One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is all of the baking that I get to do! I have to confess, though, I haven’t been much of a baker lately. My family moved to a new house over the summer, and between the stressful home-buying process and renovating our new house, I have totally fallen out of the habit of baking. I used to bake cookies at least once a week (and often twice or more), but I have only made them a handful of times since we moved. It has gotten bad enough that my husband’s co-workers (who get to eat all of my extra baked goods) asked him this week if I was mad at them for some reason. Nope, just totally out of the habit of baking! I decided that with the holidays coming up, it was high time I got back into the baking spirit, and I whipped up these quick peppermint chocolate cookies to share with his co-workers. The cookies turned out so well, and reminded me all over again how fun it is to bake. These cookies were a huge hit with my husband’s co-workers, and I’m definitely planning to add them to my cookie trays for the neighbors this year. They’re so easy to make, and the flavor combination of chocolate and peppermint is so festive!
Peppermint Chocolate Cookies
The full recipe is at the bottom of this post, but here’s what you’ll need:
butter brown sugar sugar eggs peppermint extract flour cocoa powder baking soda salt peppermint baking chips chocolate chips
You can make the dough for these cookies with or without a stand mixer. Because they use melted butter, the dough is easy to mix by hand. The dough does end up fairly thick, so I would recommend mixing it with a good stiff spatula if you’re mixing it by hand. I will warn you that this dough is addictingly delicious on its own, but be sure to leave at least some of it for baking into cookies!
I mentioned this trick before in my red velvet chocolate chip cookies post, but the secret to thick cookies that don’t spread all over the cookie sheet is to stack the dough like in the picture below. It looks a little silly, but I promise it makes the very best cookies!
You’ll know that the cookies are finished baking when they look dry on top and are browned around the edges. Let them cool on the pan for a few minutes, then move them to a cooling rack to cool completely. They smell so good while they are baking! I had just finished baking them when my seven year old came home from school, and she asked me excitedly, “What smells like chocolate and Christmas in here?”
The texture of these cookies is fantastic! The dough stays very fudgy and rich, and the gooey chocolate chips and smooth peppermint chips add flavor and make them even more rich. You’ll definitely need some cold milk to wash them down, but they are so, so good!
These cookies will keep for several days if stored in an airtight container. I love to warm them up for 5-10 seconds in the microwave before I eat them so the chocolate gets all warm and gooey. They’re also totally delicious with a scoop of ice cream and some chocolate sauce on top. Yum!
