Tag: how to make

The Best Homemade Thin Mint Cookies

Hey there, fellow cookie enthusiasts! Welcome today we’re diving into the delicious world of homemade Thin Mint cookies. Now, if you’re like me, you probably wait all year for the coveted Girl Scout cookie season to roll around just to indulge in these minty chocolate delights. Thin Mints are iconic—crisp, refreshing, and downright addictive. But here’s the kicker: they’re only available for a short period every year through Girl Scouts. So, what’s a Thin Mint aficionado to do during the rest of the year? Well, I’ve got the answer for you.

Today, we’re taking matters into our own hands and learning how to make these beloved cookies from scratch. Spoiler alert: it’s easier than you might think! With this simple recipe, you’ll be able to enjoy Thin Mints any time you crave them, not just during Girl Scout cookie season. No more stockpiling boxes in the freezer (though that’s a great strategy too)—we’re going to show you how to whip up a batch of these minty marvels whenever the craving strikes.

So, join me as we go through every step, from mixing and baking the cookies to dipping them in their signature chocolate coating. Whether you’re a longtime fan or a newbie to the world of Thin Mints, this recipe will quickly become a household favorite. Get ready to make these Thin Mint cookies and enjoy them all year round. Let’s get started!

Ingredients

Homemade Thin Mint Cookies Recipe

Servings: About 36 cookies

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

  • 1 cup (8 oz/225 g) butter, softened
  • ⅔ cup (5 oz/142 g) granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg (at room temperature)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
  • 2 cups (10 oz/284 g) all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup (2 oz/57 g) cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt

For the Chocolate Coating:

  • 2 ⅔ cups (16 oz/450 g) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
  • ½ teaspoon peppermint oil
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon coconut oil

Directions:

1. Prepare the Dough:

  1. In a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
  2. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract. Mix until well combined.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, and salt.
  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing until a smooth dough forms.
  5. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or until firm.

2. Bake the Cookies:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Remove one dough from the refrigerator and roll it out on a floured surface to 1/8 inch thick (0.3). Using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut the cookies and place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets, leaving some space between each.
  3. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are set. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to wire racks to cool completely.

3. Prepare the Chocolate Coating:

  1. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the finely chopped semisweet chocolate and coconut oil. Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval until the chocolate is smooth and completely melted.
  2. Stir in the peppermint oil and vanilla extract into the melted chocolate until well incorporated.

4. Coat the Cookies:

  1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Dip each cooled cookie into the melted chocolate mixture, ensuring it’s completely coated. Use a fork to lift the cookie out of the chocolate, allowing any excess to drip off.
  3. Place the chocolate-coated cookies onto the prepared baking sheet and allow them to set at room temperature until the chocolate hardens. You can speed up this process by refrigerating the cookies for about 15-20 minutes.

5. Enjoy Your Homemade Thin Mint Cookies:

Once the chocolate coating has fully hardened, your homemade Thin Mint cookies are ready to enjoy! Store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, or freeze them for longer storage.

Nutritional Values (Per Serving – 1 Cookie):

  • Calories: 110-120 kcal
  • Protein: 1-2g
  • Carbohydrates: 13-15g
  • Dietary Fiber: 1-2g
  • Sugars: 7-9g
  • Fat: 7-8g
  • Saturated Fat: 4-5g
  • Cholesterol: 10-15mg
  • Sodium: 35-45mg
  • Potassium: 50-60mg

Note: Nutritional values are approximate and may vary based on specific ingredients and portion sizes. Enjoy your homemade Thin Mint Cookies!

The Best Homemade Thin Mint Cookies

You can read our post on how to make homemade vanilla extract here: https://mylowcountryliving.net/how-to-make-homemade-vanilla-extract/

KitchenAid Classic Series 4.5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer https://amzn.to/3OhsHri

12 Pieces Round Cookie Biscuit Cutter Set, Graduated Circle for Pastry,18/8 Stainless Steel Donut Cutter Ring Molds https://amzn.to/3vYJ7hJ

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The Best Beef and Barley Soup

One of my all time favorite foods, whether its cold outside and you want some cold weather food, or some comfort food is Beef and Barley Soup. I love this soup and it’s really simple to make.

