I am sooo bad :-) Cookies!!

[Littlemermaidklb]

So... I had a Thin mint Girl Scout cookie today because my roommate was being mean to me and brought them back from home this weekend. However, I was proud to have only stopped at one! That's not the bad part. I was looking online to find the nutritional info and googling it brought me to a website where someone found a way to make them and have them be healthier! (Relatively speaking of course...) So I thought I would share with all of you! I can't vouch for teh taste of them since I haven't made them yet... so don't shoot the messenger.... but here it is. It comes from this website:

Homemade and All-natural Thin Mint Recipe Recipe - 101 Cookbooks
Homemade and All-natural Thin Mint Recipe

Chocolate Wafers:
8 ounces organic butter, room temperature
1 cup organic powdered sugar, (I use Wholesome Sweeteners brand)
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
1 cup cocoa powder (I use Dagoba's cacao powder)
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
Chocolate Peppermint Coating:
1 pound good quality semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 teaspoon plus a couple drops of natural peppermint extract (I use Flavorganics brand, avail. at Whole Foods)

Preheat your oven to 350. Racks in the middle zone.
Make the cookie dough: In a mixer cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and cream some more, scraping the sides of the bowl a couple times if necessary. Stir in the vanilla extract and then the salt and cocoa powder. Mix until the cocoa powder is integrated and the batter is smooth and creamy, sort of like a thick frosting. Add the whole wheat pastry flour and mix just until the batter is no longer dusty looking, it might still be a bit crumbly, and that's o.k. You don't want to over mix and end up with tough cookies.
Turn the dough out onto a counter, gather it into a ball, and kneed it just once or twice to bring it together into once nice, smooth mass. Place the ball of dough into a large plastic bag and flatten it into a disk roughly 3/4-inch thick. Place the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill.
Rollout and bake: Remove the dough from the freezer and roll it out really thin, remember how thin Thin Mints are? That's how thin you need your dough, about 1/8-inch. You can either roll it out between two sheets of plastic, or dust your counter and rolling pin with a bit of flour and do it that way. Stamp out cookies using a 1 1/2-inch cutter (this time I used one with a fluted edge, I've done hearts and other shapes in the past). Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a baking rack if you've got one.

Make the peppermint coating:
While the cookies are in the oven you can get the coating ready. I use a makeshift double boiler to melt chocolate (a metal pan over a saucepan of gently simmering water), but I know many people who swear by melting chocolate in the microwave. Slowly melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until it is glossy and smooth. Stir in the peppermint extract. If you think the chocolate needs a bit more peppermint kick, add more extract a drop or two at a time - but don't go overboard.
Finishing the cookies: You are going to coat the cookies one at a time and then gently set them on a parchment-lined baking sheet to set. Drop one cookie into the chocolate and (using a fork) carefully make sure it gets fully coated. Lift the cookie out of the chocolate with the fork and bang the fork on the side of the pan to drain any extra chocolate off the cookie. You are after a thin, even coating of chocolate. Place on the aforementioned prepared baking sheet, and repeat for the rest of the cookies. Place the cookies in the refrigerator or freezer to set. They will set at room temperature, it just takes much longer, and I prefer them straight out of the freezer anyways
Make 3 or 4 dozen cookies.

Hope this lady doens't mind me sharing her recipe.... at least i cited my source! When I make these for the first time I'll update you all to let you know how they turned out!

[LaraT]

I have never made them but love the 101 Cookbooks site. It is one of my staples and almost every recipe I have gotten from there has been great. If you make them let us know how it turns out.

[feralBoy]

I thought girl scout cookies are considered healthy since they are for a good cause.

How the hell did you eat just one? Are you a zen master? I put thin mints in the freezer, and eat atleast 10 at a time.

[rixatrix]

Dude, organic or not, a cup of powdered sugar and a cup of butter is not going to do my waistline any favors...And then you have a whole BATCH of cookies to contend with, instead of just the one. Ack!

[KasiaMJ]

Originally Posted by rixatrix

Dude, organic or not, a cup of powdered sugar and a cup of butter is not going to do my waistline any favors...And then you have a whole BATCH of cookies to contend with, instead of just the one. Ack!

