Mint Cookie Bars

These cookie bars are a perfect addition to any dessert buffet or for a sweet treat after dinner.  It is a classic sugar-cookie dough for the base and then minty nonpariels are added into the dough before baking.  And the colors of the non-perils are just sooooooooo pretty and springy!

Mint Cookie Bars

Yields 24 Cookie Bars

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature

1.5 Cups Granulated Sugar

3 Eggs

2 Teaspoons Vanilla

3 and 3/4 Cups Flour

3/4 Teaspoon Salt

1/4 HEAPING Teaspoon Baking Soda (or 1/4 and 1/8th teaspoon)

2 Cups Mint Nonpariel Candies (small size)

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 375F.

2.  Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. 

3.  Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 

4.  Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. 

5.  Add the vanilla to the creamed mixture and then slowly add the dry ingredients.

6.  Stir in the minty candies.

7.  Press into a greased 9x13 cake pan and bake at 375F for 10-15 minutes.

Crazy Cake

Have you ever heard of crazy cake?  And what really makes it crazy versus a regular cake?   Well, let me first tell you that it's crazy because it doesn't use any eggs.  Wha--wha--what?  You read it right - no eggs in this recipe!!  As well, it's a one bowl recipe and you can even stir it with a fork.  I call that not-crazy . . or simply AWESOME!

And what's the perfect occassion for a crazy cake??  How about the craziest holiday of them all . . .St. Patrick's Day!  To give this cake a little holiday flair - I added some chopped Andes Mints.  I'm not entirely sure why we associate Irish with mint . .is it simply the green color?  Honestly, I'm not Irish nor have I ever been to Ireland.  Sounds like some crazy American theory (in my honest opinion)!

Crazy Cake

Ingredients:

1 Cup Sugar

3 Tablespoons Cocoa

1 and 1/2 Cups Flour

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Soda

1/4 Cup + 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil

1 Tablespoon Vinegar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Cup Cold Water

Optional:

1 Cup Andes Mints, Roughly Chopped 

Step 1:  Prepare an 8x8 baking pan and set aside.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 2:  Add all dry ingredients to a mixing bowl.  Stir together until well blended.

Step 3:  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.  Pour batter into prepared pan.  If adding the Andes Mints, sprinkle them on top of the batter (they will sink while baking).

Step 4:  Pour cake batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Serving Idea:  Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzle with chocolate syrup and creme de menthe and a dollop of whipped cream.  

Butter Mints

Here in the Midwest it's common practice to put out a little dish of mints at dinner parties, bridal or baby showers, weddings and special events.  Often, it's store bought pastel  mints and many times people will mix the mints with nuts when they set them out.  My husband loves those mints.  And I love candy.  What happens when you mix those two statements together:  the wifey decides to make the hubby homemade butter mints.  

These turned out really great!  It took less than an hour from start to finish to make these and the recipe is plentiful.  I had enough for our family to enjoy for a few days and I also packaged them up in little bags along with some peanuts and gave them out to my coworkers on Valentine's Day.  Everyone absolutely loved them. 

Butter Mint Recipe

3 Tablespoons of Butter

1/4 Cup of Half and Half

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

2 Teaspoons Mint Extract

1 Pound of Powder Sugar

1-2 Drops of Food Coloring (optional)

In a small bowl, melt butter in the microwave.  Meanwhile, add the Half and Half, Vanilla and Mint into  the bowl of your stand mixer.  Add the Butter.  Next, add about a quarter of the powder sugar and mix well.  Turn off the mixer and add another quarter of the remaining sugar and then blend well.  Turn off the mixer again and add the remaining powder sugar and mix until well blended.  If desired, add your desired food coloring and mix one more time until the color is evenly disbursed.  The mixture should be the consistency of play-dough:  slightly damp, but not too dry.  

To shape, pinch a piece of dough off and roll into a small ball.  Then, on a clean surface, roll out the ball into a small log.  I rolled my dough out so that it was roughly the same width of my pinky finger.  Continue to do this until all the dough is rolled out.  Then, line the rolls up and slice pieces into a 1/4-inch to 1/2 inch pieces.    Place on a cookie sheet, uncovered, and let dry out for a minimum of 1 day.  The longer they air dry, the harder they will become - but will still melt in your mouth when eaten.

Yield:  I don't know.  It made a lot.  I used two jelly roll pans to dry them all out.  If I guessed, I would say it would fill 3 regular regular-sized sandwiched baggies.

I really, really liked these.  I know I will be making them again sometime soon.  I have some Cinnamon extract that I've been dying to use . . .and I think this would be a great recipe to try it out with (skip the Mint and use the Cinnamon).