One of the products at Trader Joe's I miss are the Mint UFOs. I'm not the biggest mint fan, but some forms of chocolate mint hit the spot and the UfOS sure did. They were also the inspiration behind this cookie which I called Fat & Fudgy Mocha Mint Cookies. Since I haven't seen any UFOs in a while (which is not to say they don't exist!), I recommend using any mint flavored chocolate bar or you could try the peppermint candy chips or maybe even chopped up peppermint bark.
I really need to take some new photos of these, but you can see by the old one how fat these are. For the chocolate, I used melted Ghirardelli brand chips along with a little natural cocoa powder. I suppose if you use a different brand of bittersweet chocolate and maybe a dark cocoa you would get a cookie with more of a black than brown color. I might try that for the next round.
So here's the recipe, which is adapted from one by Nancy Baggett. Hers were not mint, but rather white chocolate chunk with espresso powder.
Recipe
Fat & Fudgy Mocha Mint Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter (115 grams)
- 5 oz dark or bittersweet chocolate chips
- 2 large eggs
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder dissolved in a tablespoon of hot water
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons natural cocoa
- 6 oz mint flavored dark chocolate chopped**
Instructions
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. Add chocolate chips, remove from heat and stir until chocolate is melted with residual heat.
- Let cool for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the eggs, salt, vanilla and sugar together in a large bowl using an electric mixer for about 3 minutes or until light and slightly thickened. Beat in the espresso/water, followed by the melted chocolate chip butter mixture.
- Mix together the flour and the cocoa, then add to batter and stir until absorbed. Stir in the chopped mint chocolate. Chill for 1 ½ hours or until dough is thick enough to shape into balls
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper. Scoop dough up by well-rounded tablespoons and shape into 1 ½ inch balls. Bake for 9-12 minutes. Let cool.
Anna says
Hi Valerie,
I am so sorry to hear your cookies failed. Bummer! A few people have mentioned things that helped the cookies stay puffly. First off, using natural cocoa (not Dutch process) is more important that one might think. Natural cocoa has more acid in it and in some recipes, that acid is needed to react and cause the air bubbles to expand and the cookies to rise. Also, unbleached flour can often contribute to flatter cookies. Bleached (as mentioned by Joan) is better for puffy cookies. Cooling the chocolate mixture is important, too. About the semi-sweet chocolate, I think in your case that might have been the problem. Semi-sweet chocolate has more sugar than bittersweet and more sugar = more spreading. Still, I am really sorry things went awry and I hope you try the recipe again with the bittersweet chocolate, maybe some bleached flour, and cooled chocolate.
Valerie says
Wow, I was so excited I decided to quadruple the batch for a cookie exchange without ever doing a test batch. My cookies came out so flat, the kitchen walls were jealous! So sad!, Epic cookie fail. It must be me, but I measured and weighed everything and followed recipe to the "T" EXCEPT used semi-sweet instead of bittersweet...maybe too high of fat content and that's the problem?!?
I have to try these again, because I WILL achieve fat and fudgy!!! Oh yes, I will!!!!!!!
Justine says
Upon making these for a third time, they finally didn't flatten! My family loves these cookies.
joan says
Hi Anna, I did give these another go, and they did not come out flat this time. I used natural cocoa (not Dutch processed). I also used bleached all-purpose flour this time, because I read on Rose Levy Beranbaum's blog that unbleached flour could result in a flatter product. I live in King Arthur country here in New England, so I typically use their all purpose unbleached flour. I also cooled the chocolate mixture a bit more, used room temperature eggs. I didn't have enough UFO's for the recipe, so I added some Nestle's dark chocolate & mint chip mixture, plus these crazy mint-covered malted milk balls. The mint malt balls added a little crunch, but then sort of stuck to my teeth.... I'm not sure I would use them again as an ingredient, but I might use them as a decoration on top of some minty concoction. Thanks for you help. I love this recipe!
Anna says
I tested these again using more bittersweet chocolate in place of mint. The cookies came out fat, so I think the issue with Joan's flat batch might have been the cocoa.
