Scoutin' for Thin Mints

Today, I am proud to present to you vegan Thin Mint cookies!


As a kid growing up in West Africa, I was not exposed to a lot of typical American childhood treats such as the classic Girl Scout Thin Mints. The extent of my experience with American candy was limited to jolly ranchers and fruit roll-ups that our American friends shared with us whenever they got packages from back home. Only after I went to the US for college did any real attachment to American-style treats develop. Particularly my freshman year of college, I think I ate my weight in chewy chocolate chip cookies, fudgy brownies, peppermint patties, and pumpkin pie... it was as if I were making up for all the lost opportunities in the past. But I digress. Back to the thin mints. Even though I didn't grow up eating anything remotely resembling girl scout thin mints, for some reason, I've recently been craving these infamous cookies and their classic chocolate-mint combination. Isn't it amazing how cravings and comfort foods can randomly develop at any time and age, regardless of childhood upbringing or cultural background? Unfortunately, in Korea, we don't have little girl scouts knocking on our apartment doors selling these cookies, so I had to resort to making my own.


For the cookie part, I sort of combined several different recipes into one. I can never seem to follow a recipe as told- I either have trust issues, or the rebel within just refuses to follow the directions. Anyway, a lot of the recipes I found for chocolate wafer cookies use some kind of buttery spread or shortening, but I wanted to make mine with easy-to-find canola oil. In the end, my cookies were more like chocolate shortbread cookies- a bit heavier and less crispy, yet they still had a nice firm 'bite' to them. I'm currently playing around with various wafer recipes, trying to get the perfect chocolate wafer cookie, but for these denser cookies, here's what I did:

For the chocolate cookie:
1/3 c pastry/cookie flour
1/3 c whole wheat flour
6 Tbs cocoa powder
1/4 c canola oil
1/4 c agave syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp peppermint oil

1. Sift & whisk dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
3. Add wet to dry and mix til everything is incorporated. Shape into a ball and wrap in plastic. Chill in fridge for about 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350F or 175C.
5. Remove dough from fridge and roll out thinly (about 1/8 inch) between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Cut shapes with a cookie cutter and gently transfer to baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat until all dough is used.
6. Bake for about 10-12 minutes. Let cool on rack before coating with chocolate.

For the chocolate coating:
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/4 tsp peppermint oil (or to taste)

1. Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave, pausing it every 30 seconds to mix.
2. Add the peppermint oil and mix well.
3. Dip the cookies into the chocolate, and turn over with a fork or chopsticks. Let any extra chocolate drip off and place them on parchment paper to cool. You can leave them out or put them in the fridge to cool faster. Enjoy!


I was bored and poked fork-holes in the tops of the cookies. Sometimes I like to add unnecessary steps to a recipe. ha.


Here are the cookies, baked and fully cooled. You could just eat them as is, but my advice is to try to resist eating all of them plain, because they taste infinitely better enveloped in a layer of dark, minty chocolate, like so:


Ah, the best (and messiest) part- the chocolate coating! Don't bother trying to keep your fingers clean-- you will get chocolate all over, but worse things could happen.^^ I used the back of a spoon to make those 'ripples' in the chocolate, but you could just leave the tops smooth.


Et voila~ Vegan Thin Mintz!


Yes, that is not a real mint leaf, but just a random leaf that I plucked from my mom's veggie garden (shhhh~!). The picture needed something green... :P


Cross-sectional view. For a first attempt, I thought my thin mints were pretty bomb. Texture-wise, the cookies could be a little crispier and lighter (more wafer-like), but in terms of their taste, let's just say they reminded me of my college days. And for me, that's mission accomplished.


To satisfy that kid within, I dunked my cookie in a cool glass of [non-dairy] milk. Happy days.


The great balancing act.


Here are more thin mintz and pumpkin biscotti packaged up to be mailed to a friend. You want summa dis? :)