Mint Chocolate Christmas Tree Cookies
/These mint chocolate Christmas tree cookies bring back a lot of memories for me. I think we all have special holiday foods that take us back to another place and time, making us a bit more reflective and sentimental. This story might not be what you would expect, though.
(I see a lot of memes and jokes on social media poking fun at the long stories that food bloggers write before sharing the recipe. I get that, but I am sharing a little story today anyway. Scroll to the bottom if you want. Your loss.)
My third child was born just before Christmas. The doctor was comfortable waiting until after Christmas, but I was already a week late, feeling like I had been pregnant FOR.EV.ER, and afraid to miss Christmas morning with my two older children. So we scheduled the induction.
I promise this isn’t a childbirth story because that would probably not be appetizing.
This is a story about how crazy my perfectionism and people pleasing can get.
So there I was - days before Christmas with a to do list that was already finished with the full intensity of a mother who has been nesting AND preparing for Christmas. All of the presents were wrapped. My hospital bags had been riding around in the car in hopeful anticipation for weeks. So in the final hours before we left for the hospital, can you guess what I was doing? Reading Christmas stories to my children? Nope. Sleeping while I still had the chance? Nope. I was baking these stupid cookies!!! A quadruple batch, nonetheless. In my mind, I just had to get them finished.
Can it get any crazier? Oh, yes it can.
I took these cookies along to the three family gatherings we attended with our 4 day old baby! Now, judge me if you want, but I already do a good enough job of that myself. No one got sick, thankfully, but it was absolutely stupid. Also, I was exhausted.
If I could go back in time and tell my younger mother self just one thing it would be: “Let it go!!!” I would even sing the song but younger me wouldn’t get it.
These cookies, while delicious, are also a reminder to me to just chill out!!! The frosted edges might be a little thick and the sprinkles might be a little wonky, but I prefer things that way now. Oh, and a quadruple batch is just way too many!
Thanks for staying with me while I bared my soul for a few minutes there. If you scrolled past it: never mind.
Now… the recipe you have been patiently waiting for…
MINT CHOCOLATE TREE COOKIES
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. peppermint extract
6 oz. white chocolate or vanilla melts
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
green sugar crystals
In a medium bowl, whisk dry ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and peppermint extract. Gradually add in the flour mixture and stir until dough forms. Divide dough in half and form each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Use a tree cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Bake about 9 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Melt 6 oz. white chocolate (or vanilla melts) and 1 Tbsp. of vegetable oil. Stir together. Dip the ends of the “branches” on each side of the tree. Lightly sprinkle with green sugar crystals before chocolate is set. Allow to cool completely.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
Thank you to Mrs. Morlock, who originally shared the recipe with me many years ago (and also taught me how to sew a snap onto the first thing I ever sewed for one of my daughters!)
If you want to pin it for later…
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