Mint Chocolate Madness (with Low Carb/Grain Free Minty Milan-Inspired Cookie Recipe!)

In homage to my favorite flavor combination, I’ve come up with two really stellar recipes in the past week. Both are riffs off of others’ basic ideas, so I’ll definitely give credit where credit is due.

The first one is for mint chocolate chip ice cream. This is my all-time favorite flavor. I haven’t found any sort of substitute for this that even came close to hitting the mark. Until now. I started out with the Bulletproof Executive’s Get Some Ice Cream (and yes, it does mean what you think it means). I subbed out the vanilla, adding much less of the peppermint extract (1/2 tsp). Then, I chopped up a Lindt 85% chocolate bar and mixed it in at the very end. Wow. It was perfect. This recipe looks a lot like a science experiment and the ingredients sound down right strange. But, take it from me. It comes together is the best way. The texture and creaminess is spot on in a way that I’ve never approached using coconut milk or anything else for that matter. It rivals any of the homemade concoctions I’ve made with heavy cream (and might actually be BETTER). The discovery of xylitol as a sweetener made a huge difference. There is no aftertaste. Apart from my first foray into using it when I overdid it, I have had no ill effects from it. It’s totally not “Paleo”, but the recipe in general isn’t in a strict sense. However, it meets my requirements of grain and (mostly) sugar free in a way that I feel good about. Works for me!

The second invention was my own version of a Mint Milano cookie. Those were my absolute downfall in times past. I could house an entire box in an evening. I googled all sorts of combinations to see if anyone had had this idea before me – everything from “low carb mint Milano” to the blasphemous and ridiculous “Paleo Mint Milano”, which would have been an abomination :) Nothing usable surfaced, except that I saw that the manufacturer had made a “low carb” version of it at some point, although their idea of it was a bit frightening. --- Shiver --- So… I thought about it and decided to try just making a sugar cookie type thing in the familiar oblong Milano shape and then put melted minty chocolate in between. Could it work? The answer? Yes, yes it can. And it’s amazing. I even got a measured thumbs up from the Cute Man, who is notoriously skeptical of my creations. So here’s what went down in my craving busting quest:

Minty Milan-Inspired Cookies
Adapted from The Prudent Wife’s Vanilla Coconut Flour Cookies

3/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
6 eggs, preferably free range and organic
1 cup almond milk (use milk of choice)
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (I forgot to add this and they tasted great)
1 dropper of vanilla liquid stevia
1/3 cup xylitol (you could use a dropper or two more stevia instead)
1/2 cup melted butter or coconut oil
1 bar 85% Lindt Chocolate
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients well, set aside. In a blender, whip the 6 eggs thoroughly. Add milk, stevia, and xylitol. Pulse several times to thoroughly mix. Add butter/oil, then pulse several times to blend. Add dry ingredients and pulse gently to mix.

Once everything is incorporated, fashion spoonfuls of the batter into oblong Milano shapes on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool while you prepare the chocolate filling.

Break or chop the chocolate bar into small pieces and melt either in the microwave or on the stovetop. Mix in the peppermint and vanilla extracts. Spread spoonfuls of the chocolate mixture on the flat sides of half the cooled cookies. Make sandwiches by applying the other cookies to the chocolate smeared ones. You want just enough chocolate so that a bit starts to ooze out, but not so much that you have a total mess on your hands. Mine cooled and the filling became pretty solid at room temperature, but you could put them in the freezer for a few minutes to have them set faster.