Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Love the combination of peppermint and chocolate? Who doesn’t!? Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies are loaded with peppermint flavour from both the extract and the crushed candy canes. These already pack a deep chocolate flavour, but they’re dipped in chocolate anyway for even more chocolatey goodness! Christmas is for giving and sharing, but you might want to keep this one all to yourself!

In our home, Christmas cannot come and pass us by without a good dose of treats flavoured with peppermint. Those treats are even more welcomed and enjoyed if they have crushed candy cane bits in them. Seriously, we can’t get enough of it! I’m not a huge lover of sweets, but every Christmas I have to get my peppermint fix.

As you know, John.e is a major lover of ice cream. As for me, I can take it or leave it. In fact, most times, I leave it! I don’t get the appeal to ice cream like most people do. It’s not that I don’t like it; I just don’t care that much for it. But, every Christmas, John.e will find a peppermint ice cream somewhere and we have to have it. I have just one scoop because I need that peppermint/candy cane experience, but I never could eat a large serving of ice cream.

That’s why these cookies are just perfect for me. I can get a good amount of peppermint flavour baked into a double chocolate cookie. It’s perfection! As for John.e, he crumbles these Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies into his store-bought candy cane ice cream. I have no idea how he’s not obese! All I have to do is look at it and I gain weight!

MAKING THE MOST OF CHRISTMAS

I’ve said it a few times before and I’m sure I’ll say it a few times more – especially over the next few weeks. Christmas is a time for indulgence. I don’t mean to the point of making you sick, but now is not the time to count every single calorie. Take a few days out of the year to enjoy yourself and let your guard down. Eat the cookie, have the extra cocktail, binge your favourite Christmas movies, etc.

A few years ago, I was trying to explain to McKenna the reason why I take full advantage of every single Christmas. This is the way I look at it! In the first 18-20 Christmases of your life, you are still living at home and your parents decide how it is celebrated and how things are decorated. For the next 4 or 5 years you might be in university and not able to afford to buy presents for your friends – never mind shelling out money for decorations or holiday-type food! Let’s face it, most of us start collecting decorations and making holiday traditions in our 30s, right?

By the time we reach our 60s or 70s, pulling out decorations, setting up trees, baking and cooking excessively, etc., all get to be a bit too much for us. And, we can’t depend on our kids to do it for us, because by now they have their own families to worry about. So, basically, you get about 30 good Christmases where you get to call the shots. That’s not nearly enough if you ask me! Think about something you love to do every time you get the chance. Now, imagine you only get to do that once a year for a limited number of years. You’d put your all into each one of those opportunities, wouldn’t you? That’s exactly why I put my all into Christmas every single year.

CHOCOLATE AND PEPPERMINT

If you love the combination of chocolate and peppermint, there are several recipes here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen that you should take advantage of! You will have to try my Peppermint Chocolate Biscotti. I shared this one with my readers last year as a part of my 12 Biscotti of Christmas series. It was quite the hit!

How about this no-bake Peppermint Chunk Fudge? Unlike those fudge recipes that are basically big chunks of melted chocolate that has re-hardened, this fudge is cake-like; almost like a brownie! They are so delicious and addicting too! I also have these baked Chocolate Peppermint Donuts. Again, they are baked, not fried, so even though they are super chocolatey and covered in icing, they are still healthier than any donut you can buy at a bakery!

Not into cookies, fudge, or donuts? What about ice cream? Remember I mentioned the candy cane ice cream that John.e buys every Christmas? Well, you can make your own No Churn Peppermint Cookie Ice Cream at home. You won’t need a fancy, expensive ice cream maker to do it! I added crushed peppermint Oreos to the ice cream to make it even more indulgent! Anyway, I digress. Let’s talk about these Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE:

• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature! To be perfectly honest, I have made these with both salted and unsalted butter and there’s no difference in taste or appearance once all is said and done. Use what you have on hand.
• Sugar – Sugar will caramelize when baked, which will help to brown cookies and cakes.  In cookies, the sugar will help the dough to spread, and will create a crispness to the bottom of the cookie.
• Peppermint Extract – You could use vanilla, but we’re going to pack as much peppermint flavour as possible into these cookies!
• Eggs – Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!

• Flour – No need for anything special. Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
• Cocoa Powder – Cocoa powder is an unsweetened chocolate product which adds deep chocolate flavour to desserts and beverages.  Use a good quality cocoa powder, not the kind we used to stir into milk as kids!
• Baking Soda – Commonly known as sodium bicarbonate, or just bicarb, it is a baking ingredient that’s activated by a liquid and an acid to help with leavening or rising.
• Salt – Do not add the extra salt if you used salted butter!
• Chocolate Chips – I use chocolate chips a lot in my recipes, and I change up the type depending on how I feel.  Unless the recipe states otherwise, you can use milk, semi-sweet, or dark chips. 
• Vegetable Shortening – This is used to thin the chocolate. You can also use coconut oil.
• Crushed Candy Canes

CRUSHED CANDY CANES

In most cases, crushed candy canes are red and white, but sometimes, you can find ones that are red, white, and green. Obviously, those are the ones that I used. I bought a small bag of these last year for my Candy Cane Peppermint Bundt Cake. It was a very small bag and I practically used all of them on that one cake.