Ingredients:

2 lbs beef chuck roast, cut into one inch cubes

1 tsp salt, divided

1 1/2 tsp pepper, divided

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

3 carrots, sliced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 Tbsp tomato paste

8 cups chicken broth or stock, divided

1 small bunch thyme

2 bay leaves

6 peppercorns

3/4 cup pearled barley

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

(optional – fresh parsley for garnishing)

directions:

  1. Add the vegetable oil to a Dutch oven and warm up over medium high heat.
  2. Add 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper and season the steak.
  3. Cook the steak in small batches, and brown the steak on all sides (1-2 minutes).
  4. While the steak is cooking cut up your vegetables (onion, celery and carrots) and set aside.
  5. After each batch of steak is cooked remove and set aside.
  6. Add your cut up vegetables to the Dutch oven and sprinkle the remaining salt and pepper (1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp pepper) and cook for 4-5 minutes until the vegetables brown.
  7. After 4-5 minutes add your chopped garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, then remove all vegetables and set aside.
  8. Add 2 Tbsp tomato paste to the Dutch oven and brown for 1-2 minutes.
  9. Add 1 cup of chicken broth to the Dutch oven and stir to deglaze the Dutch oven, then add 2 more cups of chicken broth and the beef.
  10. Take a small piece of cheesecloth and add in your thyme, 2 bay leaves, and 6 peppercorns. Tie up the cheesecloth into a small cachet and add to the soup, and simmer with a lid on it for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
  11. After 1 hour 15 minutes remove the lid and add 2 more cups of broth and vegetables, and the barley. Cook for 30-40 minutes. Add the remaining broth or water as needed.
  12. After 30-40 minutes your soup is ready to serve.
  13. Enjoy!

The Best Homemade Beef and Barley Soup

You can purchase a Dutch oven to make your own Beef and Barley soup at Amazon.

Amazon Basics Enameled Cast Iron Covered Round Dutch Oven, 6-Quart, White

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. See my disclosure policy.

How to make a Hurricane cocktail

Mardi Gras is just around the corner and for those of us who live down south lots of us will probably head to New Orleans to celebrate and drink lots of hurricane’s. The hurricane is a rum based drink that was invented in the 1940’s in a New Orleans bar named Pat O’brien’s. During that time there was a shortage of whiskey so Pat O’brien’s took that opportunity to create the hurricane. I am going to show you how to make two versions. The first is the classic version that is similar to what you would have had in the 1940’s and the second is a modern New Orlean’s version like what Pat O’brien’s makes today.

Classic Version

Ingredients:

2 oz white rum

2 oz dark rum

2 oz passion fruit syrup

2 oz lemon juice

Directions:

  1. Mix together all ingredients in a tumbler with ice.
  2. Shake for 10 seconds.
  3. Poor into a hurricane glass filled with ice.
  4. Garnish and Enjoy!

Modern New Orleans Pat O’briens version

Ingredients:

2 oz white rum

2 oz dark rum

2 oz passion fruit juice

1 oz orange juice

1/2 oz lime juice

1/2 oz grenadine

Directions:

  1. Mix together all ingredients in a tumbler with ice.
  2. Shake for 10 seconds.
  3. Poor into a hurricane glass filled with ice.
  4. Garnish and Enjoy!
How to make a Hurricane cocktail

You can purchase a cocktail shaker kit at Amazon.

Cocktail Shaker Set Bartender Kit

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. See my disclosure policy.

How to make Sourdough English Muffins

Have you ever wondered what else you can do with your sourdough discard?  One of the many things you can use it for is to create sourdough English Muffins.  Sourdough English Muffin are delicious and easy to make.  My family loves these home made English Muffins and we eat them for breakfast with butter or jam and we even put on some sausage and egg to create our own version of the McDonald’s Sausage McMuffin.  Join me and let’s make a batch.

