I made these with the whole family the other day.  Both recipes came from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookie issue.  The pinwheels have ground almonds in the dough, while the candy canes are minty, and contain mint extract.  I’ve been putting the mint extract to good use in my baking since last year, when I used them as an addition to my Spritz cookie dough, which I highly recommend.  I get bored easily, so I like to try new cookie recipes, or tweak the old ones.  I also used the mint extract recently in a buttercream frosting for my son’s birthday, along with crushed candy cane’s.  I used the frosting on chocolate cupcakes and it was fantastic! In fact, we’ve been a little mint-crazy in our family for the last few years.  Once Arp and I discovered Mojitos, they became a regular summer drink.  This past summer I planted chocolate mint and banana mint in our herb garden.  The banana mint sucks – not minty enough for us, and not really banana-like either.  The chocolate mint is wonderful – a very clean, intense mint that really comes through in a mojito.  The leaves and stalks are also very sturdy, which I like.  And the leaves are a nice shape, and dark green – good for decoration.

A note on making Mojitos: we like to use turbinado when we muddle the mint – it makes it easier to mash up the mint really well, and the flavor of turbinado is much better than white sugar.