Mint Chocolate Chews

One of the few herbs I have growing outside in the ground is chocolate mint and every year as the weather gets cooler I look at the bounty of mint left growing and think, "How can I use that before it freezes?" Within the last week I have made mint chocolate chip bar cookies (great), cucumber mint cake (not so good), and mint chocolate cookies. The mint chocolate cookies turned out perfect - moist, chewy, and just minty enough. I'm working on a gluten-free version of these but haven't worked it out quite yet. The cocoa powder I regularly use is Penzey's Natural High-Fat Cocoa Powder. It really does make a difference in how much butter you need so follow the note if you are using regular grocery store type cocoa.

Mint Chocolate Chews
2 dozen cookies

140 g  all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/4  teaspoon  baking soda
1/8  teaspoon  salt
3  tablespoons  butter, melted
40 g unsweetened cocoa, high quality, high fat (about 7  tablespoons)
50 g  granulated sugar (about 1/4  cup)
150 g light brown sugar (about 3/4  cup packed)
1/3  cup unsweetened applesauce
1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
2 tablespoons minced fresh mint

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine flour, soda, and salt. Melt butter in a medium pot over medium heat (or in a microwaveable bowl in the microwave). Remove from heat. Stir in cocoa and sugars; you will need to work to moisten and combine everything, it's dry. Stir in applesauce, vanilla and mint. Add flour mixture, stirring until moist. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment.

Bake at 350° for 8 minutes or until almost set. Cool on pans 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

Note: If using regular unsweetened cocoa, increase butter to 4 tablespoons

Cucumber Spice Cake

We've been pretty good about keeping up with the cucumbers this year but since I haven't made pickles yet, something needed to be done. Since I'd rather bake than cook most days, the creative cucumber dish would be a cake. It's based on a simple eggless, dairy-free cake which handles lots of moisture, perfect for cucumbers. It doesn't really taste like cucumber, just like a moist spice cake.


Cucumber Spice Cake
350 g all-purpose flour (2-2/3 cups)
400 g sugar (2 cups)
1 Tbsp fresh orange zest
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp star anise
1/8 tsp mace
1/4 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 C peeled, seeded, shredded cucumber

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a bundt pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, zest, baking soda, salt, and spices. In another bowl, combine oil, vinegar and cucumber. Add cucumber mixture to flour mixture. Stir to combine. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for about 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes then remove from pan and cool completely on a rack.

Note - I tried making this with some fresh minced chocolate mint in place of the orange zest. It did not turn out well. J said it really brought out a cucumber taste and I thought it was reminiscent of toothpaste. Not that it stopped people from eating it but mint is not something I'd add to this cake again!