These Chocolate Peppermint Cookies are the Christmas cookies of any chocolate lover’s dreams. A chewy, rich, double chocolate chip cookie meets its match with the minty, sweet kick from the peppermint candy. Grab your oven mitts, have a glass of milk (or eggnog) on standby, and get ready to make some mouthwatering peppermint chocolate cookies.
Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe
Chocolate & Peppermint – Chocolate and peppermint are a match made in flavor heaven.
Classic Recipe – Nothing screams the holidays quite like a peppermint chocolate cookie.
Serve Warm – Some of life’s simplest pleasures are a warm cookies with chocolate chunks that just melt in your mouth.
Candy Canes – So you bought a whole box of candy canes thinking “someone will eat them” and now they’re burning a hole in your candy dish? Put them to good use with this recipe!
Easy to Make – The ingredients are fairly simple to obtain and after that you’re only a few steps away from having some delicious cookies!
These cookies are what Thin Mints wish they could be. Not only do these cookies look stunning on the dessert table, they taste like a chocolate candy cane wonderland. (Those exist, right?) If Santa is sick of those sugar cookies, or gingerbread men, give him something you’ll know he’ll love this Christmas Eve.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Cocoa Powder – You’ll want unsweetened cocoa powder for this recipe since we are already adding sugar to these cookies.
- Flour – When measuring out flour, you should spoon the flour into your measuring cup. Don’t pack the flour in, or else the cookies will become too dense.
- Unsalted Butter – Salted butter will also work. When prepping the butter, be sure that the butter is cold and cut into cubes. Freezing the butter before cutting it into cubes helps the dicing process.
- Peppermint Extract – Pure peppermint extract is the best for this recipe. I would not recommend substituting peppermint oil for peppermint extract, because peppermint oil is more potent and could mess up the flavor of your cookies. If you like a stronger peppermint flavor in your cookies, add double the amount of extract to the batter.
- Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips – You can use either baking chips, or baking chunks of chocolate. It doesn’t make a huge difference either way, it just depends on your preference.
- Crushed Candy Cane Bits – Either put some candy canes in a Ziploc bag and crush them up, or you can buy them crushed up already. Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips are a great alternative.
How To Make Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
- Begin by preheating the oven to 350°. Line a few baking sheets with either parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set those aside. To a large bowl, add the cold, cubed butter and sugar. Using an electric hand or stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until combined. This may take a few minutes because the butter is cold. Next, fold in the eggs one at a time, and scrape down the bowl as needed.
- Once combined, add the peppermint extract and cocoa powder and beat this together until smooth. To this mixture, add in 1 and ¼ cup of the flour and beat it together on a low speed until combined.
- Add in the remaining 1 cup of flour to the batter as well as the chocolate chips and crushed up candy cane bits. Fold this together until it’s just combined. Do not over mix.
- Mix until just combined, but do not over mix. The dough will be fairly thick.
- Using a cookie dough scoop or a spoon, make approximately 2-3 tablespoon sized balls out of the cookie dough. Place the balls on the baking sheets a few inches apart from each other.
- Put the trays in the oven and bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies look set and the centers of the cookies look soft. Remove them from the oven and let them cool on the baking tray for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Once cooled, serve these with a glass of milk and enjoy!
Recipe Tips and Advice
Storage – Store these cookies tightly covered in an airtight container for 3-4 days at room temperature. You can freeze the cookie dough as well for up to 3 months.
Equipment – For this recipe, you’ll need a few baking trays, an electric hand or stand mixer, parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, a cooling rack, mixing bowls, and an optional cookie dough scoop.
Picture Perfect cookies
If you want some candy cane bits and chocolate chunks to show up in the photos of your beautiful cookies, you can set a handful of both aside to gently press into the tops of the cookies before you bake them.
Recipe FAQs
The short answer is yes, the candy canes will technically melt in the oven, but they shouldn’t spread all over your cookies. They should still look in tact when they come out of the oven. If you’re worried about it however, the Andes Peppermint Baking Chips are meant for recipes like this.
Cookies get hard over time because the moisture inside the cookies evaporate. This is why, when you store the cookies, you want to wrap them tightly so the moisture doesn’t escape. You can also try storing the cookies in an airtight container with a slice of sandwich bread to help the cookies absorb some more moisture.
More Christmas Cookie Recipes to Try
Enjoyed these Peppermint Chocolate Cookies? Try out a few more holiday cookie recipes for your baking adventures this holiday season.
- Crockpot Christmas Crack
- Candy Cane Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Andes Mint Cookies
- Hot Chocolate Cookies
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Peppermint Fudge
- Peppermint Bark Cookies
- Ginger Molasses Cookies
More Peppermint Recipes To Try!
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes (freezing butter slightly makes it easier to cut into cubes (unsalted butter is fine))
- 1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
- 1 cup crushed candy cane bites
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract (for a stronger peppermint flavor, use 2 teaspoons)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Because the butter is cold, it does take some time for the butter and sugar come together. Once well combined, blend in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add in peppermint extract. Mix in the cocoa powder until well blended.
- Add 1 1/4 cups of the flour, salt and baking powder to the bowl and mix on low speed just mixed. Add in remaining cup of flour and chocolate chips and crushed candy cane bits. Mix until just combined, but do not over mix. Dough will be thick.
- Scoop dough with a large cookie scoop, approximately 2-3 tablespoons of dough per cookie. Place on the prepared baking sheets, a few inches apart.
- Bake 10-11 minutes or until edges start to look fully cooked and the top of cookies does not depress if lightly touched. Let cool on the baking sheets 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store tightly covered.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutrition facts provided are calculated using a third-party tool and are estimates only. Actual nutritional content may vary based on the ingredients and brands you use, as well as portion sizes. For accurate results, please consult a registered dietitian or nutritionist.
Meet Christi, Love From The Oven
I’m Christi I love sharing easy & delicious recipes that your family & friends will love. I’m a mom, baker, cookbook author and lover of sprinkles.
