thin mint pie & peanut butter ribbon cookies

2 recipies I must try from Cookie Madness:

Triple Layer Thin Mint Pie

1 box Thin Mint cookies (32 cookies)
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups cold milk
2 packages (4-serving size each) Jell-O Chocolate Flavor Instant Pudding
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 tub (12 oz.) Cool Whip Whipped Topping, thawed, divided use

Remove 10 cookies and set aside. Crush or process remaining cookies, then mix them with the butter. Press firmly onto bottom and up side of 9-inch pie plate. Pour milk into large bowl. Add both boxes of pudding mix and beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or until well blended. (Mixture will be thick.) Spoon out 1 1/4 cup of pudding into another bowl and stir in peppermint extract. Pour peppermint pudding mixture over crust. To remaining pudding mix, add in 1 cup of whipped topping. Spread the pudding/whipped topping layer of the mint layer. Chop remaining cookies and combine them with about 2 ½ cups (doesn’t have to be precise) whipped topping. Spread this mixture over the top. The pie might look kind of messy at this point, so clean up the edges. Chill for 4 hours or until set

To garnish, place remaining whipped topping in a plastic zipper bag. Snip off a corner of the bag (about ½ inch up from corner) and squeeze whipped topping around sides decoratively. To make thin zig-zags, pour COLD chocolate syrup into a small zipper bag. Snip a very, very tiny cut off the bottom corner and drizzle away! Makes 8 servings

Peanut Butter Ribbon Cookies

Peanut Butter Ribbons:
2 tablespoons peanut butter chips
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 teaspoon butter (sliced from a stick)

Dough:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon cake mix (I used Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Devils Food)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons lightly beaten egg
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Prepare Peanut Butter Ribbons first. Line a plate with wax paper. In a small, microwave-safe bowl (I used a custard cup), combine peanut butter chips, peanut butter and butter. Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir until smooth. Spoon the peanut butter mixture onto the wax paper lined plate. I spooned it into a 2 inch wide line, but do it any way you like. Place in refrigerator to firm up. This takes about 30 minutes.

In a medium size microwave-safe mixing bowl, melt the butter. Stir in the cake mix, brown sugar and 2 tablespoons egg. At this point, the dough might be too warm to add the chocolate chips, so chill it for about 20 minutes then stir in the chips. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and have ready a parchment or Silpat lined cookie sheet. I think an ungreased sheet would work too.

Remove the now-firm peanut butter mixture from refrigerator and slice it into little ribbons of different sizes. Mine were mostly about 1/3 of an inch wide by 1 ½ inches long. Don’t try to be precise, just go with the flow. Using a tablespoon, scoop up chocolate dough and shape it into a round of about 1 ¼ inches. Break the round in half and nestle a ribbon of peanut butter in the center. Enclose the ribbon in peanut butter and put on a cookie sheet. Repeat to make about 7 cookies. Lay another ribbon of peanut butter across unbaked dough rounds.
Bake for 10 minutes or until dough appears set. Remove from oven and quickly lay another ribbon (or two) over hot cookies. Do this decoratively and artfully. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 2 or 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool and set. The peanut butter mixture will firm up as it sits. Makes about 7 cookies