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Chocolate Peppermint Sugar Cookies

Overhead view of candy cane shaped chocolate peppermint cookies on a gold cooling rack.
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Peppered with real bits of candy cane and melted dark chocolate, these super soft, dark chocolate peppermint sugar cookies are the perfect canvas for all your holiday cookie decorating needs.

  • Author: Claire | The Simple, Sweet Life
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Chill Time: 1 hour
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
  • Yield: 2 dozen cookies 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 2 sticks butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 tsp peppermint extract
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 large egg, at room temperature
  • 2 oz dark chocolate
  • 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup baking cocoa
  • 2/3 cup crushed candy canes

Instructions

  1. Melt your dark chocolate over a double boiler, stirring until lump-free.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium light and fluffy.
  3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the peppermint extract, salt, melted chocolate and egg. Beat again until the mixture is thoroughly combined.
  4. In a bowl, sift together the baking cocoa and all purpose flour.
  5. Add the all purpose flour/baking cocoa to the dough about one cup at a time, scrape down the sides of the bowl between each new addition.
  6. The dough should be soft and may be slightly sticky to the touch, but should still easily peel away from the sides of the bowl.
  7. Fold in crushed candy canes/peppermint candies until evenly distributed.
  8. Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
  9. Once the dough is chilled, knead it on a lightly floured surface until malleable.
  10. Roll the dough out to 1/4″ thick. Cut out with desired shapes.
  11. Bake the dough at 350F for 6-10 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies.
  12. The cookies are done when they’re no longer shiny on top.

Notes

    • Bringing butter to room temperature: Fill a bowl with warm water, place the butter in a slightly smaller bowl and place it over the bowl of water. The butter should be at or around room temperature in about 5-10 minutes.

    • Why do we cream the butter and sugar for this recipe, and how do we know when it’s ready? Creaming these two ingredients together allows the sugar to aerate the butter making for a fluffier cookie. Properly creamed butter is light, fluffy and doesn’t cling to the sides of the bowl.

    • The importance of room temperature eggs: For this recipe, it’s important that the eggs are at or around room temperature so that the chocolate doesn't seize when it's added to the dough. If you forgot to take the eggs out in advance (we’ve all be there), you can fill a bowl with hot water from your tap and place the eggs in it for about 5 minutes.

    • Halving this recipe: Since you can’t add half an egg to a recipe, the best way to halve this recipe is to use the whole egg and adjust the flour to 1 1/2 cup. All other ingredient amounts can be halved as you normally would.

    • Working ahead: This sugar cookie dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up 5 days or freezer for up to 3 months before use. Be sure to thaw frozen dough in the refrigerator before using it.

    • Sugar cookies lost their shape while baking: If your cookies lost their shape during the baking process, no worries! If you act quickly, it’s an easy fix. Simply re-cut the cookies with the same cookie cutter immediately after removing the tray from the oven.

    • Baked sugar cookie surface is uneven: Sometimes sugar cookies will develop little bumps and air bubbles as they bake. If this happens, run a fondant smoother gently over the tops of the cookies immediately after they’ve been removed from the oven. If you don’t have a fondant smoother, gently patting the top with a paper towel works, too.

    • Storage: Unfrosted sugar cookies can be stored in a cookie jar at room temperature for 2-3 days or in a cool, dry, airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Nutrition

Keywords: chocolate peppermint cookies, chocolate peppermint sugar cookies, chocolate cookies

Find it online: https://thesimple-sweetlife.com/dark-chocolate-peppermint-cutouts/