Let’s Make a #HousefulOfCookies!

Today I’m participating in the #HousefulOfCookies blog hop, hosted by my friend Natasha of Houseful of Nicholes. You can follow the hashtag on Twitter or Instagram to find the recipes that have been posted so far, or if you like to make your life a little easier you can just go to Natasha’s post that lists everyone’s cookies and links.

Today I am delighted to share one of my favorite holiday cookies (both to make and to eat), Chocolate Mint Sugar Cookie Drops. The recipe is by Nestlé. I started making these cookies more than twenty years ago and their biggest fan in our family is my older son, Dylan. They are so super easy and quick to make that they have become one of my three go-to cookies on the years when I’m just not into making fifteen different cookie recipes.

I used to be able to find Nestlé mint chocolate chips (combined flavors, brown chips) in the stores during the holiday season, but the last few years my search has been fruitless and so I have to get their seasonal “mint and dark chocolate chip mix” (light green and brown chips). It’s okay. The mix is good.

I don’t think I need to go into any detail about mixing the recipe ingredients, but I will give you two helpful hints.

Number one: get a cookie scoop.

The cookie scoop is one of the best inventions EVER. With the scoop in my right hand, I pack the dough into it, and then (I have clean hands, by the way: PLEASE wash your hands) I pop the dough balls out into my left hand and with heavy concentration, because I’m not nearly as ambidextrous as my mom is (fun fact!), roll them in the sugar and place them on the cookie sheet. I’m my own efficient production line. (Another fun fact: this recipe contains vegetable oil rather than butter, making it the only raw cookie dough I will not eat.)

Number two: If your grown kid happens to be a huge fan of the cookies, he’s probably also a fan of the mint and dark chocolate chip mix. If he has made it a habit to snack on said chip mix after dinner, you might find this in the freezer where you thought a full bag would be*:

If that happens, you’ll probably be able to locate (under a bunch of random stuff in the freezer) a bag of Andes Crème De Menthe Baking Chips, which are available in the baking aisle all year round and actually–in your (err, MY) opinion–make prettier cookies because they’re chopped up smaller than the chocolate chips.

Either way, the cookies are a big hit, and will make you famous (maybe). Enjoy!

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