Chocolate-Mint Cookies

I had my stint as a "Brownie" selling Girl Scout cookies many years ago, and Thin Mints were always my favorite. Here's an easy homemade recipe that recreates the taste, without the whey and other dairy products in the original.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa 
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup packed vegan brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan sugar
• 3 tablespoons vegan butter
• 3 tablespoons applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 1 Ener-G egg
• Cooking spray

1. Lightly spoon the flour into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife.  Combine the flour in a bowl with the cocoa and baking soda.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the brown sugar, sugar, butter, applesauce, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract.  Beat at high speed for 2 minutes.

3. Add the Ener-G egg and beat until blended.  Add the flour mixture and beat at low speed until blended.

4. Coat your hands lightly with cooking spray, and shape the dough into a 6-inch log.  Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for 1 hour.

Note: The dough is quite wet, but if you coat your hands with cooking spray, it actually will shape quite easily.

5. Cut the frozen log into 24 (1/4-inch thick) slices.  Place, 1 inch apart, on baking sheets lightly coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

6. Remove the cookies from the pans and cool on a wire rack.

Nutrition Info:
24 servings (1 cookie), Calories 76

Tasting Notes:
There's a veritable fiesta of chocolate and mint going on in these cookies. The texture is softer and chewier than real Thin Mints, but the taste really is quite similar (at least, as I remember them, 2 decades down the line...). A more recent parallel is the Cool Mint Chocolate energy bars from Clif Bar, except these cookies aren't as dense or heavy. A perfect end to the evening. With just a touch of icing on top, I'd rate these a "5."

Rating:
4

Update:
If you're pressed for time but need these cookies 5 minutes ago, you can skip the hour-long freezing process. Instead, drop the batter by tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets and proceed as directed.

If you want the cookies to be as wonderfully round as the sliced version, just neaten up with your fingers into balls:

The batch I made this way came out a little softer than the freezer batch; let stand on the baking sheets for 1 to 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.