My Favorite Tip for Making Cookie Dough Ahead of Time and a Recipe for Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies - 365 Days of Slow Cooking and Pressure Cooking

These soft baked, chewy chocolate mint chip cookies are ultra chocolate-y and have the perfect amount of mint flavor from the festive green mint chips. They taste like the cookie form of a an Andes mint. Have them ready at the drop of a hat with my handy dandy kitchen tip for making cookie dough ahead of time.

It’s officially Christmas time people! I’m running out of time and freaking out just a little bit. I have 100 things on my to-do list and the days feel like minutes! But don’t you worry, I always have time for making cookies! Ha ha. It’s actually one of my very favorite things to do in my kitchen. And I hope you don’t mind me sharing another cookie recipe this week. I feel like at this time of the year it’s always fun to try new sweet treat recipes.

Kitchen Tip: Before I share the recipe with you, let me give you a little tip I learned from my sister, Melanie. You see, one time she babysat my kids. I came home to find something amazing in the freezer. It was a bag of chocolate chip cookie dough balls. They were all perfectly sized and individually frozen. It was like manna from heaven. After I popped a few in my mouth uncooked (you know you do it too) I realized that they would be perfect for those times that you just HAVE to make cookies but don’t have the time. Because let’s me honest, homemade cookies are 1000% better than any tube of refrigerated dough that you can buy.

Here’s how you to it:

Chocolate mint chip cookies...make ahead for Santa

1. Use a cookie scoop to perfectly proportion out your dough into little balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet. It is very important to use parchment paper or else the dough will stick to bottom of the cookie sheet! Put the cookie sheet into the freezer for a couple of hours.

How to make cookie dough ahead of time and freeze it

2. Pop the individually frozen balls of dough into a Hefty Slider Freezer Bag. The reason that the Hefty Slider bags are the best to use is because you absolutely know they are closed and they will keep the dough from getting freezer burn. I used the gallon size freezer bag but you could also use the quart size if you don’t have a lot of dough to freeze.

keep cookie dough fresh by using a hefty slider bag

3. Place the Hefty Slider Bag in the freezer until ready to bake. When ready to bake place the cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake in a preheated oven for 1-2 extra minutes than the recipe calls for.

Make these chocolate mint cookies for Santa!

One thing that I like to do is make a big batch of cookie dough. Then I bake one cookie sheet and freeze the rest of it, using the method I talked about above. Then it’s easy to make just ONE sheet of cookies at a time ensuring that I eat the softest, freshest cookies that are hot out of the oven. Because let’s face it, that is exactly the BEST way to eat cookies…hot out of the oven. OR if you want to eat just 2 cookies you can easily make 2 cookies at a time in 10 minutes! This method is also perfect for parties. Make cookie dough ahead of time and bake just before the party starts.

Another tip: Okay something else that I must tell you is that if you don’t have time to roll the dough into balls and freeze it you can just roll up the entire batch of dough into a big log and freeze it that way. Then you can easily slice half inch pieces of dough and bake it or if you’re making sugar cookie dough or gingerbread dough you can easily roll it out. For more awesome cookie baking tips be sure to visit this page.

Why not try out these methods of freezing cookie dough with this recipe for chocolate mint chip cookies? If you love chocolate mint stuff you will love these cookies. With the green chips, these are perfectly festive for Christmas-time!

Santa will love these chocolate mint chip cookies!
Make the dough ahead of time and freeze to have ready on Christmas Eve!

Recipe for Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies

Makes 30 small cookies

1/2 cup room temperature butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup white flour

1/2 cup +
2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp milk

1 1/2 cups mint chips (I used the Guittard brand)

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (optional but I like a lot of chocolate in my cookies)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream together the butter and sugars using a mixer.

2. Add in egg and vanilla and mix
until well blended.

3. While the mixer is running,
slowly add in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Scrape
down the sides and mix until combined. Add in the milk and mix.

4. Fold in the mint chips and
chocolate chips.

5. Use a small 1 Tbsp cookie scoop
to scoop the dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.

6. Bake for 8-10 minutes. The
cookies won’t look totally done but that’s okay. Let rest on cookie sheet
for 2 minutes and then remove from cookie sheet. (I like to pull the
entire sheet of parchment paper off onto the counter and let it cool there).

This post was made possible by Hefty, a brand I love and use all the time!

P.S. Make cookies!!!

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