Chocolate cookies with mint glaze

An estimated 500 pieces of student artwork are clogging my head today, taking up valuable brain space normally reserved for basic information retrieval, apparently.  I have a colleague who is pretty sure she knows Jeff from high school somehow, and over the past two years she has been trying to piece together a backstory for him based on people she knows.  Today she asked me what Jeff's mother's name is.  And I drew a total blank and said, like some kind of dumbass, "Uhhhh, oh geez, uhhhh, wow, how can I not know this?  Uhhh OH OF COURSE NORMA!  Norma and Lloyd are his parents."

See, the dreaded Fine Arts Festival is tomorrow, and it's the biggest day of the school year for me.  Everyone is depending on me to make it a success, and that I can handle, but at the same time I am depending on 80 teenagers to do what they are supposed to do.  Have you ever been in a situation where your success is based on the give-a-damn of even one teenager, let alone 80?  So yeah, I'm stressed out and coming up with Plans B, C, and D to use in case of any number of teen-generated doomsday scenarios.  I've got a head full of rotating lists and what-ifs, and they've shoved the name of my mother in-law right out of there. 

So you'd think that the last thing I'd want to do tonight would be baking cookies, but all Jeff had to do was to sadly announce, "We're out of pie... [trails of dejectedly]"  I rushed to the kitchen, flipped through Nigella Express, and located the one dessert recipe for which we had all of the ingredients (Nigella just assumes that everybody has heavy cream on hand at all times, but we don't, Nigella.  We don't.)

Interestingly, these are the same cookies I made for the exceedingly sweet woman who is Jeff's mother when I met her for the first time.  It was on our fourth date, a spur-of-the-moment thing when Jeff invited me out to see the house (also for the first time).  I was excited to see where Jeff lived.  I distinctly remember what he said: "I'd love you to come out and see my space."  And secretly I thought, Your "space," eh?  You live in a "space."  See, I merely live in an "apartment."  (But you know what?  Jeff's house was/is so cool that it totally qualifies as a space.  I can barely believe that I get to live here.)  Oh, and after inviting me to see his space, Jeff mentioned in a totally offhand way that, oh yeah, his mom would probably be there, too.

WHOA, NELLIE.

Well, I couldn't just meet her without offering her some kind of baked good!  So I flipped through Nigella Express and located the one dessert recipe for which I had all of the ingredients: these delightful little chocolate cookies (which always remind me of little chocolate donuts) with a snazzy mint chocolate glaze. 

If you start making them now, they'll be ready to pack up in a half an hour, and you can take them to see your boyfriend's space for the first time and oh yeah meet his mother.

WHOSE NAME IS NORMA.

INGREDIENTS

for the cookies:

• 3/4 C light brown sugar
• 1/2 C soft butter (1 stick)
• 1 egg
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 C flour
• 1/3 C cocoa
• 1/2 t baking powder
• hefty pinch salt
• 1 C bittersweet chocolate chips

for the glaze:

• 1/2 C powdered sugar (plus extra, maybe)
• 2 T boiling water
• 1 T cocoa
• 1/4 t peppermint flavoring

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream the sugar and butter, then beat in the egg and vanilla.

Mix the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl, and gradually beat into the creamed mixture.  Finally, fold in the chocolate chips.

Using a rounded tablespoon measure, spoon out scoops of cookie dough and pace on baking sheets lined with baking parchment or Silpat, leaving a little space between each one.

Bake for 12 minutes and then let them sit on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before moving them to a cooling rack (with some waxed paper or paper towels on the surface underneath).

Put the glaze ingredients into a saucepan and heat until combined together.  Let cool completely before using. I confess, sometimes I just mix this in a bowl.   It's still good.  Add more powdered sugar, a tablespoon at a time, if it's too runny.

Using a teaspoon, zigzag the glaze over each cooling cookie.  <-- FUN.

Makes 24.

Comments

[Jeff]

West Wing fans should recognize the "we're out of pie" reference. Those four cookies lasted about 35 seconds after the picture was snapped.

[bj]

Kelly, you're pretty cool yourself for handling that situation of meet the mom! ;-)
Nigella's always a fave in this household.

[The Beautiful Kind]

As a person deeply mired in girl scout cookie hell, I can tell you I would prefer your cookies over thin mints. My daughter maintains that thin mints are "snobby" because they are so popular. She thinks tagalongs have a better personality.

[nell]

Those cookies look absolutely amazing, and I need to make them. Right. Now. Would a non-dairy butter alternative work with this recipe? I am a lactard.

[Kelly]

Nell, can you eat margarine? Because I'm pretty sure that'd be fine!

[Colleen]

I just made these cookies today. they are awesome. Family loved them.

[Kelly]

Go Colleen!

[nell]

Trader Joe's sucks, they stock no powdered sugar, peppermint flavoring, or margarine. So I substituted regular sugar that I pounded for a bit, strongly steeped peppermint rose tea, and Earth Balance.

Result: ghetto cookies and glaze fail. But they were tasty nonetheless! I plan to try again with a little more foresight and a trip to a bigger grocery store...

[Brittpaints.blogspot.com]

Oh these look good! I might just go make some in a minute. I do love the chocolate/mint combo!

[Brittpaints.blogspot.com]

Well I had no baking powder, but I made them anyway. The glaze really makes them yummy! They're delish!