ADD FRESH MINT TO CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES 

The fresh mint in the picture above is a week old. I got it at a little grocer's shop close to the place I go to for pilates. It surprises me that the leaves are still so fresh after a week. A week! I've never had mint last a week. The mint I get from the many other places starts to wilt and the leaves turn black and mushy after only a day. The grocers must get their supply from some fine growers. How green are their thumbs and what are they putting in their soil?

I've tried growing mint in a pot on my balcony many times. Every article I've read about mint and every person I've spoken to about it says mint is one of the easiest plants to grow. Just stick a cutting in soil and it'll be growing like a weed in no time, they tell me. That makes me feel shamefully small and useless since every cutting I've potted, while initially showing promise, has ended up lacklustre and insipid like so many American Idols after their win. (At least I can uproot my plants and start over with new soil and fertiliser.)

Minty rice salad

Mint is one of those herbs I like to use like a salad leaf, especially when it is as lush as the bunch I recently bought. In the rice salad and the chicken noodles shown here, mint leaves feature prominently.

Mint is also used in confection, usually cold desserts, but often, only as that bit of garnish on top of the cream or fruit. Why shouldn't it be an ingredient with a more starring role in a sweet?

With that in mind, I looked around for something minty and sweet. Mint and chocolate go well together and when I searched for "fresh mint and chocolate", lo and behold, there are several recipes online with the two ingredients together.

Minty chicken noodles

Fresh mint is easy to incorporate onto a chocolate chip ice cream, for example, but a fresh mint and chocolate chip cookies is quite unusual. Here are a number of sites with recipes:
Une Gamine dans la Cuisine
Homecookingrocks
Spabettie
Heather Cristo Cooks

Like a lot of people, I have my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe, and here I would just have to add chopped fresh mint to it. However, I thought I would try something else and decided to go with Michael Ruhlman's ratio which uses the same amount of butter, sugar and flour. With just those ingredients, I'll get a crisp plain cookie, but since I am adding egg and chocolate, it should be slightly softer and chewier. However, when I mixed the dough, it was a little too soft for my liking and didn't firm up very much after chilling in the fridge. So I added a little more flour. The dough still spread out quite a bit in the oven, but it has the texture of a brandy snap, only without the lacy look.

Minty chocolate cookies

CHOCOLATE & FRESH MINT WAFERS
Makes 16 cookies

50g butter, softened
50g soft brown sugar
White from 1 medium egg
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
80g plain flour
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
50g coarsely chopped dark chocolate
4-6 tbsp coarsely chopped mint leaves (depending on strength of mint and individual preference)

• Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in egg white and vanilla extract.
• Combine flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt; add to butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks and mint (to taste). Place the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up.
• Meanwhile, preheat oven at 180°C. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop heaped teaspoons of the dough onto the sheets 7cm apart; bake until golden brown, 10-12 minutes. 
• Leave the cookies to cool on the sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Pretty flecks of green 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

MAC 'N' CHOC-RY SANDWICHES

It has been a tiring week at work. I haven't been cooking as even the simplest task of boiling water for pasta and tossing it with a few slices of fried garlic and tinned anchovies has been too much for me. My lunches have been mostly from the shops around my workplace but being a little heavy, they make me quite lethargic.

But last night I decided that I needed to bake something and it had to be something simple because I wasn't in the mood to knead, beat or whisk. The item still had to look pretty though.

Well, since I am currently fixated on biscuits/cookies, it would have to be something of that persuasion. The fridge and pantry didn't have much but there was enough to make coconut macaroons. With half a tin of cherries sitting in the back of the fridge and a whole bag of white chocolate on hand, the macaroons could even be sandwich cookies.

Within minutes I was done with the mixing. The oven was heating up and I was ready to spoon portions of the coconut mixture onto the parchment-lined baking sheet when I looked at the instructions again (the recipe is scribbled in rather bad handwriting) and noticed that I had to refrigerate the mixture overnight.

I debated on whether to chance it and go ahead and bake. I mean, the cookies wouldn't turn out bad, surely?

In the end, the instructions won and I turned off the oven, put the coconut mixture in the fridge. The chocolate cherry filling wasn't difficult to make and I wanted it in the fridge too so it was quickly made and I washed up.

As soon as I was up this morning, the macaroons were shaped, baked and cooled before I sandwiched a pair with the pink crème that had nicely firmed up overnight. Not an ideal breakfast, but cute enough to keep me happy until the end of the day. TGIF.

CHOC-CHERRY COCONUT CRÈMES

Makes 10 sandwiches

Dainty little bites

50g dessicated coconut
50g caster sugar
2 medium egg whites
½ teaspoon coconut extract
Pinch of salt

• Stir together all the ingredients. Refrigerate, covered, at least 1 hour or overnight.


• Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line baking sheets with parchment. Form heaping teaspoonfuls of the coconut mixture into balls and place on the sheets; flatten into discs. These cookies do not spread so they can be placed close together. Bake, rotating the sheets halfway through for even cooking, until edges begin to turn golden, 9-10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; cool completely.


• Sandwich two cookies together with the Chocolate Cherry Filling (recipe follows).

Chocolate Cherry Filling
70g white chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons sour cream
35g tinned cherries, drained (about 7)*
Dash of balsamic vinegar

• Melt chocolate and sour cream together in the microwave or in a double boiler over simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in the cherries and vinegar. Cool, then blend until smooth. Refrigerate to firm up to a spreading consistency before using.

* Alternatively, use a little more than a tablespoon of cherry jam (or other red fruit jam).

PRINTABLE RECIPE

BEDTIME BISCUIT 

Give me a packet of Fig Newtons and I will polish it off in one sitting. Heck, give me two packets and I may only falter with the last two slices to go. I will eat it all and not feel an iota of guilt for it. I will not skip meals or even think of the exercise I will have to do to work off the empty calories. That is how much I love Fig Newtons (not named for Sir Isaac Newton, by the way).


Unfortunately, Fig Newtons are hard to come by in Malaysia nowadays. Although, I have to say that the last time I managed to get them, I didn't feel like eating the whole packet. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think they tasted quite the way I remembered them. Perhaps my tastes have changed or I have just grown up and no longer feel the childhood glee of getting a biscuit that seemed so exotic because it came "from overseas".

Ingredients can now be made in a lab, but I won't speculate on whether the company that produces Fig Newtons is doing anything different to their recipe and just go on to making my own biscuit based on what I remember.

It's not difficult to get figs, but since dates are in abundance at the moment due to the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan which starts today, I want to get this dried fruit in everything. Already I have made a sticky glaze for chicken and a rice salad with dates, and now on to some confection.

Deglet Nour: Cheery, sunny and a good eating date

Because figs have those tiny seeds and dates don't, I have added poppy seeds to the date filling to replicate the texture of the Fig Newton filling. Another ingredient I added but which I did not include in the recipe below is glacé pineapple. I used only one little ring of it (chopped up and cooked with the dates), and while I don't think it makes a big difference, there is a hint of tartness in the filling which I like. The pineapple is purely optional, of course.

To make the rolls, I divide the dough into four because it's easier to handle smaller portions. The dough is quite soft, and it's easier to roll it out between cling film. In fact, a rolling pin isn't even necessary as the dough can be easily pressed out with my hands. The cling film also helps form straight edges.

The verdict: These date pillows (the name is from a biscuit recipe book that I no longer have)  may slightly resemble traditional Fig Newtons but besides the fact that they don't contain figs, are quite different. The date pillows are made with natural ingredients, organic flour and free-range eggs, and the pastry is more tender and buttery, but I have to admit I prefer the texture of the commercial Fig Newton pastry as it is not so crumbly. I'll need to work on the dough some more.

For now, I am happy to have a batch of good homemade biscuits on stand-by. Next time, I must remember not to try them as soon as they come out of the oven no matter how tempting they look. That date filling is hot!

Another slice?

DATE PILLOWS

Makes 20 cookies

Dough
125g butter
75g caster (fine) sugar
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
220g pastry flour sifted with a pinch of salt

Filling
225g dried dates, chopped
1½ tablespoons poppy seeds 
40-50g caster sugar (to taste)
100ml water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Egg wash (combined)
1 medium egg
¼ teaspoon water
Pinch of salt

• To make the dough, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg gradually and mix thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and mix just to combine. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the refrigerator.
• To make the filling, place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat. Turn down heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened and there is no more liquid in the pan, about 5 minutes. Process or blend for a few seconds until smooth. Set aside to cool.
• To assemble the date pillows, divide the dough into four portions. Work with one quarter at a time and refrigerate the other portions. Place one portion on a piece of cling film, cover with another piece and roll or press out into a 10cm x 20cm rectangle. Use the edge of the cling film to help neaten and even out the edges of the dough. Brush the edges with egg wash. Place a quarter of the filling along the centre of each piece of dough. Use the edge of the cling film to fold the edge of the dough up to cover the filling. Roll each log so that the seam is on the bottom. Leave the cling film in and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
• Line baking sheets with parchment. Preheat oven to 180°C. Remove filled logs from the fridge, place onto the parchment-line sheets and unwrap the cling film carefully. Make deep slits in the logs 4cm apart but do not cut all the way through.
• Egg-wash the top of the logs. Bake until nicely browned, 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the sheet; while still warm, slice the logs all the way through to separate the pillows and cool them on a wire rack.

PRINTABLE RECIPE