cookies!

These are 2 of my favorite cookie recipes.

These spiced cardamom cookies are a nice alternative
to gingerbread. The dough, before it is chilled, is extremely sticky,
but these cookies are well worth the trouble.















One of my favorite cookies, are Girl Scout Thin Mints.
Though after reading the box and finding all kinds of crap ingredients,
I had vowed never to eat them again. Then I found a faux Thin Mints
recipe in the Martha Stewart Living Holiday Sweets edition,
and all of my peppermint cookie dreams were realized.
These are just as delicious without the preservatives and HFC
*high fructose corn syrup

1 cup all purpose flour (plus more for dusting)
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
12 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 tsp pure peppermint extract
*optional white nonpareils for decorating

*In a medium bowl whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder,
and 1/4 tsp salt

*In large bowl cream sugar and butter until pale and fluffy.
Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually mix in flour mixture, mix
until just combined. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for
at least 1 hr, or up to overnight.

*Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment.
Form balls of dough, equal to 1 tsp, and place on lined sheets.
Dip the bottom of a glass in flour and flatten the dough into
1 1/2" rounds. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, for 8-10 min.
Transfer to wire racks, and cool completely.

*Combine chocolate, peppermint extract, and 1/8 tsp of salt
in a large heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water.
Heat, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove from heat.
(I don't own a heatproof bowl, so I used one of my medium
metal bowls and just handled it with an oven mitt.)

*Replace parchment on baking sheets. Holding each cookie across
the tines of a fork, dip in chocolate to coat completely,
then tap underside of fork on the side of the bowl to allow
excess chocolate to drip off. Place onto prepared sheet,
and repeat until all cookies are coated. Decorate with nonpareils.
Refrigerate until chocolate has hardened, at least 1 hr.
Cookies can be refrigerated up to 5 days, between layers of
parchment in an airtight container.