If you don’t want to use the red and white ones – which are the easiest to find – then you can crush your own candy canes by placing unwrapped, broken candy canes into a sturdy bag and firmly rolling over them with a wooden rolling pin. Either way, you want candy canes that are not crushed too finely. Many times, you’ll find them that have too much powder, meaning that they have been crushed too much. You want chunky pieces in order to get the red and green speckled pattern.

I’ve tried crushing them myself and have crushed them a little too much. Even the type you buy in the store can sometimes have too much candy cane dust. You can easily fix it by filtering out the dust. Working in small amounts, place a heaping spoonful of the crushed candy canes into a colander with small holes. Sift out the dust and you’ll be left with nice little pieces.

HOW TO MAKE DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT COOKIES

Add the softened butter and the sugar to a large mixing bowl. Beat the two together for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is light and creamy. Be sure to scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula halfway through beating. Add the extract and eggs. Beat into the butter mixture until well incorporated.

Next, measure out the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Dump these ingredients into the butter and egg mixture. With your beater on a low speed, beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just mixed through. The dough will form a ball. Once done, place the bowl of cookie dough into the fridge for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside. Next, prepare the candy canes if you are making your own crushed candy canes at home. Set the candy canes in a bowl and set aside. Place the sugar into a separate bowl and set that aside too. Finally, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Once the cookie dough is chilled, portion dough into slightly heaping tablespoons. Roll into a ball into the sugar and place on the prepared baking sheet. Leave two inches of space between each cookie. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle the tops of each cookie with a scant teaspoon of the crushed candy canes. Allow cookies to cool for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.

DIPPING YOUR COOKIES INTO MELTED CHOCOLATE

When it comes to having cookies dipped in chocolate, I love lots and lots of chocolate. However, the star of these Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies is the peppermint. And, I wanted that flavour to be the first thing to register when one bites into the cookie. For that reason, I opted for less chocolate rather than lots and lots of it!

Here’s how to get the chocolate just right. Place the chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl. Whenever you microwave chocolate, you should microwave on medium power for 30 seconds. Then, if it’s still not silky smooth, microwave in increments of 5 or 10 seconds, depending on your microwave, stirring with a rubber spatula after each increment. If you want a thick chocolate coating, skip the addition of vegetable shortening. A thinner chocolate can be achieved with a little bit of coconut oil as well.

Dip each cookie straight down into the bowl of chocolate, coating just half of the cookie. Lift the cookie out of the chocolate and gently shake it up and down to shake off the excess chocolate. Next, lightly drag the bottom of the cookie over the edge of the bowl, essentially wiping off any chocolate that would pool, ruining the look of your cookie. Lay the cookie onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Immediately sprinkle over more crushed candy canes and allow the chocolate to set until hardened.

STORING, PACKAGING, & FREEZING

When it comes to most cookies, they taste best at room temperature, but they don’t hold up well to being left out on your countertop for long periods of time. Cookies will stay fresh in a cookie jar or food-safe container with a lid for 3-5 days if left to sit on your kitchen countertop. You can store them in a food-safe container in your fridge. When you want one, two, or half a dozen, take them out of the container and place them in a single layer on a plate. Let them sit at room temperature for 5 minutes and they’re ready!

If you plan to freeze your Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies, you certainly can! Once the chocolate has hardened, pile them into a clean, food-safe container. The container must be freezer friendly! You’ll want to ensure a very tight-fitting lid too. I use these quite often when freezing baked goods. I like to place a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the container before pushing the lid on. This helps to create a better seal. The goal is to keep all of that freshness locked in!  

You can freeze these cookies for up to three months. If you plan to give previously frozen cookies as a gift, I would lay them out on a wire cooling rack to thaw completely. If packaging, wait until the condensation has evaporated. Whenever I work with anything covered in chocolate, I like to use a glove to prevent getting fingerprints on it as much as possible! Once thawed, pile into cellophane bags and tie with a ribbon, or stack in a cookie tin/box.

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down to follow me and never miss another recipe!

Finally, as I stated previously, every day I will be posting a new recipe. If you miss one, don’t fret. You can find my entire collection of Christmas Recipes right here! There are over 100 Christmas recipes and counting. There’s something for everyone! Cheers!