Vanessa says
Oh my this is AMAZING, I am making these ASAP!
Anna says
I think it might have been the Hershey's Dark. I like Hershey's Dark, but I've had other types of cookies come out flat when I substituted it in place of natural. So *maybe* that's the problem.
Also, when you make the second batch, weigh the flour (50 grams) or make sure you don't measure it too lightly just to be safe.
I'll try these again too. I'm actually going to test with a non-mint flavored chocolate.
joan says
Anna, Thanks so much for getting back to me. Yes, I did beat the eggs quite a while. They were light and pale yellow when done, but I didn't time the beating exactly. Maybe I overbeat them and the bubbles collapsed? I did, indeed, use Ghiradelli chips, the 62% cocoa ones. I am kind of an impatient baker, so I might not have cooled the chocolate butter mixture long enough, and maybe that made the bubbles collapse. I used Hersheys dark cocoa, which I believe is 1/2 natural and 1/2 Dutch process, so maybe that was the culprit! You are a genius! Now I am dying to try these again (I have some leftover UFOs) to see if I can get them to bake up to look like yours. Thanks SO much, Anna.
Anna says
Argh, I'm sorry Joan. Let's trouble-shoot since mine were definitely fat and there aren't any typos in the ingedient list.
First off, did you use Ghirardelli bittersweet Baking chips or did you try to sub regular semi-sweet chocolate. I've noticed that when I used melted chips in certain cookie recipes (as opposed to bar chocolate), the cookies come out fatter. It must be due to something in the chips that helps give them structure.
Second, did you beat the eggs for the full 3 minutes? These cookies don't have any leavening other than air, so you have to really beat a lot of air.
Third, did you use Dutched cocoa? I used natural which is more acidic. Maybe the acid in the natural cocoa made the cookies rise more? I'm not sure if that's the case since there's no other leavening to react with, but maybe the recipe just needed acid to rise. That's a stretch, but I'm trying to cover all bases.
And then of course, it could have been the flour. Still, with a such a small amount to begin with I don't think the flour would make much of a difference.
joan says
Hi Anna, I , too, have the madness, and I LOVE your blog. I had to rush over to TJ's so I could try these. My cookies came out delicious, but they were more like "Thin and Fudgy Mocha Mint Cookies." I chilled the dough for over 2 hours, and even then there was no way I could shape the dough into balls. So I just plopped out dollops of the dough onto the silpat, chilled the cookie sheets with the dough on them in the fridge, and baked. No one complained while eating them. Any thoughts? More flour, one less egg, add some leavening?
AJ says
"Rich, delectable spheres of minty dark chocolate." Well who *wouldn't* get sucked in?!?
Really like this recipe; reminds me of one my mom and I used to do for Christmas every year (my choice). We melted Andes mints on the top and made green and brown swirleys with the melted candy. Good times.
Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) says
My husband has fallen in love with those mint UFOs, too, and now that Trader Joe's has opened in Rhode Island, it's all too easy to get our hands on them. I've always been a fan of chocolate and mint together, whether in a cookie or in ice cream.
Therese B. says
Yum a luma ding dong these look great!
I wish that we had a Trader Joes! However,
I have seen the endangerd species chocolate in the stores!
I am still eating those out of this world
candy in a oatmeal cookie...they have stay
fresh for a long time!
Lisa Ernst says
My kind of recipe -- lots of chocolate, not much flour. These look enticing! There's also a good option in the Valor 70% with mint bar.
Fallon says
I've had those UFO mints before. I know exactly how you feel!!!
These cookies would definitely fix a chocolate craving.
LisAway says
Oh, I need some of these. I'm a sucker for all things mint and chocolate. I'll definitely be trying these out!
Monica Erskine says
They look out of this world!
Monica Erskine
Endangered Species Chocolate
Katrina says
What a great post. No TJ's here. So no UFO's. I AM surprised to see you liking something minty as I knew you didn't. "They" must have done something to you.
The cookies sure look good! I personally enjoy the chocolate/mint combo!
cookienurse says
Thanks for the cookie, Anna. Looks delicious as always! Hope you will be feeling better soon...