cookies!

I am going out of town for a week and wanted to take some treats with me. Since I have so much mint, I hit on the idea of making cookies with fresh mint from the yard. So, I did some web searching and turned up these two recipes (one uses dried mint) that I tinkered with a little bit and I thought they turned out well.

To dry the mint for the first recipe, I nuked it in the microwave on high between two paper towels for 20-30 second intervals until it seemed crunchy. Then I forced it through a fine sieve to grind it. I think it turned out well. I used peppermint in both recipes, but am going to make a second batch of the chocolate chip cookies with chocolate mint.

Mint Cookies
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp to 1 tbsp ground dried mint leaves
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream butter and sugar. Add mint, flour and salt. Mix thoroughly. Chill dough. Form small balls and roll in sugar. Press with thumb in the center. Bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes.

Mint Almond White Chocolate Chip Cookies (basically Toll House cookies with a few changes)
2 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c (2 sticks) softened butter
3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 c packed brown sugar
1 tsp almond extract
2 large eggs
2 c (12 oz package) white chocolate chips
1 c chopped almonds
1/4 c finely chopped fresh mint

Preheat oven to 375 F
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and almond extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips, nuts and mint. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 9-11 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooking racks.