Heart-Shaped Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Valentine's week, y'all! I love any excuse to bake a heart-shaped dessert...and there will be a couple of them coming this week! I asked my co-workers a couple of weeks back for ideas of things to bring in for them this week, and to my surprise, one of them requested my mint chocolate chip cookies. I had to laugh a little, because when I think of desserts for V-day, I think of pink or red, strawberry, etc. Definitely not green or mint. However, because I'm a nice co-worker, and I love my friends, I decided to figure out a way to make it work. Thus, the pink, heart-shaped version of my cookie was born. You're welcome Nic ;)

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about a mint cookie for Valentine's day, but I must say...I loved them just as much as I do for Christmas :) And the fact that they are pretty pink and heart-shaped just makes them that much better. 

Heart-Shaped Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

A Sweet Beginnings' Original

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp mint extract
• 6-8 drops red food coloring
• 1 egg
• 2 1/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 bag (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil.
2. Beat together butter and sugar on low speed until fluffy. Stir in flavoring, coloring, and egg; mix well.
3. Combine flour and baking powder in a bowl and slowly mix into the sugar mixture. Once combined, stir in chocolate chips.
4. Use a small, heart-shaped cookie cutter and lay it on the baking sheet. Put just enough cookie dough into the cookie cutter to cover the foil, but don't fill the cookie cutter to the top. You only want about 1/4-1/2" of dough in the cutter. Gently remove the cookie cutter, leaving the heart-shaped dough on the foil. Repeat this process with the remainig dough, leaving the cookies about 2 inches apart.
5. Bake 7-9 minutes until just set. Allow to cool for 1 minute, then remove to cooling rack.