Michael’s best friend turns 30 this week, so I made him a selection of our two favorite sweets to share with his girlfriend: mint chocolate chip cookies & pistachio butter cups.

Here is the recipe for my mint chocolate chip cookies. I follow the basic drop cookie recipe from the ‘Joy of Cooking’ cookbook but make a few alterations for a scrumptious twist on a classic recipe.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract (its ok if another drop or two of the extract falls into the batter as well!) 
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (its ok if you add a little more than 1/2 tsp, especially if you like your cookies a little salty!)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips*
1/2+ cup chopped mint dark chocolate*

Preheat oven to 375

Cream butter. Gradually add brown sugar and white sugar and beat three ingredients until creamy. Then, beat in egg and peppermint extract.

Sift flour, salt and baking soda twice into a separate bowl. Gradually stir the sifted dry ingredients into the wet mix (butter, sugar, egg and peppermint). 

Stir in chocolate chips and chopped dark chocolate chunks.

Shape the batter into balls and drop them onto a greased cookies sheet. Bake about 10 minutes or until edges turn golden. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack immediately. The cookies will continue to bake on their own for a few more minutes. Enjoy!

* I prefer the Guittard real milk chocolate chips (silver packaging) and Green & Black organic dark chocolate, which is infused with peppermint oil:
www.greenandblacks.com/us/our-chocolates/bars/mint.html