Ingredients:

1 Cup of fed starter

2 Cups of milk

2 TBS of honey

5 Cups of all-purpose flour divided

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

1 tsp

Directions:

  1. Add starter to a bowl and then combine with the milk.  Stirring to dissolve starter into milk.
  2. Add honey and mix in.
  3. Add 4 cups of flour and mix in.
  4. Cover and let it rest at room temperature overnight.
  5. Uncover and punch down dough.
  6. Add baking soda and salt to dough and kneed in, add flour as needed to keep dough from sticking.  May need to add up to 1 cup of flour.  Kneed for 5 mins.
  7. Use a rolling pin to roll dough out to a ½ inch thickness, then using a 3-inch biscuit cutter cut out your muffins from the dough.
  8. Place cut muffins on parchment paper that has corn meal sprinkled on it.  Sprinkle corn meal on top of the muffins. 
  9. Let muffins rise for 45 mins. 
  10. Cook 4 to 5 muffins at a time in a buttered cast iron pan at low to medium heat.  Cook the muffins approximately 4 mins per side until each side has a nice golden color.
  11. Remove from pan and eat! You can eat them with butter, peanut butter, jam, or add egg and sausage with some cheese to make a sausage muffin. 

How to make Sourdough English Muffins

Old Fashioned Homemade Pancakes, just like grandmas!

Pancakes are the ultimate feel-good breakfast food and you probably have settled for making yours with a mix from a box. The box pancakes are fair, but it you want those light and fluffy tasty pancakes that your grandma used to make without having to drive out to the nearest IHOP. All you have to do is follow this simple recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
¼ cup white sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup room temperature milk
1 egg at room temperature
1 tbsp oil

Directions
1. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl.
2. Add milk, egg and 1 tablespoon oil and mix well.
3. Preheat a griddle or a cast iron pan over medium high heat, and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
4. When griddle is hot pour batter onto griddle in a 4-5 inch circle. Cook until bubbles form on the top of the pancake and the edges are dry (this will take 4-5 minutes). Flip and cook until browned on both sides (another 4-5 minutes). Repeat with remaining batter and all batter is cooked.
5. Plate the pancakes and top with your desired toppings such as butter, fruit, powdered sugar, or maple syrup.
6. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/OspREDaYCqg
Old Fashioned Homemade Pancakes

How To Make A Painkiller Cocktail

The classic Painkiller that most of us know is the Pusser’s Painkiller.  Named for the Pusser’s brand of rum used in the drink.  According to Pusser’s own website the recipe for the Painkiller was inspired by Daphne Henderson, who owned the Soggy Dollar Bar at White Bay on Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands.

The bar is famous for inventing the Painkiller and also because there is no dock, so the usual way in is to swim. Which naturally gets your dollars get wet, hence the name “Soggy Dollar Bar.”

The CEO of Pussers, Charles Tobias, was a patron of the Soggy Dollar Bar where the Painkiller was his favorite drink.  Eventually, he finally worked out the recipe on a “4-1-1-1” ratio—four parts pineapple, one part cream of coconut and one part orange juice adding Pusser’s Rum to suit.

Pusser’s started promoting the Painkiller and eventually it became known as Pusser’s Painkiller.  Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

2 ounces Pusser’s rum

4 ounces pineapple juice

1 ounce orange juice

1 ounce cream of coconut

Freshly grated nutmeg

Directions

  1. Add liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously.
  2. Pour in a big glass filled with ice.  Grate fresh nutmeg on top.
  3. Garnish with an orange slice and cherry.
  4. Enjoy killing the pain.
How to make a Painkiller cocktail

How to make Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Get ready for a rich and creamy, delicious baked potato soup with all the fixings. It’s fully loaded with bacon, sour cream, cheddar cheese and chives. You get the full loaded baked potato experience in a soup that you can’t stop eating.

Ingredients:
6 Yukon Gold Potato’s
1 yellow onion
3 minced garlic cloves
1/3 cup flower
4 tbsp. butter
8 slices bacon
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese
4 green onions
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp paprika

Directions:

  1. Dice bacon into pieces and place in a large soup pot on medium heat and cook until bacon is brown and slightly crispy.
  2. Remove bacon pieces with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the bacon fat in the pot.
  3. Add butter and chopped onion and cook over medium heat until onions are tender (3-5 minutes).
  4. Sprinkle the flour over the ingredients in the pot to create a rue and stir until smooth.
  5. Add garlic and cook in the rue cook for 30 seconds, just enough to release flavor and keep it sweet.  Overcooking the garlic will make it bitter.
  6. Combine chicken broth, milk, heavy cream, salt, pepper, and paprika to the pot. Stir well.
  7. Add potatoes and bring pot to a boil.   Let pot boil for about 15 minutes.
  8. Reduce heat to simmer and using an immersion blender puree half of the soup until smooth. If you don’t have an immersion blender you can remove half the soup and place in a blender. Blend that soup and return to the pot.
  9. Add sour cream, bacon pieces, and green onions, stir well.  Reserving ¼ of bacon and green onions for garnishment.
  10. Simmer for 15 minutes.
  11. Serve and garnish the top with additional sour cream, bacon, cheddar cheese, and chives. Enjoy!
Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Better than Starbucks! DIY Pumpkin Spice Latte

