Food 52

Andrea Bemis' Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

The best cookies I had all year—and I eat a lot of cookies—were Andrea Bemis' Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies from her book Dishing Up the Dirt. Their texture is the ideal amalgam of crispy and soft—a defined crust with visible veins of tenderness—but it is their underlying flavor that makes them true winners. To begin, you melt the butter with a heap of fresh mint. (Melted butter makes for denser, chewier cookies; melted butter also means no waiting for dang butter to soften!) The butter turns amber while the mint releases its fragrance and flavor. When the cookies come out of the oven, they have all the toastiness of brown butter, but with an herbal aroma that makes them particularly apt for pairing with spring and summer fruit.