Chocolate Mint Cookies

These are nice, as with most kitchen mishaps with me, it’s normally due to not reading the recipe all the way through before I begin – lesson you’ve learnt here? Don’t be like me – read it all the way through first. Mine ended up an odd shape because I rolled it into a log first, then chilled it in the fridge. Then I cut them which squashed the dough making them an odd shape…

Do you remember the episode of Friends, it’s Thanksgiving and Monica allows Rachel to make the dessert? Rachel ends up making trifle and Shepherds Pie because the two recipes got stuck together and she was reading and following both recipes, this is sort of what happened to me, because I hadn’t read the recipe first I made the mistake of mixing two cookie recipes together…. Ooops, to be honest silly mistakes like that are the least of my problems when I am baking.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

6 tbsp butter

1 ½ cup brown sugar
2 tbsp water
2 cups semisweet choc chips
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ½ cup flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

For the filling

2 ½ cups icing sugar

¼ cup butter
3 tbsp milk
½ tsp mint extract

1. In a saucepan, add the butter, brown sugar, water and chocolate chips. Stir over a low heat until all the chips have melted. Than allow to cool.
2. In a small mixing bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla together, then add to the cooled chocolate mixture and stir well to combine. Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt; slowly add the chocolate mixture and stir well again to combine. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto baking trays.
3. Bake at 350˚F (180˚C) for about 10 minutes or until firm. Remove to wire racks to cool.
4. Mix together the filling ingredients until smooth, spread onto half of the cookies and then top with the other remaining cookies.

Lamb Chops With Mint Hollandaise.

With this one I wanted to push my boundaries a little, in the past I had always bought hollandaise sauce, so I wanted to try and make my own. I was looking forward to a challenge!

 I was left feeling a little cheated, it wasn't difficult at all. To be honest I put this down to the recipe book I was using - "Classic home cooking" It's my regular go to cookbook, my husband bought it in Norway someone recommended it to him and I love it, he loves it and it gets used an awful lot.The recipes really are classics, all of them are in American cups and European measurements.

as well as subsectioned into different groups for example Hot and Chilled Soups, Fish and Shellfish, Poultry, Pork, Beef etc.

Each chapter then has an indexed glossary, picture thing with a short description of each recipe.

Subsectioned again into cooking times

I'll get to it later but I make my Carbonara sauce this way too because I always seem to end up with scrambled egg consistency, when I make it any other way. I'll give anything a try, but I am finding as I go along, easier ways for me to cook certain things, or just a different way to do something altogether, my mother taught me how to make cheese sauce, years ago, by melting butter then adding flour, then slowly adding the milk followed by the cheese. Using that as my basis I made all my sauces this way. I have since discovered that it's easier for me to make my sauce, then take some sort of cold liquid, vodka, milk, cream, water or port, add the flour to that, mix really well and then add to the simmering sauce, stirring constantly until it has thickened. I'm not saying by any means this is better, just that for me it's always a sure thing! NO LUMPS, BUMPS OR GOOEY BITS...........!!!!! Any way that's far more of a digress than I intended. So back to my lamb.

To be honest I kind of dithered slightly over the mint, yes mint does traditionally go with lamb, but with hollandaise sauce? Then I started wondering if the hollandaise would go with the lamb? Ultimately I decided since lamb was new to me, I had no idea if lamb and hollandaise were going to work and since I didn't know if mint would work with hollandaise, but knew mint worked well with lamb, I figured the only way to find out was to try, worst case scenario I end up calling for Chinese or Pappa Johns! As it turns out they all work very well together. Bonuses all round, I made my own hollandaise sauce, which inspired me to make carbonara the same way, and we had a nice meal - and you've discovered how oddly my brain works, and that really is how my brain works, each thought seems to trigger a chain reaction until eventually I come full circle with an answer to my quandary...........................!

Lamb Chops With Mint Hollandaise

4 Lamb chops
2 tsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
Salt and black pepper to taste
 

Mint Hollandaise

2 tbsp fresh mint
salt and black pepper
a few drops of lemon concentrate
1 tsp white vinegar
3 egg yolks at room temperature
125 grams melted unsalted butter

1. Brush the lamb chops with a little oil on each side, season with salt and pepper

2. Grill the chops for 3-4 minutes - slightly longer for well done.

Mint Hollandaise

1. Whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice and vinegar, put over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk until thick.

2. Melt ¼lb (125g) butter adding a little at a time to the egg yolk mixture, whisk constantly until mixture thickens.

3. Stir in 2 tbsps of mint, salt and pepper to taste.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED HERE'S AN AMAZON LINK TO THE COOKBOOK. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0789401533/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_g14_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1HSPF95RY1ASSBHC83YT&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294