Gratitude Cookies aka 'Nigella's Chocolate Mint Cookies' - CBC 11

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

-- Melody Beattie

One batch of these babies and you will be very grateful for the time and care you have taken to make them!  One mouthful and all the stresses and rages of the work day will fade away and you will be thankful you don't have to live in your office ... although if my office was my kitchen I reckon I would be pretty happy right about now!

Gratitude Cookies
100g soft butter
150g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
150g plain flour
35g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
200g dark chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)
For The Glaze
75g icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa, sieved
2 tbsp boiling water
1/4 tsp peppermint extract

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and brown sugar in a freestanding mixer, then beat in the vanilla extract and the egg.

Mix the flour, cocoa and baking powder in a bowl and gradually beat in to the creamed mixture.  finally, fold in the chocolate chips.

Using a rounded tbsp measure (I used an ice cream scoop), spoon out scoops of cookie dough and place on a lined baking sheet, leaving a little space in between each one.  (They will spread!)

Bake in the oven for 12 mins and then let them sit on the baking sheet for a couple of mins before moving  them to a cooling rack, with some newspaper on the surface underneath to catch any escaping glaze later.

Put the glaze ingredients into a saucepan and heat until combined.

Using a teaspoon, zig zag the glaze over each cookie.

Makes 26 cookies for Nigella and 23 for me
Taken from Nigella Express