Make These Girl Scout Cookies Thin Mint
It’s a shame that Girl Scout cookie season is so short. While I have a lot to look forward to at the end of March, once May hits, I’ve cleared out my cookie stash completely. If you missed Girl Scout cookie season (or are just missing it emotionally), I’d like to help you get through these tough months before the next one arrives. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be testing copycat recipes for some of the most popular flavors so you can make them at home. Let’s start with a simplicity superstar: Thin Mints.
All GSC fans know that Thin Mint sets the standard for mint cookies. This is a small piece. Crispy, no-frills chocolate chip cookie inside with a thin chocolate shell. Then a cool breeze of mint passes through. It’s always better to buy at least two boxes: one for the first 10 minutes and the second to maintain the pace.
Tips for making thin mints at home
Imitating these famous cookies is relatively easy. The cookies themselves can be made using any reliable recipe for chocolate pate sablé (essentially a mixture of butter, sugar, a little egg, cocoa and flour) with the addition of mint extract. The dough is easy to roll out and baking is a snap. To make the cookie dough, I modified this recipe from Baked by an Introvert.
The site above mentions that “cookies are best served cold,” and that’s true—many of us love thin mints from the freezer—but here it’s less a nice tip and more a necessity. This is because the coating is too soft at room temperature due to the vegetable oil included in the recipe. To get around this problem, I recommend using only melted chocolate pieces, which will be tacky but not sticky at room temperature. Alternatively, you can use chocolate melting wafers (as shown below), which are designed to set without tempering.
When rolling out the cookies for this recipe, try to reduce the thickness of the dough to a quarter inch to get a more accurate copy (they are thin mints, after all). If a dough this thin is too hard, you can make thick mints. Just be sure to bake them for another minute or two so they crisp up once they cool.
Recipe for imitating thin mint candies
Ingredients:
For the test
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1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
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¼ cup cocoa powder
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1 stick butter, room temperature
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⅓ cup sugar
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¼ teaspoon salt
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½ teaspoon vanilla extract
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½ teaspoon peppermint extract
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1 egg white
For chocolate glaze
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¾ cup melted semisweet chocolate chips (or melting wafers)
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Using a rubber spatula, cream softened butter and sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. No need to make it fluffy. Add salt, egg and extracts. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and cocoa powder until the cocoa is evenly distributed, then fold it into the butter mixture in two additions. This will help you avoid using cocoa powder. The dough will be thick, but workable.
2. Place the dough on cling film or parchment paper. Roll the dough into disks, wrap them in cling film and place them in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
3. Dust the countertop with a little flour and unroll the dough. Roll it out into a thin sheet, turning it after each pass with a pin to prevent the dough from sticking. Take a 1.5 or 2 inch round cookie cutter and cut out circles. Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, an inch apart. Bake them at 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes or until firm and opaque. Cool them completely.
4. To make the chocolate frosting, gently melt the pieces in the microwave for 30 or 15 seconds. Dip each cookie into the glaze and scoop it out with a fork. Using the flat edge of a rubber spatula, scrape off most of the chocolate until the coating is thin. Place the cookies on a wire rack to cool, or you can even pop them in the refrigerator for ten minutes to speed up cooling.
Enjoy a chilled treat from the fridge or freezer, and you can thank the Girl Scouts for this inspiration by making a donation if you’d like.