Mint Chocolate Brownies: These delicious cookies have a brownie mix base for a true brownie taste. They’re rich and fudgy, topped with peppermint frosting and chocolate mint ganache, or keep them simple without the extras.
Not sure about making frosting and ganache for cookies? Try just the base cookie recipe — it’s completely delicious on its own!
Mint Brownie Cookies
While working on these Mint Brownies, I had the idea to turn the recipe of brownies into a cookie and I couldn’t be more excited with the results. A thick, fudgy, chocolatey, chewy cookie base that totally tastes like a brownie (I mean, we are using a brownie mix in it, so why wouldn’t it?), a cool minty frosting, and a smooth chocolate ganache topping. These cookies are totally delicious!
Don’t let the list of components to this recipe overwhelm you. The base cookie (without the frosting and ganache topping) is completely tasty on its own. If you’re looking for a rich (and easy) chocolate cookie recipe with flecks of Andes® mint chocolate throughout, just stick with the base cookie recipe!
Ingredients
- Brownie mix: I’ve made these cookies with different brownie mixes, and the Betty Crocker® Delights Brownie Mix (Supreme Chocolate Chunk) was the favorite. Make sure the mix you use is the right size (18 ounces or 510 grams) so the cookies turn out well.
- Mint chocolate chips: This recipe has been tested with mint fudge baking chips and Andes ®Creme De Menthe baking chips. Both work great! You can also use regular Andes Creme de Menthe Thins Candy.
- Butter: I recommend unsalted butter since brownie mix and pudding mix both have salt in them– and you don’t want salty cookies. Room temperature or slightly softened butter is best for these cookies.
- Cream cheese: For the best flavor and thickness, I recommend full-fat brick-style cream cheese.
- Large egg
- Vanilla extract: Vanilla adds a delicious flavor to the cookies.
- Chocolate pudding mix: Make sure to get regular instant chocolate pudding mix and filling — not sugar-free and not cook-and-serve pudding.
- Chocolate chips: We like milk chocolate best, but semi-sweet or dark will work just as well.
Mint Frosting Notes
- Food coloring is fun to make these Mint Brownie Cookies look minty or for the dessert to be festive looking (for St. Patrick’s Day), but it’s optional. Without the food dye, the frosting will be white but still taste the same. I don’t use any special food coloring, just generic food dye drops from the grocery store.
- Make sure to use peppermint extract, not mint. Mint extract (which is more wintergreen flavor) makes the frosting taste like toothpaste; the peppermint is much milder. Depending on how strong of a mint flavor you’d like, increase or decrease the amount to personal preference. The actual strength of the peppermint extract will also depend on the brand (some are more potent than others). I use 3/4 teaspoon of McCormick® peppermint extract, which we find to be the perfect amount. If you are concerned about the overall mint flavor in this cookie, you could even leave out this extract. There is plenty of mint flavor just from the mint chips!
- We found the amount of frosting is perfect for the yield of cookies, but there isn’t a whole lot of frosting on each cookie. If you want a very generously frosted cookie, you may want to double the frosting recipe.
Mint Brownie Cookie Ganache
The ganache is a simple three-ingredient recipe — mint baking chips, chocolate chips, and heavy cream. I wouldn’t recommend any substitutes for the heavy cream. Milk will thin the ganache too much and butter makes it a bit grainy.
While these cookies can be dipped in the ganache, the process is a bit more involved and messy. I found much neater results by transferring the ganache to a plastic bag, snipping off the tip, and then piping that rich, sweet goodness over the cookies. If you don’t want to drizzle or dip, you could try and spoon the ganache on top and smooth it with the back of the spoon.
Chocolate Mint Cookie Tips
- Use an electric mixer. Hand or stand will work! This is an extremely thick dough, and it will be hard to achieve the best results without an electric mixer.
- Roll wide, flat discs. These cookies don’t spread much, so it’s important to roll the dough balls flatter so you aren’t left with a thick ball of baked dough.
- Line the sheet pan. These cookies turn out best when baked on a silicone liner. Without a lined tray, the bottoms brown and crisp up too quickly.
Quick Tip
Err on the side of underbaking rather than overbaking. When slightly underbaked, these Mint Brownie Cookies will be chewy and delicious, but when overbaked, they are tough and hard. Don’t ask me how I know that!
More delicious cookie recipes
- Snickerdoodles soft and chewy
- Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe!
