It's truly the holidays everyone! We went out to North Bend to cut down (yes you read that right) our christmas tree this year. Quite a difference from your local tree lot! For one, watching Dan cut down a tree at a U-CUT Tree farm and singing the Lumberjack song is extremely enjoyable. Two, it DUMPED snow while we were there! Literally started right when we got there and let upย when we left. It was like the weather knew we were on an authentic christmas tree mission and decided to help us out. It was absolutely breathtaking.
I was even treated to a little snow at work this week! Mostly snow/rain in downtown Seattle but it was still quite magical to see snow flakes falling for that 30 minutes-ish outside the windows at work. ????โ๏ธโ๏ธ. Anyway,ย I've thoroughly enjoyed my first snowy week of December here in Seattle and I am ????% ready to jump on the baking band wagon that is the holidays. Let's start with some Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies complete with a crushed candy cane topping yes??
As I have established, I'm not a baker at heart. It doesย notย come super easily to me. So when I bake something and share the recipe here, I'm basically saying if I can do this, you for REALS can too! Seriously though, this Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies went through a few, shall we say, "changes" before I found the perfect crispy outsideย and soft chewy inside I was looking for. By changes, I don't mean slight tweaks. I mean C-H-A-N-G-E-S!
First batch? Severe flour overload. They looked perfect and the batter tasted delicious when I put them in them in the oven...but then I pulled out lumpy, moon volcano looking things that were not fit for human consumption. So I changed some things...and then I changed some more things...and then some MORE things until I could bring you all the PERFECT soft, chewy, minty Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookie.ย A bit of a cookie experiment if you will.
The results of my cookie experiment?
1. Corn Starch - As I discovered in my Soft and Chewyย Chocolate Chip Cookies, the addition of a little corn starch really does help soften up the texture of your cookie.
3. Baking time - Finally, and most importantly, baking time! Be careful not to over bake! The trick is to pull out your cookies while the center is still soft and doesn't look quite done. If you cook them until they look fully done, it will result in a crispy, hard cookie through and through. Remove them from the oven and let the cookies rest on the still warm sheet pan to cook a little more internally, giving youย that soft, chewy cookie texture in the center.
Personally, I could not be happier with this recipe. These Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies areย quiteย pepperminty, just the way I like them ????. If you're not that big of a fan of peppermint and want to tone it down a bit, go for 1 ยฝ teaspoons of vanilla extract and just a ยฝ teaspoon of peppermint extract. If you just want Double Chocolate Cookies, omit the peppermint extract entirely, use 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, and forgo the candy cane topping.
Having said that, it's December!!! The best time of year to eatย allย the candy canes. So give my festive Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies this season and let me know what you think in the comments below!
Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 16 1x
Ingredients
- ยฝ cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ยผ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- ยฝ cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- ยพ cup brown sugar
- ยผ cup white sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- ยฝ cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
- ยฝ cup candy canes, broken up and crushed
Get Recipe Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350หF. Prepare a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper
- In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, sea salt, and corn starch until completely combined.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add the egg and extracts and whisk until thoroughly mixed.
- Stir the flour mixture into the sugar mixture until thoroughly combined.
- Gently fold in chocolate morsels.
- Cover in saran wrap and chill dough for 30 minutes.
- After chilling, scoop and balls of dough, about 2 ยฝ tablespoons each, onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake 8-10 minutes, being careful not to overcook! Remove from the oven when they look almost but not quite done. They will still be quite soft in the center.
- Sprinkle with crushed candy canes and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 more minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cook Time: 10 mins
Heather says
Delicious recipe! Easy to make and the right balance of chocolate and peppermint.
EllenL says
These were fantastic! Everyone in the house loved them and canโt wait for more. My only difficulty was getting the crushed candy canes to stick on top, but we managed well enough. The recipe is easy otherwise. We used a 2 TBSP scoop and scooped generously, ending up with 19 cookies. These will be made on repeat!
Amanda says
These are definitely some of the most labor intensive cookies I've made! I used my Kitchen Aide stand mixer and it takes a long time for the dough to mix, especially if you slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Somehow I also got a ton of dough. I made a double batch and stopped baking at 6 dozen cookies and froze the rest of the dough. I used a 2 tbsp scoop to make the balls. I chilled the dough overnight for easy scooping & based on when I needed the cookies ready.
A few things:
HAVE YOUR CRUSHED PEPPERMINT STICKS READY. Seriously, as soon as your cookies get out of the oven sprinkle them with the crushed peppermint sticks. If you even wait 20 seconds the cookies will start to set and the peppermint will not stick.
The consistency of these cookies is very soft but dense. Moist is not the correct word - they are really dense and kind of sticky, like wet peanut butter in your mouth. They are delicious but based on the recipe photo I was expecting them to be a little bit crisp around the outside and moist or chewy in the middle, like a traditional Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie. I did follow the baking instructions because I did not want to mess them up after putting so much effort into getting the dough ready. I think with the frozen dough I'll try to cook them a little bit longer but perhaps if I make these again tweak the recipe so they are chewier instead of so dense.
The flavor itself is really delicious, because chocolate. Just have a big glass of something to drink nearby when you eat them.