The Altitude Adjustment Section
Who doesn’t love Girl Scout cookies? But they are available for only a short time so when I saw this recipe for the famous thin mint variety I flipped out. I found this recipe on Instructables.com which is a very cool website with instructions on how to make thousands of strange, unusual, and useful items.
Ingredients for the cookies
1 (18 1/4 ounce) package fudge cake mix (like Duncan Hines)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup cake flour, measured then sifted
1 egg
3 tablespoons water
Ingredients for the coating
3 (12 ounce) bags semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
6 tablespoons vegetable shortening
Procedure
Combine chocolate wafer ingredients in a bowl until well mixed. You may need to get your hands in there! On a surface lightly dusted with flour, shape dough into two logs, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap, waxed paper or parchment and freeze for at least 1 to 2 hours, until dough is very firm and can be sliced into wafers.
Preheat oven to 375F. Slice dough into rounds not more than 1/4 inch thick — if they are too thick, they will not be as crisp — and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. These cookies are firm and will not spread very much, so you can put them quite close together. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until cookies are firm at the edges. While cookies cool completely on a wire rack, prepare the coating.
Combine chocolate chips with peppermint extract and vegetable shortening in the top of a double boiler. Simmer over medium heat and stir until chocolate is melted and smooth.Now use a fork to dip each wafer in the chocolate. Tap the fork on the edge of the bowl so that the excess chocolate runs off, and then place the cookies side-by-side on a wax paper-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm. These taste best after they've been refrigerated for a day, but who can wait? Store these in an airtight container in the fridge for a week or two. Or freeze them for up to a month! They're great right out of the freezer too. Best if you keep them cold.
