More Holiday Cookies...

A couple of weeks ago I received my Kraft Foods Food & Family magazine in the mail. After finally getting a chance to read it, I marked about 10 recipes to try. Last week when I had a little time, I decided to make the Mint Thins found on page 6.

Basically it's Ritz crackers dipped in mint chocolate and sprinkled with crushed peppermint candy. The simplicity of the recipe really captured my attention. I thought well, "if these taste like the Girl Scout Thin Mints, I could have Thin Mints year round" so I decided to try them out.

Makes: 3 doz.

1 pkg. (8 squares) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract
1 sleeve RITZ Crackers (36 crackers)
1 peppermint candy cane (6 inch), crushed

MICROWAVE chocolate in small microwaveable bowl as directed on package. Stir until completely melted. Blend in extract.

DIP crackers in melted chocolate, completely coating crackers with chocolate. Carefully scrape off excess chocolate. Place on waxed paper-covered baking sheets; sprinkle with crushed candy.

REFRIGERATE 30 min. or until chocolate is firm.

Very simple!

Well these are pretty good but a little more time consuming than I expected. Getting the chocolate to "perfectly" cover the cracker is something I still need to perfect. When I started I had my handy little assistant Micaela helping but I quickly figured out that melted chocolate and two year olds don't mix. As you can see, mine don't look as perfect as the ones in the magazine but they did taste pretty good. I recommend crushing your peppermints in a food processor. (I used my KitchenAid Food Processor). Although the large chunks of peppermint look good on the chocolate covered cracker (see Kraft's picture), I think it's more pleasant in your mouth without the chunks--- just MHO.

After I made the chocolate batch I decided to try some with White Chocolate. I was trying to create a swirled effect with red food coloring but I got carried away swirling and ended up with pink chocolate! In the end, the pink chocolate mint thins were preferred by my in house food critique (AKA hubby).

I hope you will take the time to try these.

You can subscribe to the Kraft Food & Family magazine by clicking here.

You can access all of the recipes found in the Holiday 2007 issue by clicking here.

Thanks for stopping by, happy baking or 'dipping'!