Pecan Mint Chip Cookies Were a Big Hit

Our holiday guests left this morning, and I have been trying to take stock of all the photos I took of the many foods prepared over this 4th of July holiday. Foods I photographed were Pecan Mint Chip Cookies, Grilled Barbecued Chicken, Chicken Rub, Barbecue Sauce II, Japanese Curly Noodle Salad, Chocolate Mousse Pie, Mascarpone Whipped Cream Topping and Blackberry Cobbler. In with all that I also made another bread from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, this time a Portuguese Sweet Bread. Over the next days I will be posting all these recipes (except the bread, as it is straight from the book, which I would recommend to everyone who wants to make good breads). 

Pecan Mint Chip Cookies in our Grandma Hromish's casserole

The first recipe I want to post is for the Pecan Mint Chip Cookies I made for our guests Rich and Heidi, when the arrived Friday evening. I used a simple recipe for  chocolate chip cookies, substituting a 10-ounce bag of "Andes Creme de Menthe Baking Chips" for the bag of chocolate chips in the recipe and using pecan chunks instead of the walnuts I generally prefer. I love mint flavors, like mint chocolate chip ice cream or York Peppermint Patties. If you do not care for mint flavor, obviously you could just use a bag of whatever chocolate chips you prefer. I knew our friend Rich was a big mint fan, as he has had lots of "Peppermint Patty" drinks here in past; hot cocoa with the addition of peppermint schnapps.

Cookie Scoops make perfect sized cookies

In general, Andes candies, though chocolate and mint are not my favorite because it feels like too fake an oily feeling in the mouth. I had this same reaction with some "cinnamon chips" from the grocery once, which is why I much prefer the Cinnamon Flav-r-Bites from the King Arthur Flour site. In these cookies however, the oily mouth feel was absent and all that was apparent was a really mild but still noticeable mint flavor along with the pecans whose flavor also stood out enough to notice. All in all, we all truly enjoyed these cookies and I would make them again in a heartbeat!

Pecan Mint Chip Cookies

Pecan Mint Chip Cookies

Makes about 45 to 60 cookies, depending on size

2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup coarse-chopped pecans
1 (10-ounce) bag Andes Creme de Menthe Baking Chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (350 on Convection). In a small bowl sift or whisk together the first three ingredients and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter with the two sugars until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time until combined and then the vanilla. Lower the speed of the mixer and add in the dry ingredients just until combined. Add the nuts and mint chips and combine.

Drop the dough from teaspoons or use a cookie scoop, keeping the cookies at least 2 inches apart onto a dry cookie sheet. Bake the cookies for about 9 to 11 minutes, until golden brown.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.