Rixatrix, I am with you on that one.

[realcdn]

Although I was never really a cookie person (not that I didn't eat them, but they just weren't my junk food of choice), I've found that I still like a little sweet treat. Recently I've started making biscotti. They're low fat, and I've taken a recipe that says it's makes 48 and stretched it to about 60. This makes each one quite reasonable on the calorie count (2 kinds <35, 1<50). And assuming you do the second bake long enough you have to eat them slowly by dipping them in something. Oddly, I use fruit salad a night.

[Silly Sally]

Whatever gets you through the night......it's alright.
It's alright.

One of these is all I need. Very chocolatey, so I take itty bitty bites. And, I can easily convince myself that I'm doing my body good, just like the brand claims.
Welcome to the COCOAVIA® Brand Heart Healthy Snacks Website

Best part is, my kids don't like 'em, so they're ALL MINE!

[Bytsi]

I had a Thin mint Girl Scout cookie today because my roommate was being mean to me and brought them back from home this weekend.

And now by posting the recipe, you're being mean to all of us?

[Nikster]

I am with you SS, those CocoaVia are great! I put them in the freezer too...along with the books suggested 85% cocoa Lindt brand dark chocolate. I have only 1 square, mayyyyyyyyybe 1/2x per week so prolly no realy harm done. I find that I can "guage" my sugar meter with that dark choco. If I don't find it sweet and tastes a bit bitter than I have been eating too much sugar bc when I don't, it DOES taste sweet to me! Just a thought....
Nik~

[Phaedrus49er]

I've totally killed a half-box of Swiss Cake Rolls in the past few days.

[Littlemermaidklb]

Originally Posted by rixatrix

Dude, organic or not, a cup of powdered sugar and a cup of butter is not going to do my waistline any favors...And then you have a whole BATCH of cookies to contend with, instead of just the one. Ack!

Hehe, true, butter and powdered sugar aren't great for ya, but it's 1c of sugar and 8oz buter in 4 dozen cookies, so each cookies isn't THAT bad. And if you bring 3/4 of the recipe in to work and make other people eat them, then you have the same amount of cookies to contend with.... and these don't have all the other random processed crap in them (which tha lady also posts on her site)

Originally Posted by Bytsi

And now by posting the recipe, you're being mean to all of us?

Oops, sorry! But these are... um... "healthier" plus there's work involved... you have to make them before you can eat them... which is so different than opening your freezer and being beckoned by the sight of them! hehe

[GinaKina]

I think my family are the only people in the country who don't like Thin Mints.

Samoas are my poison We have one box of them left. Right now we're working on a peanut butter one, but after eating natural peanut butter for so long, they taste funny to me.

Cookies are my "treat" of choice though!!

[Littlemermaidklb]

I hear ya on the Samoas... they're my favorite... hence why I don't keep them around! (Glad my roommate doesn't like those!)

[nancysmithwp]

I love Hershey's sugar free dark chocolate.

[SpacecityPaula]

I'm with Feralboy... put the thin mints in the freezer and get them icy cold and have them with a huge glass of milk.

Mermaid... you have not done me any favors by posting this recipe.

[Phaedrus49er]

Yep, just finished the box of Little Debbies. Took longer than expected, at least.

Re: GS cookies - the peanut butter patties are my downfall; thin mints are eh.

[Lost Dog]

Originally Posted by GinaKina

I think my family are the only people in the country who don't like Thin Mints.

Samoas are my poison

I don't like the thin mints, either. It's cuz after a sleeve of them, the minty taste makes the 1st row of the frozen Samoas taste terrible.

It's all about the Samoas. Frozen Samoas.

Originally Posted by realcdn

Although I was never really a cookie person (not that I didn't eat them, but they just weren't my junk food of choice), I've found that I still like a little sweet treat. Recently I've started making biscotti. They're low fat, and I've taken a recipe that says it's makes 48 and stretched it to about 60. This makes each one quite reasonable on the calorie count (2 kinds <35, 1<50). And assuming you do the second bake long enough you have to eat them slowly by dipping them in something. Oddly, I use fruit salad a night.

I'd like to make my own biscotti. Recipe?