Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read mydisclosure policy.
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 upwhen 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. ????☃️❄️. Anyway,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 doesnotcome 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 outsideand 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. 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 ChewyChocolate Chip Cookies, the addition of a little corn starch really does help soften up the texture of your cookie.
2. Room temperature - Pull your butter and egg out a couple hours before you're going to make the batter. The temperature of the butter will drastically change how your cookie bakes up. Melted butter will give you a wide, flat cookie, spreading a lot on the baking sheet. Too cold and it won't spread much at all. Room temperature is the perfect balance for butter. A room temperature egg will also increase the volume of your cookie, giving you a taller cookie, as opposed to a flatter, wider cookie. (Quick tip: If you forget to pull them out, like yours truly does every single time, cut up your butter into 5-6 small pieces and microwave in 5 second increments until it reaches room temperature, softened but NOT melted. You can also put the egg in a small bowl, and then place the bowl in another shallow bowl full of veryhot water for about 5 minutes to bring it up to room temp.)
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 youthat soft, chewy cookie texture in the center.
Personally, I could not be happier with this recipe. These Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies arequitepepperminty, 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 ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract and just a ½ 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 eatallthe candy canes. So give my festive Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies this season and let me know what you think in the comments below!
5 Stars4 Stars3 Stars2 Stars1 Star
4.3 from 3 reviews
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 16 1x
Ingredients
UnitsScale
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
- ½ cup candy canes, broken up and crushed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F. 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 ½ 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
