College kids dash out at all hours to Insomnia Cookies for chocolate chunk or oatmeal raisin. What happened to work ethic? What happened to melting butter and beating eggs? It takes 10 minutes to mix cookie batter, and those are minutes well spent.
Kids counter that they don’t stash eggs and flour in their dorm rooms. Campus life offers no mixer, no oven, no time. Plus, cookie shops deliver.
Fine, order cookies. Buy yourself a sweet respite from studying (or whatever it is students do late at night). I’ll be home mixing homemade from sugar and eggs and flour. Mostly, from chocolate.
Midnight mints
Makes 20 cookies in under 30 minutes
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut up
2 eggs at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup flour
20 to 40 Andes mints
Break up unsweetened chocolate into a bowl. Toss with butter. Microwave just to melt, 1-2 minutes. Stir. Let cool to room temperature.
Crack eggs into the bowl of an electric mixer. Pour in sugar and vanilla. Sprinkle in baking powder and salt. Beat until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Pour in chocolate mixture; beat on low until combined. Sprinkle in flour; beat on low until combined.
Line 1 or 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a 1 3/4-inch-diameter ice-cream scoop to portion out 20 domes of dough. Press one or two mints into each cookie.
Slide pan(s) into a 350-degree oven, and bake until just set, about 7 minutes. Enjoy warm.