Girl Scout Thin Mint Muffins

Thin Mint Muffins

Chocolate Muffins.
Girl Scouts Thin Mints.
Morning happiness.

These muffins are based on my favorite chocolate muffins - from King Arthur Flour. Instead of chocolate chips, I chopped up a sleeve of Thin Mints and added a few Andes Mint Chips too.

My UCLA college roommate, Agnes has two beautiful daughters, Lucia & Julia. They are in the Girl Scouts and each year I put out the cookie order form at work. To be honest, I don't know why anyone orders anything but Thin Mints... especially those Samoas covered with coconut (yuck!)

Over the years, I've tried to incorporate Thin Mints into favorite baked goods. You know, baking with seasonal ingredients and all. This year, I ordered six boxes of Thin Mints for myself. I'm not sure how long they'll last though. There have been incidents that require Thin Mint assistance: a bad week, nothing in the fridge to eat, and actors leaving Downton Abbey which translates into sad, sad endings (total thin mint worthy).

So, what have you been up to lately? Obviously, I haven't been blogging too much... I've been watching some TV. What's on your DVR? I have:

The Following with Kevin Bacon on Fox. Holy smokes. This show is fantastic but scares the beeejesuzzz out of me. I can't watch it on Monday night because then I can't sleep. I have to watch it on the weekend during the day. With the doors locked.

The Good Wife. CBS. Still a good show. Liked Julianna Margulies since her Nurse Carol Hathaway days on ER.

Elementary. CBS. Took some episodes to warm up to this one, but it's a good one to keep me in the Holmes world until the BBC releases more Sherlock.

Southland. TNT. Great cop show...and I like seeing Los Angeles landmarks throughout. :)

House of Cards. Netflix streaming. Damn, this is sooo good. Kevin Spacey is amazing.

Comedies:  The Mindy Project, New Girl, The New Normal

Waiting for more episodes from: White Collar (season just ended), Mad Men (coming back in April), Downton Abbey (if they don't kill off everyone...)

I don't have premium channels on cable so I have to wait and buy Amazon instant videos of Homeland (don't tell me what happens in Season 2 please! :)

Fun way to start the morning. Or to enjoy while catching up on your DVR. ;)

Here are some other Thin Mint creations:

Thin Mint Scones


Thin Mint Brownies


Thin Mint Pancakes


Thin Mint Cupcakes

Recipe:
Thin Mint Muffins

Adapted from King Arthur Flour's website's: Chocolate Breakfast Muffins with added Thin Mint cookies and Andes Mint Chips.

2/3 cup (2 ounces) Dutch-process cocoa
1 3/4 cups (7 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 cups (9 3/8 ounces) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, chopped (in 2013, that was about 15-16 cookies and equaled about 1 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup Andes Mint Chips
2 eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) milk (I used whole milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons vinegar
1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) butter, melted

Prep: Preheat oven to 400°F. Prep muffin tin (I sprayed mine with Pam with Flour spray).
1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, chopped Thin Mint cookies and Andes mint chips.
2. In a large measuring cup or medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and vinegar.
3. Add the wet ingredients, along with the melted butter, to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend, just until combined. Do not mix.
4. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin. King Arthur makes 12 muffins with big tops, but I made them smaller and made 16-18 muffins.
5. Bake the muffins for 18-25 minutes (depending on size), or until a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven, and after 5 minutes remove them from the pan, to cool on a rack.