Veteran's Day - Holiday Baking Begins!

On Veteran's Day Kayla came over for dinner (tacos) and to help me make my first batch of holiday cookies!  We made a recipe that is supposed to be really similar to Girl Scout Thin Mints (Kayla had given me this recipe last year around this time, but I hadn't made them yet). 

Recipe
Chocolate Cookie Wafers
1- 18.25 oz. package chocolate fudge cake mix
3 T. melted shortening
1/2 cup sifted cake flour
1 egg
3-5 T. water

Coating
3 - 12 oz. bags semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 t. peppermint extract
6 T. shortening

1. Combine cookie ingredients, adding water a little bit at a time until dough forms.  Chill for 2 hours. 
2. Preheat over to 350 degress F.
3. Roll dough on a lightly floured surface to just under 1/16 of an inch thick.  To cut, use a lid from a spice container.  Arrange the cut dough on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes, remove, and cool completely.
4. Combine chocolate chips, peppermint extract, and shortening in a large microwave-safe bowl.  Heat for 2 minutes on 50 percent power. Stir gently, then heat for an additional minute.  Continue stirring and zapping in microwave for 30-seconds until chocolate is smooth. (I moved the chocolate into my small crock pot to keep warm while I was coating the wafer cookies.)
5. Use a fork to dip each wafer in the chocolate, and tap fork on bowl so excess chocolate runs off, place cookies on wax paper, and refrigerate/freeze until firm. (Even after the cookies were firm I kept them in the freezer because they are best when eaten frozen!)

The baking of these cookies was a process, but they are very tasty.

Unfortunately, I forgot to get my camera out until we had already baked all the cookies so I missed getting pictures of mixing the dough, rolling the dough, and cutting the dough.

 Baked cookie wafers that are ready to be dipped into chocolate!

 Kayla pouring the melted chocolate coating into the crock pot so that it could stay warm while we coated all the cookies.  This recipe makes TONS of cookies!

 Kayla was having fun tossing the cookies into the crock pot!  I didn't really get a great shot as I was trying to get the cookies in mid air. 

 The dipping process was truly a process, but we got pretty good at our fork tapping!

 It was fun to bake cookies and hang out with my sister-in-law.

Don't these cookie look delicious?  Yes, they are delicious and turned out great!