Kicking off the Christmas baking with some thin mints this year. Growing up, my mom would buy the Keebler brand of these chocolate and peppermint cookies and they were called Grasshoppers. I thought that was a great name, so that's how I like to refer to them. We always kept them in the fridge. I thought that was great, too. They were the special "cold cookies."
When we were in the city for Thanksgiving, we stopped by Trader Joe's -- of course -- where I picked up a box of gluten-free Joe Joe's because I'd never tried them before. Because I already had the chocolate wafer part of these cookies covered with the Joe Joe's, they really were the easiest cookies ever. All I had to do was the dipping. (The fun part.) Here's what I did:
This makes 30 grasshoppers. I recommend keeping them in the fridge even if they do harden at room temperature. I just think they taste better well chilled. **If you're wondering if it's okay to use peppermint extract instead of pure peppermint oil, the answer is yes. That's the only thing I had on hand and mine turned out fine. But I have read that peppermint oil (which contains no water or alcohol) is the better choice here because the alcohol in the peppermint extract can cause the melted chocolate to seize up.
In other news from around here...
-I'm working on a little Christmas project with my father-in-law
-trying to spice up our dinner rotation (and do a good job of using up what we have in the freezer)
-planning a night out with some girl friends, which is something I never do
-haven't wrapped a single gift yet
-loving steamed broccoli with plenty of sea salt
-praising the Lord for protecting my grandpa through emergency brain surgery
-and realizing that my due date is a month away. (!!!)
36-week baby bump
What Christmas cookies have you guys been baking this week?
7 comments:
I've got major weekend plans to bake cookies for next week's work party. I'm pretty excited about all the recipe deliberations on my horizons. :-)
Yum! I'm wondering if you can give me some advice, Summer. We found out this week that my husband has a pretty significant gluten intolerance. Where did you start when first going gf? What have you learned in the process? Any favorite products? Thanks so much!!
These grasshoppers look fantastic.
I go to Trader Joe's almost every week so buying Joe Joe's is not a problem!
I posted my fave (and easiest)cookie recipe on yesterday's blog post.
And do you have relatives at NW? I saw some Harmses in the Pilot. That's my alma mater and where 3 of our kids went/go.
xoxo L.
Those look so good! So what did you do with the middles once they were scraped out :)
I'm 39 weeks and it feels so surreal! I'm in full on baby prep mode this week!
yes! can't wait to make these! have never bought the joe joes, but did pick up a pack of gf chocolate chip cookies just to try. they were so good! tasted very buttery & homemade. they only reason i wouldn't always buy them is so that i don't always eat them ;)
So smart! I made the Ritz cracker version years ago, but obviously those are not gluten free. I'll have to try these!
I just made really yum chocolate bark with good quality chocolate and peppermint. Too bad they're all gifts!! We are going simple on gifts this year with snacks to go with homemade videos.