Sugar Cookies and Chocolate Mint Sugar Cookies - Sis 2

It's a tradition! Every year for Valentine's Day I make my husband some heart shaped sugar cookies. While we were dating he told me he loved sugar cookies, so I bought him one of those Granny B's sugar cookies with the pink frosting. But every year since we've been married I have made him sugar cookies as part of my way to show him I love him for Valentine's Day. (I don't know if he understands that cooking yummy things for him is one way I try to show him I love him.)

This year I was looking through my "Taste of Home" magazine and saw some chocolate mint cookies dipped in mint chocolate. I thought they looked pretty good. But, I also thought, I have to make sugar cookies and the recipe I use makes a huge batch so maybe I should just make some of them chocolate; and so that is what I did.
I made my favorite kind of sugar cookie dough, and then took half out and added some cocoa powder and peppermint extract. How's that for scientific??
My favorite recipe for Sugar Cookies happens to come from the Lion House Desserts Cookbook.

Cutout Sugar Cookies
pg 103 Lion House Desserts Cookbook

2 cups granulated Sugar
1 cup shortening ( I always use butter)
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract (this time I omitted the lemon, since I would be doing the chocolate later.)
6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
In a large bowl cream sugar, shortening and eggs. Add milk and vanilla; mix at low speed. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, soda and baking powder. Add to the sugar mixture until well incorporated.
This is where I changed it up. I took half of the cookie dough out of the bowl and wrapped it in some saran wrap and put it in the fridge. To the other half of the dough that was still in the bowl I added 1/4 cup of baking cocoa and 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract. I then put that dough in the fridge also. I always leave my dough in the fridge until the next day. When you are ready to bake the cookies preheat the oven to 350. Roll out the dough to about 1/8 in. thick; cut out in desired shapes. Bake for 6 minutes, or until when you lightly touch the top it doesn't make a dent. Be careful not to overcook them. I iced the regular sugar cookies with a can of store bought icing, and then sprinkled them with fun stuff. The chocolate sugar cookies I dipped in melted Andes mint pieces and then sprinkled with fun sprinkles.
To melt the Andes mint pieces put them in a microwave safe bowl and put it in for 30 seconds on power 5. Then I stir it up and work in increments of 15 seconds keeping the power setting on 3 or 4. You don't want to burn your chocolate.
They are cute, and so delicious.