- Gingersnap Cookies with an amazing spice blend
- Animal Circus Cookies with cream cheese frosting
- Avalanche Cookies no baking required
Mint Brownie Cookies
Equipment
- large sheet pan,
- Silicone baking mat
- stand mixer or hand mixer
Ingredients
Cookie
- 4 ounces cream cheese full-fat, brick-style, softened to room temperature
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 cup, softened to room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 (3.9-ounce) package instant chocolate fudge pudding mix dry; do not prepare
- 1 (18-ounce) package brownie mix I used Betty Crocker Delights Supreme Chocolate Chunk, see note 1
- 1/2 cup mint fudge baking chips or Andes Creme De Menthe baking chips, see note 2
- 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
Mint Frosting
- 3 ounces cream cheese full-fat, brick-style, softened to room temperature
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/4 cup, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
- A few drops of green food coloring optional
- 3 cups powdered sugar
Ganache Topping
- 1/2 cup mint fudge baking chips or Andes Creme De Menthe baking chips
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
Cookie
- Line a large sheet pan with a silicone liner and set aside. Bring the cream cheese and butter to room temperature by either leaving out for 1 hour or by microwaving (unwrapped) cream cheese in increments of 5–10 seconds until soft. Separately microwave the butter for 5 seconds, flipping to the other side, and microwaving another 5 seconds. Be careful not to melt or overly soften either ingredient.
- In a large bowl fitted to a stand mixer (or use a hand mixer), cream together the cream cheese and butter until completely smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth and creamy.
- Add the dry pudding mix and brownie mix (see note 1). Beat to combine. (The dough will be extremely thick and takes a while to form into dough. This is intended. Just keep mixing and it will all come together, even though it seems like it won’t.)
- Stir in the mint baking chips and milk chocolate chips (see note 2). Cover the dough tightly and refrigerate for 20–30 minutes.
- Measure each dough ball to be a full, packed 2 tablespoons of dough (40 grams). Knead the dough ball to get the chocolate chips to stick into the dough, then roll it into a ball. Shape dough balls into wide, thick discs about 2 inches wide and 1/2-inch thick. You should get about 28–30 cookies from this batter. Place 6–8 cookies on the prepared cookie sheet, giving cookies ample room to spread.
- Bake each batch for 10–14 minutes. Slightly underbaking these cookies gives them a chewy taste and texture like ultra fudge-y brownies, so err on the side of slightly under-baking. Remove from oven (see note 3).
Frosting
- While the cookies are cooling, prepare the frosting. Beat together softened to room temperature cream cheese and butter until completely smooth. Add peppermint extract and optional green food coloring. Add the powdered sugar. Beat until smooth and combined (it may seem like it’s not coming together, but resist the urge to add any liquid; it is intended to be a thick frosting). Frost each cooled cookie. If needed, gently press the frosting down to adhere to the cookie.
Ganache
- In a microwave-safe bowl, combine mint chips, chocolate chips, and heavy cream. Microwave in bursts of 15 seconds, stirring between each burst until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Transfer to a plastic bag and cut off the tip. Generously drizzle the ganache over each cookie. Alternatively, you can dip the cookie into the ganache, but this does get a bit messy and can end up fairly thick. (You may need to place the ganache back in the microwave for 10 seconds during the process.) Allow ganache to set at room temperature, about 1–2 hours. Enjoy!
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I am big fan of cookies and now these are one of my favorite. can you please share the choclate cookie recepie,my daughter love it
The recipe is in this post! I’m so glad you guys love these cookies! 🙂
I hate to leave a bad review but these really missed the mark. It was a lot of ingredients and superrrrr time consuming to make. A few points could make them better… ONLY leave them in oven for 12 minutes , more than that and the bottoms burn. Peppermint extract was absolutely awful ..it left a weird tingling in my mouth, mint should have been used . I left the top layer mint free with just chocolate because having every layer be mint is Overkill. With those changes it could be a good cookies.
Sorry you didn’t enjoy these Jackie!
Hi Chelsea. I just found your blog recently and I love all of your recipes. There are so many that I want to try. These cookies look amazing. I make a similar brownie-ish cookie, then put an Andes candy on top of the hot cookie and let it melt. It makes a great frosting. I also wanted to say how much I enjoy your videos. Very fun. Grey sounds like he will be a creative baker someday, with a little direction. Hee hee.
Hey Jessica! So glad you found my blog and left a comment, it’s so nice to hear you are enjoying the recipes; thank you!! 🙂 Your cookies sound amazing — I’ll definitely need to try that with the Andes mints! Again thank you for the nice comments, they make my day! 🙂 And yes, haha, I have high hopes for Grey’s creative cooking 😉
Oh my gosh, I love Grey’s recipe! But (don’t tell) I think I like yours a little better. Brownie cookies sound amazing and I bet that mint frosting is soo delicious! Must try soon!
Haha aaw Grey is too cute 🙂 Hopefully he didn’t ask you to try any of it??
These cookies on the other hand look absolutely incredible! Love anything chocolate and mint!
Haha luckily not 🙂 Thanks so much Kelly! 🙂 xo