Learn how to make cookies with cocoa powder, dark chocolate, and mint chips. Hear about the different types of Nestle morsels I have used over the years to make these cookies around Christmas time.
Chocolate and mint are one of my favorite combinations on Earth. If you are coming to look at this recipe there is a chance that it's one of your favorites as well.
I also love the Chewy Chocolate Chip cookie recipe from Alton Brown. His recipe is just a take on the Tollhouse Chocolate Chip cookie recipe. Since I wanted more chocolate and mint in my recipe, I made my own alterations with cocoa powder, some type of mint chips, and/or mint extract.
Each December, I love to make a batch of these cookies with whatever mint morsels that Nestle has come out with. It's changed over the years, since I first published this recipe in 2009. I will share with you what I have made them with and how to make them now.
Jump to:
🛒 Ingredients
Here are the original ingredients for the recipe when I posted it in 2009. Then I will go into some changes and alternatives.
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 2 cups bread flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup white granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cups brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons of extract either all vanilla, all mint, or all peppermint or some combination of them that equal 1 ½ teaspoons
- 1 bag of Nestle Dark Chocolate & Mint morsels
🍪 Nestle Morsels
As I said there has been many changes over the years. When I first published this recipe, Nestle had bags of dark chocolate & mint morsels that you could buy around the holidays. I have not seen these in years.
In 2019, Nestle came out with these Peppermint Filled Baking Truffles. So I began using them in place of the dark chocolate & mint morsels.
These were hard to not just pop into my mouth! They made some really good cookies. My wife actually made them for my birthday that year.
For Christmas 2022, I didn't find the truffles, but I did find bags of Peppermint Hot Cocoa Morsels & More. These bags had milk chocolate morsels, swirled peppermint squares, and mini marshmallows. I made these cookies with them, but didn't like them as much as the other options I had in previous years.
Now it's 2023, and this year I reached out to Nestle Tollhouse on Instagram and found out that they aren't doing any mint products for this season. So if you want to make these cookies you will have to look elsewhere.
You could can make your own custom dark chocolate and mint chip mix by combining half a bag of Nestle Tollhouse Dark Chocolate Chips and half a bag of Guittard Green Mint Baking Chips.
These are the best mint chips I have ever tasted. You could just use a bag of them for the recipe or do a mix of mint and dark chocolate or semi-sweet chips to be more like the original mint and chocolate chip mix that inspired this post.
You may find some mint chocolate chips, that are chocolate chip with mint in them. You want to have at least 10 ounces for the cookies. I wouldn't fault you for adding more thought!
At Costco, I found a Girl Scouts Thin Mints Seasoning blend that you could sprinkle on top of the cookies before you bake them to add some minty flavor, especially if you can't find any mint chips or morsels.
Using Extracts
If you can't find any type of mint morsels but want that mint flavor, you can do that in the form of an extract. The recipe calls for 1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract, but you can use mint or peppermint extract in place of all the vanilla. If you are going to use peppermint oil, first make sure it's food safe, then you will only need about ¼ to ⅓ of a teaspoon. It's strong stuff.
📋 Instructions
The whole cookie baking process begins with combining the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl. These are considered your dry ingredients. The sugar in this case is going to be included with the wet ingredients.
You are going to take the butter and melt it. I put that melted butter into the bowl of my stand mixer.
Then both types of sugars (white and brown) are added to the bowl. You are going to combine them until they are fully incorporated.
🧈 Why melted butter? Because in this recipe I am looking to make a cookie that is chewier and fudgier. If I want a more puffy cookie I would use softened butter. But don't worry the melted butter won't make the cookies spread more in the oven because we are going to chill the dough first.
Once the sugar and butter are mixed together, then add in the whole egg, egg yolk, and whole milk. If you are using an extract add that now as well.
Once that is fully mixed, it's time to grab your bowl of the dry ingredients. You don't want to dump it in at once, that will cause flour to be throw up in the air. You want to add some at a time with the mixer on low. You could add a ¼ of the flour/cocoa mixture at a time.
Once your dough has come together, just stir in your chips. I like to do that with a spatula and not use the mixer.
To keep the cookies from spreading, chill the dough before hand. I would do that for at least a half hour.
Using a disher, I scoop the cookies onto a sheet pan lined with parchment or a reusable silicone oven safe mat. The key is to try and get the cookies to be the same size so that they will cook evenly.
How to Tell When Done
The biggest challenge in baking these cookies is telling when they are done. A standard chocolate chip cookie without the cocoa powder will start to brown. When the cookie looks set on top but not hard, than the cookie should be done. I always recommend only baking a few at first so you can get your timing right.
You could use an instant read thermometer to tell if they are done. Make sure you get a reading in the middle of the cookie and that it reads between 175 and 185 degrees.
Learn more about using thermometers for all your cooking and baking.
📦 How to Store
Grab your favorite air tight container to store your cookies in. Choose one that has a lid that snaps on and doesn't easily come off. While you don't need to keep them in the fridge, I actually like eating these cookies cold. There is just something about cold chocolate that I love.
👩🍳 More Cookie Recipes
Here are some other cookie recipes for you to try out.
- Pink Peppercorn Sugar Cookies
- No Frosted Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles
- Gluten Free Sugar Cookies
- Meyer Lemon Anise Cookies
Nestle Dark Chocolate & Mint Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter
- 2 cups bread flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup white granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cups brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons of extract either all vanilla, all mint, or all peppermint or some combination of them that equal 1 ½ teaspoons
- ½ bag Nestle Dark Chocolate
- ½ bag Guittard or other brand Mint Chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Combine the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda into a medium sized bowl and put aside.
- Melt the butter and pour it into a large bowl or the mixing bowl from your stand mixer.
- Add both of the sugars and cream them into the butter.
- Then add both the egg and the egg yolk, the milk, and whatever extract you chose. Mix well to evenly distribute.
- Then add the flour and cocoa powder slowly while the mixer is going so it doesn't go flying everywhere.
- Then stir in the chips or morsels.
- Place the dough in the fridge for at least a half hour. Allowing the dough to chill will harden the fat (butter) so that the cookies won't spread as much in the oven. If you want your cookies to spread more than just skip this step and you will end up with a more crisp cookie.
- Scoop the cookies onto a baking sheet with parchment paper on it, or a Slipat. I can usually fit about 6 cookies per sheet.
- In my oven I bake them for about 10-12 minutes. It's a good idea to check the cookies after 5 minutes to gauge how long you should cook them. Since this cookies are dark already because of the cocoa it will be more of a challenge to tell when they are done. I always give some time for the first batch to cool to be sure I baked them the right amount of time (if not I adjust accordingly from then on). I typically get about 18 good-sized cookies out of this recipe. Enjoy!
Leave a Reply