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 natural peppermint oil to taste 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 co uple 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 c reamy, sort of like a thick frosting. Add the whole wheat pastry flour and mix j ust 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 do ugh 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 c ounter 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 h earts and other shapes in the past). Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking s heet 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 makeshi ft double boiler to melt chocolate (a metal pan over a saucepan of gently simmer ing water), but I know many people who swear by melting chocolate in the microwa ve. Slowly melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until it is glossy and smoo th. 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 overboa rd. 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 t he chocolate and (using a fork) carefully make sure it gets fully coated. Lift t he cookie out of the chocolate with the fork and bang the fork on the side of th e pan to drain any extra chocolate off the cookie. You are after a thin, even co ating of chocolate. Place on the aforementioned prepared baking sheet, and repea t 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 pref er them straight out of the freezer anyways ;)

There are a slew of Girl Scout cookies that I couldn t live without. Thin Mints a

re always the first thing on our yearly order for the long-running Girl Scout an nual cookie fundraiser. Thanks-A-Lot chocolate-dipped shortbread would be a fav orite, too, if only we could order them in Colorado. And these, the dainty litt le Lemonades. A favorite lemon-flavored take on the Thanks-A-Lot shortbread coo kie. They make a gorgeous addition to tea-time, or a perfect post-dinner snack. And did I mention midnight snack? Oh, yeah. They re good for that, too. Ligh t, crispy, and so simple to make, you won t believe how lovely these little cookie s are to make. Girl Scout Cookies Copycat Recipe: Lemonades 1 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup confectioners sugar 1/4 cup cornstarch 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour zest of 1 lemon In a stand mixer, cream the butter, then slowly add the remaining ingredients un til mixture sticks together when pressed into a ball. Roll the dough until 1/4? thick. Cut out with a small cookie cutter. Transfer to a baking sheet and bak e in an oven preheated to 375 degrees for 11-14 minutes, or just until the cooki es have set. Serve with a sprinkling of lemon zest and sparkling sugar, if desi red. Enjoy!

Brownie Roll-Out Cookies Adapted from Smitten Kitchen 3 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 1/2 cups sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2/3 cup cocoa Preheat oven to 350F. Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a small bowl and set a side. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour m ixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour. Place the dough between 2 pieces of waxed paper and roll out to 1/4-inch thick. Keeping the dough in the waxed paper, transfer to a cookie sheet and place in th e refrigerator for at least 1 hour (or in the freezer for about 5 to 10 minutes) . Cut out the cookies and place on a half-sheet pan lined with parchment paper, at least 1-inch apart. Transfer to the freezer and chill for at least 15 minutes o r until they are firm. This will prevent the cookies from expanding and losing t heir shape. Bake for about 11 minutes until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Ingredients: - 2 sleeves graham crackers - 2 cups chocolate chips Line a pan with foil. Melt chocolate chips and spread a thick layer of chocolate into a rectangle over a portion of the foil. Place 4 graham crackers on top of

chocolate layer for the first Kit Kat layer. Cover graham crackers with chocolat e and stack with another graham layer. Repeat one more time so that you have 3 l ayers of grahams. Cover with chocolate. Allow to set up in the refrigerator for one hour.