carb Baking Mix (like CarbQuick or Bob’s Red Mill)
2 tablespoons Coconut Flour
2 tablespoon Vanilla Whey Powder (optional)
1 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Peppermint Extract

In a saucepan, cut the butter into small pieces, add sugar and water and cook and stir over medium heat until melted. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chips and cocoa powder until melted. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes

Meanwhile, mix the baking mix, coconut flour, whey powder and salt together. Whey is optional but adds a nice texture as well as a bit more flavor to the cookie. If you don’t use increase the coconut flour by one tablespoon.

To the chocolate mixture, add the peppermint extract, egg white and egg and beat with a spoon until smooth. Add the flour in batches, mixing it in. When all the flour is mixed in, cover the pan and put into the refrigerator for about an hour to get firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with baking spray or use a silicone mat and spray it. Roll cookie dough into walnut-sized balls and place on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Or you can press out to about 1/4 inch thick and use a cookie cutter to make shaped cookies.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Cookies should look a bit dry but won’t be very brown. Under baked is better than over baked with these cookies.
If desired, you can press a sugar free mint chocolate candy into the cookie before it cools or you press a pecan into the cookie before you bake it to add a bit of nut to it.

To use this for a pie crust. Use about 1/2 of the dough for each crust. Spray the pie tins with cooking spray, then spread the dough evenly in the bottom using your fingers. Set in the refrigerator to firm up for about 1 hour, then bake in the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes until the crust looks done. Let cool before filling with your non-cook pie filling. Great for icebox or freezer pies and cheesecakes.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies (varies with shaped cookies) or 2 pie crusts

Nutrition Info:
Per cookie (assuming 24):
Calories: 72.5 Fat: 5.4 g Net Carbs: 1.5 g Protein: 2 g

Per Pie Crust (assuming 2 per recipe):
Calories: 870 Fat: 65.3 g Net Carbs: 17.3 g Protein: 24 g

POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 3/8/2014