Mint Chocolate Dipped Peach Sandwich Cookies

Voting is now open! 

Place your vote for your favorite dish (eh hem) here.

 
Do you follow the blog Big Apple Nosh? She has a fantastic food blog and always seems to have me drooling over something new. She has a series going on her blog called NoshGirl Challenge. Three contenders are picked to make a dish using two ingredients to make one delicious item. It's like Chopped or Iron Chef, but with bloggers! In this case, the winner gets two authentic NYC black and white cookies. I have had a lot of fun watching the last three challenges and was super excited to hear I would be a part of:

NoshGirl Chef Challenge #4: Peach and Mint

I took a few days to think about it and came up with two pretty good ideas. One was sweet and savory, the other was sweet and sweet. Since I love baking and I thought I could use mint in a different way, I decided to make a peach-filled sandwich cookie dipped in mint chocolate. Here's how to make them with the recipe to follow.

For the peach filling. Peel and chop a bunch of peaches.

In a small bowl, combine peaches, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest.

Boil some water and add that to the mixture. Let the mixture boil down until it is gelatinous. This takes some time to get to a mixture that is spreadable and no longer a liquid.

While the peach mixture is boiling, pull together your cookie ingredients. This is a super simple vanilla cookie base. Mix together two sticks of butter and 3/4 cup of sugar.

Add one egg and one tablespoon of vanilla.

Add in the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda and salt.

Once the mixture is combined, take 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll it into a ball. Place the dough ball on a cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Bake and cool the cookies, then wait for the peach mixture to cook down and cool. Take a spoonful of the peach mixture and add it to the bottom of one cookie. Sandwich the other cookie on top and let sit while you make your mint chocolate.

 

In your fancy double boiler (or if you're like me, fancy means a metal bowl over a sauce pan) melt the chocolate, butter and mint extract together. When completely melted, dip one side of the sandwich cookies into the mixture.

 

These were absolutely delicious. The cookie was soft, the chocolate was smooth and deliciously minty and the peach mixture was sweet and flavorful. According to my husband, we have a new favorite cookie in our house!

Mint Chocolate-Dipped Peach Sandwich Cookies
Makes 12 Cookies

Peach Filling
4 peaches, peeled and chopped into small bits (approximately 2 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
zest from one lemon
1/2 cup boiling water

1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and add to a sauce pan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and keep at a rolling simmer until the mixture has boiled down to a gelatin like substance. Approximately 40 minutes. 
2. Cook until it is no longer a liquid substance. Stir occasionally to check on the progress.

Vanilla Cookies
2 sticks butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Mix together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture until combined.
3. Scoop 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough into your hand and roll a ball. Place on the cookie sheet and gently press down with your finger tips or a spatula to flatten the ball. This will keep the cookie from puffing up too much.
4. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes or until the bottoms start to brown around the edges. Cool on wire racks.
5. Match up the cookies by size.
6. When the peach mixture has cooled some, scoop a large spoonful of the mixture onto one cookie. Spread the mixture until it is evenly distributed along the cookie. Top with another cookie of about the same size. Repeat. Let the cookies sit until the peach mixture has cooled completely.

Mint Chocolate Dip
12 ounces chocolate (dark or semi-sweet)
2 tablespoons butter
3 teaspoons mint extract, add more to taste

1. In a double boiler over medium heat, mix together all ingredients. Continuously stir until melted.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
3. Dip each cookie halfway into the chocolate mixture. If you can't dip the cookie completely into the chocolate, tilt the cookie to each side in the chocolate to completely cover one side.
4. Place on lined cookie sheets. Refrigerate until the chocolate is cool.

For best results, keep the cookies in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve them.

The NoshGirl Chef Challenge voting starts tomorrow (Monday, July 18th). Serena will be posting a challenge blog post sometime on Monday morning. Once the challenge post has gone up, please click on this link Big Apple Nosh and leave a comment to vote for your favorite dish (*cough cough*). I will update that link to the actual challenge post once it's up.