Peppermint Cookies

This year my family is all about peppermint.  From peppermint bark to candy cane hershey kisses (which I must say is now my favorite candy), we have been buying everything peppermint.  I even went as far as buying the handmade peppermint snow from williams-sonoma.  I think we have just become obsessed with the flavor of peppermint this year so I decided to create a peppermint cookie to calm my cravings a bit.

 

Here is what I came up with.  I thought it turned out pretty delicious.  In my recipe below I increased my peppermint extract from what I originally tried to give it a little more peppermint flavor.  In my original trial recipe, I used only 2 candy canes, but since I love the bits of the peppermint, the next time I make it, I'll add 3.  The recipe below depicts what I would do next time.  The amount of white chocolate chips and candy canes used is purely preference.

Peppermint Cookies
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 tsp peppermint extract
red food coloring
8oz of white chocolate chips

3 candy canes (crushed)

Directions
Preheat oven 375 degrees.  Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt) together and set aside.   In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and peppermint extract. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Add red food coloring (I added a tiny squirt of red gel food coloring, about 1/3 inch) and mix.  

I didn't want the entire cookie to be pink so once the food color was evenly mixed in the center of the dough, I folded in the sides for the bi-color effect. 

Add in the white chocolate chips and 2 of the crushed candy canes.  I saved the larger pieces to top the cookies.

This cookie recipe originated from a sugar cookie recipe so the dough will be extremely crumbly.  Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls with your hands (as if you are forming meatballs), flatten, and place onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.  Top cookies with remaining crushed candy canes and press into the cookies.  Make sure you do flatten the cookies a bit so that they are uniform in size.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Let stand on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before moving them to wire racks to cool.

These cookies I thought were SO good. They were chewy on the inside, but the crushed peppermint added an extra crunch.



The cookies themselves had a slight hint of peppermint flavor which added that extra punch to the cookies.

I will definitely be making these cookies again.

I'm salivating as I am posting these pictures so I'm off to eat another cookie. :)

I've got to stop or I won't have any to give out.