Over the weekend I was craving a Thin Mint. It’s probably been near 20 years since I’ve even tasted the famous Girl Scout cookie, but with the season upon us, it’s hard not to browse the blogosphere and find recipes for everyone’s favorite cookies: Tagalongs, Samoas, and Thin Mints. And so as I was browsing Pinterest on Saturday morning I had seen enough. It was time to make some cookies!
On my walk to the grocery store I struggled between the idea of making a raw Thin Mint or the best replica possible. I went traditional, flour, oven and all. But perhaps before Girl Scout season is over, I’ll come up with the raw version that is begging to be made.
I got home and went to work. After mixing the dough together, testing, adjusting, and testing some more, I made the wild discovery that not only had I made the inside of a Thin Mint, but also the cookie of an Oreo. I rolled out two different sheets, one thinner than the other, and baked them, hoping my discovery would stand the oven test.
After baking I took each cookie in different directions and in the end had two delicious, unique, classic cookies.
Cookie Base:
2 sticks (1 cup) vegan butter (I use Earth Balance buttery sticks)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a stand up mixer with the paddle attachment beat together the vegan butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides as needed. Add cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy.
Add flour in three batches, scraping down the sides in between each addition. Mix until combined.
Transfer the dough onto a piece of parchment paper (it may be a bit crumbly) and kneed a few times to bring completely together. Once dough is fully hydrated, top with another piece of parchment paper and roll out.
If making Thin Mints roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick.
If making Oreo Cookies roll dough out to 1/8 inch thick.
Using a 2” cookie cutter or a similar sized glass cut out cookies, sparing as little dough as possible. Place cookie rounds on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Kneed excess dough together and roll out once more, working to cut out as many cookies as possible.
*Rolling the dough out more than twice will compromise the texture of the cookie.
Set cookie sheets in freezer for 20 minutes. Remove chilled cookies and bake. The Thin Mints will bake 8-10 minutes until edges begin to crisp. Oreos will cook 10-12 minutes. Place cookies on cooling rack and let cool completely.
Oreo Sandwich Cookies:
makes 18 cookies
1/4 cup shortening (I use Earth Balance shortening sticks)
1/4 cup vegan butter (again, I choose Earth Balance buttery sticks)
2+ cup powdered sugar
In a small bowl, with a handheld mixer, cream together shortening and vegan butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar slowly until you reach desired consistency. It should be firm, but moldable. With a piping bag (or ziplock bag with the tip cut off) pipe about 2 tsp of filling onto half the cookies (about 18). Top with the other half, pressing down lightly to spread the cream.
Store at room temperature.
Thin Mints
makes 36 cookies
12 ounce bittersweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp coconut oil
3/4 tsp peppermint extract
Melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil over double boiler. Remove from heat and stir together until smooth. Add peppermint extract. With a for, dip each cookie in the melted chocolate so that it is entirely submerged. Remove from chocolate allowing excess chocolate to drip off, and place on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Repeat until all the cookies have been dipped in chocolate. For best results leave at room temperature until chocolate sets up. You can also place in the refrigerator to allow chocolate to harden more quickly.
Store at room temperature.
Is there interest in a recipe for RAW Thin Mints?
Let me know. If there is enough interest, I will get to work immediately!
My Darling Vegan Newsletter
These both look amazing! Mark just bought a little packet of Oreos today. I wonder what he would think of these…
These look amazing! I would be most interested to see a raw version :). Cheers for all of your amazing shares, they are most gratefully awaited by us all 🙂
RAW THIN MINTS?!! that would put it over the top awesome.
Holy cow – these look amazing!!
I am interested, especially if it is sugar free. How come u bake thiner cookies longer?
Because the Oreos are crunchy while the thin mints have a softer, chewier texture.
Right! 🙂
I may just combine the recipes and make Oreo Thin Mints. Dipping the Oreos in the mint chocolate coating! I’ll let you know how it goes.
Um…sounds amazing! Please do let me know how it turns out!
I don’t understand how you’re able to dip the Thin Mints into the chocolate and take them out without ruining the coating. Well, not ruining, but not having it be as flat and pretty as yours are. How did you do this magic?
I should have taken pictures of the process. Here’s what I did: I laid a cookie flat on a fork and dipped it into the chocolate. If it fell of the fork to totally submerge, that was okay but I picked it back up flat against the prongs and held it against the bowl to allow the excess from the sides and bottoms drip off. This allows the top and sides to become perfectly smooth. Then I gently placed it on a silicone mat slowly easing out the fork from underneath. I have had a lot of practice dipping things in chocolate, and there is a bit of a learning curve, but hopefully that helps.
Love the homemade oreo recipe!
Unfortunately, the combination of mint and chocolate is just not for me… 😉
Please tell me homemade tagalongs are next…
I was thinking Samoas, but perhaps tagalongs. I’ll do one or the other over the weekend.
Hi Sarah! I love your blog and these vegan oreos look amazing. I’ve made some homemade oreos before, but I like the lack of animal products here…I am not a vegan, but it gives more options to people I know who are. 🙂
Would you mind if I used one of these photos on my blog? I do a weekly feature called Wear What You Eat. I will absolutely link and credit the photo back to you (the recipe won’t even be posted). You can see some examples here:
http://ohmypancake.blogspot.com/search/label/wear%20what%20you%20eat
Thanks for your time AND great recipe!
xo
Hi Amanda, thanks for asking! Yes, that would be totally fine. I’m glad you reached out to me because now I can look all over your blog!
I…. think I am in love with you. THANKS FOR THIS!!!! <3
I would love the Recipe for Raw Thin Mints!!! Thank You
What a fantastic idea to use the same cookie base for both thin mints and oreos. If you’ve got a raw thin mints recipe in the works, would LOVE to that, too!
Planning on working on it and having it up next week!
I make Thin Mints with Ritz crackers. Ritz are vegan. They taste exactly like the real thing and a lot less work.
just made the oreo version and they were easy and delicious!
I was hoping to like this recipe, but it tasted awful. I’m not sure what went wrong, but the cookie part for the Thin Mints was bitter. The coating thickened too quickly. All in all, a fail for us. 🙁