minty-chocolate shortbread cookies {#fbcookieswap2013}

It was a pleasure to be a part of the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2013, which raised well over $13,000 for Cookies For Kids’ Cancer this year, with the help of four amazing brand partners.

If you too are a cookie fanatic and don't mind a few extra pounds added to your body around this time of year join in the fun for next year here.

I received three wonderful gift boxes:

Glorious Mandel Bread from the talented cookie maker at Ellie's Bites
Deep Dark Black Forest Cookies from Brittany at Wright Kitchen
And Crunchy Buttery 100 Good Cookies from Sarah at Food, Fun & Life in Waukesha

And I sent my chocolate mint stars to the following people:

Mollie at Sprinkles of Life
Sara at Confectionary Tales of a Bakeaholic
Melissa at Fried Ice and Donut Holes

Minty-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
Cookies adapted from The Monday Box
Makes about 30 cookies

Cookies:
¾ cup vegan butter
½ cup confectioners sugar
2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted, cooled slightly
1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup chocolate chips and ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract (or ½ cup chocolate chips and ½ cup mint chips)

Frosting: About 1/2 cup mint chips melted

Note: I bought a bag of combined chocolate and mint chips and found that it contained 1 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup mint. It turned out to be exactly the right amount of mint for decorating my cookies. Now that I know how easy it is to use melted chips for decoration I will be using this method again - with, say, those butterscotch chips I have left over.

1. Place the chips in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Do NOT run the processor with the “on” setting or the chips with melt.

2. In the bowl of a food processor, cream together the butter, sugar, and melted chocolate. If using peppermint extract, add it now. Slowly add flour until a dough forms. Stir in ground chips. Dump 1/3 dough out onto parchment paper, which you have taped to a table (I do this to avoid using flour when rolling out the dough because I find that the added flour makes the dough more tough).

3.Press dough as flat as possible and then carefully roll it out to 1/2 to 1/4 inches thick. Use desired cookie cutter to form shapes. I love making fun shapes with shortbread. It holds whatever shape you use really well because the dough does not spread when it bakes. Repeat with each 1/3 of dough until you have all dough into shapes. Place shapes onto parchment or Silpat lined baking sheets. Put into fridge for 1 hour.
4. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake for 8-9 minutes. Completely cool before frosting.

5. To frost, place mint ships into a durable, zip-lock, plastic baggie. We always have freezer bags handy. Boil a pot half full of water. Turn off the flame. Place baggie in hot water, dipping in and out. Massage the mint chips as they melt to mix them. Once completely melted, cut the tiniest hole in a corner of the bag and decorate your cookies as you like.

Cookies must be completely cool before storage. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for at least 2 weeks. Uncooked dough can be refrigerated for 3-4 days or frozen for 1 month.