It’s Pumpkin Spice Season! That means it’s time for everyone’s favorite Starbucks treat…Pumpkin Spice Latte. A lot of us like to buy this daily at Starbucks but that can be expensive and the Starbuck’s drink is packed with sugar. You will love this recipe for Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe. It’s a lot cheaper than Starbuck’s and we have cut back on the sugar by using maple syrup as a natural sweetener instead.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coffee
1 cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

  1. In a small pot or saucepan mix the almond milk, vanilla extract, maple syrup, pumpkin puree, and pumpkin pie spice.
  2. Heat on low until the pan begins to simmer.
  3. Remove from heat and add the coffee.
  4. To create a froth either blend with an immersion blender or put into your regular blender. If you put this into a regular blender make sure you vent the top of the blender so that the steam doesn’t build up and “explode” on you.
  5. Pour into a coffee mug and top with optional nutmeg.
  6. Enjoy.
Better than Starbucks! DYI – Pumpkin Spice Latte

Click here for recipe for vanilla extract.

Click here for recipe for almond milk.

Click here for recipe for pumpkin puree.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

It’s that time of the year when we carve pumpkins or make pumpkin puree and one of the by products of this is pumpkin seeds! Pumpkin seeds make a delicious and nutritious snack and are easy to roast. Follow along and I will show you how to do this.

This recipe is for the amount of seeds from one pie pumpkin (1/2 cup) but you can easily increase this recipe for larger amounts of seeds. If you are more daring you can substitute the salt for any flavoring you want to try.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 tsp olive oil

pinch of kosher salt

Directions:

  1. Rinse seeds and remove all pumpkin from the seeds.
  2. Let the seeds thoroughly dry out. I dried mine overnight on a kitchen towel.
  3. Put dried out seeds into a bowl.
  4. Add olive oil to seeds and mix.
  5. Add salt or other flavored seasoning to seeds and mix.
  6. Place seeds on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
  7. Cook in a preheated 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
  8. Enjoy!
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Hand held pumpkin pies also known as pumpkin empanadas

Hand held pumpkin pies, also known as pumpkin empanadas are a great treat any time of year, but especially in the fall when we crave pumpkin flavored desserts. You can make them in the traditional half moon shape, or to get more into the season you can use a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter to make pumpkin shaped hand held pies. These delicious little pies are super simple to make. Join us to learn how.

Ingredients:

Ingredients:
dough:
2 sticks butter
1/2 package cream cheese
2 1/2 cups flour

egg wash:
white from one egg

filling:
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

  1. In a mixing bowl combine the butter and cream cheese and mix together.
  2. Once butter and cream cheese are mixed add the flour and mix together. Once mixed together remove and refrigerate until ready to use.
  3. Separate the egg white and yolk from one egg. Using a fork beat the egg white until it is smooth and runny. Set aside until ready to use.
  4. In a mixing bowl combine pumpkin puree, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla extract. Mix together and then set aside until ready to use.
  5. remove dough from refrigerator and make a ball the size of a golf ball. Roll the ball flat to 1/8 of an inch thickness with a rolling pin.
  6. Using a cookie cutter or lid cut the dough into a circle, or use a cookie cutter to shape as a pumpkin. Place cut dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
  7. Place a table spoon of pumpkin onto the dough.
  8. Using your finger you can place egg wash around the edge of your dough. If you are using a dough cut into a circle you can fold over the dough onto itself so that it forms a 1/2 circle. If using dough cut into a pumpkin you will need to place another piece of dough cut as a pumpkin on top of the first piece.
  9. Using a fork press around the edges of the dough to seal it up.
  10. Place egg wash over the dough. Optional step is to add cinnamon sugar on top of dough.
  11. Repeat steps 5 through 10 until all the dough is used up.
  12. Place cookie sheet in a preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
  13. Enjoy!
Hand held pumpkin pies also known as pumpkin empanadas