First of all.....HAPPY PI DAY!!!! Today is March 14th or in the math world we say 3.14
So in honor of pi day, I baked something in the shape of a circle and in honor of St. Patrick's day coming up, I baked something green...see what I did there...now that's called killing two birds with one stone!
Celebrating Pi day is a great way to get involved in math and start enjoying it. Calculating or finding the number pi (3.14...) is not hard and you can find it on anything that is in the shape of a circle (just not a 3D object like a ball because it would be hard to find the diameter). So before you make these amazing cookies, go and do a little bit of research on the number Pi. I'm sure you will be intrigued. (Can you tell I am a math teacher yet? haha) I can drive my students crazy by being this excited about math! It's awesome!!!
Okay so back to these delicious cookies.
The name of these cookie are a mouthful right?! Mint Green Tea Chocolate Chip Cookies. And that's also what you will be doing with them as well....enjoying mouthfuls of cookies ;)
So the inspiration for these cookies came from way back when I first posted about my Green Tea Shake. There is nothing more frustrating to me as a person who loves to cook than to go and purchase a "special" ingredient and then using it once or just being able to use it in one recipe. I like to use all of the ingredients I have in multiple ways so that I feel like I am getting my money's worth. So bust out your Matcha Green Tea powder people because this recipe is going to keep you coming back for more!
So here are all of the ingredients....
Ingredients:
2 cups flour (white or wheat)
2 tbsp. Matcha Green Tea Powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter (a stick and a half)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. mint extract
1 cup chocolate chips (I always use dark cacao bittersweet chocolate)
Milk chocolate chips just don't do anything for me. You will find that dark chocolate is better for you and you can start small if you aren't a huge dark chocolate lover. My husband is everything milk chocolate but when I use dark chocolate chips in my desserts he loves them!
Instructions:
1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a small bowl: flour, green tea powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix really well and then set aside.
2. Make sure your butter is room temperature and really soft. It helps blending the rest of the ingredients together and cuts back on the blending time.
3. In a separate bowl from your dry ingredients start with blending the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Blend until mixed well. Less than one minute.
4. Next, blend in the vanilla extract, mint extract, and eggs. Blend really well for 1-2 minutes.
5. Now add the dry ingredients until all the flour has been absorbed and the whole mixture is "wet." About another minute of blending.
6. Lastly, add the chocolate chips and either blend for a very short amount of time with your hand mixer or mix in with a wooden spoon.
Now this is how I do the last part of my cookies. I don't set my oven until I am completely done mixing my ingredients because I like to let the dough chill in the fridge while the oven is heating and then it gives me time to clean some dishes.
7. Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees and set dough in fridge to chill. When the oven is done heating then line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray. Spoon out the dough in small balls. I like to flatten the dough balls with the back of my spoon so that my cookies aren't piled high in the middle. I then have an even, flat cookie when it is done baking.
8. Bake for 10 minutes and then try to save some for your kids!!!
This cookie recipe is a great one to get hooked on because it uses less sugar than your normal typical cookie recipe. It is still sweet and packs a ton of flavor. A typical cookie recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter and 2 cups or more of sugar. This recipe only contains one cup of sugar!
My husband is always my true critic. He tells me exactly how it tastes. And he actually loves them! I said that they tasted like mint chocolate chip ice cream and he said they tasted like a fluffy and soft version of the Girl Scouts Thin Mint Cookie. Either one is fine to me because I love them both :)