Chocolate Mint Marvels (Kosher-Style Pork Cracklins)

You know you fly too much when you tell passengers on multiple flights what a wonderful cookie recipe there is on page 126 of the in flight magazine. One time I was telling the woman next to me, and I opened to show her the beatiful full page photo of the cookies only to find that someone had ripped out the pages to take home!

The article has the top five winning recipes of a cookie contest for the staff of the American Way. When I saw the Chocolate Mint Marvels, I just knew I had to make them! My oven was disconnected due to getting new kitchen floors in, so I went to my friend Jennifer's house to bake these. We had so much fun making them!!

I packed them up the next morning and took two plates of cookies to the airport as Jay and I were flying to visit his family for Thanksgiving. We left one plate of cookies with the Admiral's Club staff. They have treated us entirely too well over the year! We enjoyed some complimentary champagne on our way out on our honeymoon and ever since have been greated as "the newlyweds!" when we walk in the door.

I must say I didn't expect to have to fend off as many people as I did from the remaining plate of cookies. From the TSA saying "Sorry ma'am, cookies can't go through. They'll have to stay with us." (WHAT! We can't joke about things, but they can?!?) to flight attendants and of course, other passengers wanting to get one of these cookies. It was sure fun to say, "You can make your own! The recipe is on page 126 of the American Way!"

I made these cookies again during the ice storm and shared them with some of our neighbors. There are four other recipes I still want to try. I googled the name of the cookies and found the recipe shared on a few other blogs.

¾ cup butter
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 cups chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 ½ cups flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
3 or 4 packages of Andes mints

Preheat oven to 350°. Melt butter and brown sugar in saucepan over low heat. Add chocolate chips and stir to melt; put mixture into a bowl and let cool. Add eggs, and then mix in flour and baking soda. Chill dough for 1 hour. Roll into balls and place on baking sheet. Bake for 9 minutes. Remove cookies from oven and place an Andes mint on each one. As the candy melts, spread it across the top of the cookie with a butter knife. Makes 3 dozen.

Some tips: You only need 2 packages of Andes mints (unless you're planning to eat one extra mint per cookie made). If you start to run out of mints, you can snap them in half and they look just as good. If you can find the mints with the green part on the outside, they will look even better. However, I haven't been able to find them any place other than the Olive Garden! Also, the top looks best if you try to swirl the chocolate.