Summer Blog Project: Gluten Free Betsy’s Gluten Free Thin Mints

Posted on | July 23, 2010 | 1 Comment

It’s been quite a week!  It turns out that the motherboard on my laptop was completely shot and I’m now in the process of getting a new computer.  Thankfully, with my new, fancy phone, I was able to continue to tweet and access facebook, but I needed to wait until I had a computer with with I could post my pictures.  Now that I have my loaner, I can finally tell you all about my recent culinary endeavor.  I think it’ll be worth the wait!

The past weekend, I was up in Tewksbury for Sam’s twenty first birthday party.  It was great to see all of my girls again, especially since I came bearing treats for them to try! 

I thought this was the perfect chance to make Gluten Free Betsy’s Thin Mints.  Everybody loves Thin Mints, right?  When I saw that Betsy had a recipe for gluten free Thin Mints, I couldn’t wait to try them.  I missed those boxed girl scout cookies.  I wanted that mix of chocolate cookie and mint that reminded me of being a little girl.

It was easy to decide on Gluten Free Betsy as one of my favorite bloggers.  I found her when she became one of the first followers of this blog.  I was so flattered since I didn’t have much readership and much of what I posted was my rambling and complaining.  Now that I’ve grown as a blogger and a gluten freebie, I want to repay one of my earliest followers and favorite bloggers.  Betsy writes recipes and product reviews which have been really helpful to me when looking for something new to try.  Something else about Betsy’s blog that I love is that she writes about life.  When I read her posts, I don’t feel as though I’m reading just about food.  I’m experiencing a piece of her life with her.  It’s obvious why she would make it on the list!

So, without further ado, I present to you, Gluten Free Thin Mints! 

Betsy’s recipe calls for:

¼ cup cornstarch
6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup white sugar

⅓ cup milk (any kind)

¾ tsp peppermint extract

The first step in Betsy’s recipe asks you to mix together the flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder.  I noticed that the amount of baking powder wasn’t in the list of ingredients, but I put in one teaspoon of baking powder as per my mother’s advice. 

I’m pretty bad at following rules apparently because I ended up simply adding all the dry ingredients together before realizing that she says to put the sugar with the butter.  Woops!  This method works with most recipes though, so I wasn’t worried.  I simply continued by putting the wet ingredients in a bowl together.

I then gradually added the dry ingredients into the wet.  Now, there aren’t a lot of wet ingredients so it’s a very dry dough.  I ended up using my hands to mix it together (I was too lazy to dig the mixer out of the closet).  A mixer might work a little better, but for those of you who don’t have a mixer, or have one hidden in the deepest, darkest corner of the closet and can’t find the will power to dig it out, using your hands is just fine.  It’s a bit difficult to work it all together because of how dry it is.  But persevere!

I worked the dough into two logs, which was difficult because of the crumbly consistency of the dough.  Try to wrap first and then shape once it’s wrapped.  And try to make the logs even.  I accidentally made one too big and it broke.  It all worked out in the end, but it’ll be a bit easier if you make them pretty even in size.

Now shove them in the freezer and wait for them to get firm.  I’d check on them every half hour or so.  I let them sit for an hour and they were pretty solid.  Slicing them is pretty difficult.  Betsy suggests making them 1/4 inch thick.  It’s a bit challenging to keep them thin since the dough is still a little likely to crumble.  But once you manage, it’s smooth sailing.  Pop them in the oven for fifteen minutes and you have your cookies.

Of course, we’re not done yet.  We’re missing the chocolate coating!  I tried the cookie before administering the chocolate coating.  It’s a great cookie, but the mint overpowers the chocolate.  That’s where the coating comes in.  For the coating we need:

½ c butter, room temp

I simply put the ingredients in my measuring cup and shoved them in the microwave.  Betsy suggests you check on it and mix every 45-60 seconds.  I did it for about a minute and a half, checking after sixty seconds.  I almost wanted to devour all of the chocolate by myself.  Forget the cookies!  But I forced myself to keep it for my cookies.  I used two forks to cover the cookies in chocolate and to get them onto the wax paper.

Next time, I think I might keep the mixture in the microwave a little longer because I found that it was a bit too thick.  I ended up running out of the chocolate coating before getting through with all of the cookies.  Do I think it was too much chocolate for the cookie itself?  Absolutely not. 

I would give the cookies a while to dry next time I make them.  I underestimated how long it would take and had to move them prematurely in order to make it in time for my party.  Some might have lost some of their chocolate coating, but all in all, it worked out just fine.  I made sure to put them in the refrigerator when I arrived at Sam’s house and had to let them melt a little bit before serving them that night.

During the long drive to Sam’s house, I put them on the floor of Jen’s passenger seat (hooray for carpooling long distances) and we blasted the air on our feet.  It worked out nicely. 

Sam’s house and property is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.  They have a farm with goats and horses and llamas and her mother’s garden is so colorful and bright.  And her house is amazing.  But these all pale in comparison to the compassion shown by her mother, who was kind enough to have a gaggle of girls bombard her home.  She always made sure I had food (and even made me a gluten free pizza!).  She had so much food ready for us that I almost forgot about my cookies!

Don’t worry!  I didn’t forget entirely!  It was perfect having them that night when we were hanging out and playing games.  When I finally tried a finished cookie, the chocolatey mint flavor was perfect.  I didn’t find that it was too much chocolate or too much mint.  Keri called it a “chocolate explosion” and said she loved how much chocolate there was.  I agreed.  It’s definitely for those of us with a sweet tooth!  I still have some leftover cookies and plan on melting more chocolate to have more thin mints this weekend.  I think I liked them better than the boxed cookies I used to love.

Thank you, Gluten Free Betsy, for supporting me and for sharing such a great recipe!  You will always be one of my favorite gluten free bloggers.

Miel

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