With a delicious cream cheese filling and a chocolatey-minty flavor, these Chewy Chocolate Peppermint Cookies are a total delight. If you love peppermint and are looking for a good recipe to indulge in for all your holiday baking experiments, this one's just perfect. Go beyond the classic Christmas cookies and try out this delicious recipe instead.
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Why This Recipe Works
- Delicious: Coated in crushed peppermint chips, these chewy peppermint choc cookies have a delicious cream cheese filling inside, and have the perfect balance of flavors and textures.
- Great For Holidays: These chocolate peppermint cookies are perfect for holiday season, and is an amazing recipe to try with your kids too.
🥘 Ingredients
You'll need two sets of ingredients to make the chocolate peppermint cookies.
For The Cookies
- Unsalted Butter (Cold And Sliced Thin): Provides the fat needed for a rich, moist cookie with a tender crumb.
- Light Brown Sugar And Granulated Sugar: Sweeteners give your cookies their sweetness, while the molasses in brown sugar adds depth of flavor and moisture.
- Large Eggs (at room temperature): Act as a binding agent, helping to hold all the ingredients together.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances the flavors in your cookies, adding a touch of sweetness and aroma.
- All Purpose Flour and Cake Flour: Form the structure of your cookies, with cake flour ensuring a tender texture.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: Gives your cookies a deep chocolate flavor and dark color.
- Baking Powder, Cornstarch, And Salt: Are the leavening agents that help your cookies rise and maintain their shape, with cornstarch ensuring a soft texture.
- Peppermint Candy Baking Chips: Infuse your cookies with a festive peppermint flavor and add a delightful crunch.
For The Peppermint Cream Cheese Filling
- Cream Cheese (Softened): Creates a creamy, tangy base for your filling, offering a delicious contrast to the sweet, chocolatey cookies.
- Vanilla Extract And Peppermint Flavoring: Enhance the flavors in your filling, with vanilla adding sweetness and peppermint providing a refreshing, minty taste.
- Red Food Coloring: Gives your filling a festive red hue, making your cookies visually appealing and fun.
- Granulated Sugar: Sweetens your filling, balancing out the tanginess of the cream cheese.
- Candy Cane Baking Chips: Add a delightful crunch to your filling, infusing it with more peppermint flavor and giving your cookies a festive twist.
For the complete list of ingredients with measurements and instructions, please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
📖 Substitutions & Variations
- Melted Chocolate: Another great idea is to coat the baked cookies in some melted chocolate and allow them to chill. You can also choose to use melted white chocolate for this if you want to.
- Double: To make double chocolate peppermint cookies, you can skip adding the peppermint chips into the cookie dough, and just use some dark chocolate chips instead.
- Chocolate Chips: You can also make some white chocolate chip cookies by adding some white chocolate chips into the cookie dough.
🔪How To Make Chocolate Peppermint Cookies?
Once you have all your ingredients ready, here's what you'll need to do to make the cookies.
Step One: In a medium bowl add the cream cheese, sugar, peppermint flavoring, and vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
Step Two: Add the red food coloring to the cream cheese filling, mix to combine. Add the candy cane bits to the cream cheese mixture, mix to combine. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Step Three: Preheat the oven to 410°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat. Set aside.
Step Four: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream butter and sugars on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Step Five: In a large bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt and make the flour mixture. Measure out everything carefully using a measuring cup. Whisk well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix to combine.
Step Six: Use a large cookie scoop and scoop 3 oz dough balls. Make sure to have an even number of cookie dough balls. Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Step Seven: Use the palm of your hand to press down on the cookie slightly, so that the cookie dough ball creates a thin disk. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out a peppermint cheesecake mixture and place one ball on half of the cookies.
Step Eight: Take the dough ball with the peppermint cheesecake filling and add a second dough ball on top. Roll the dough together to form a ball. Lightly press down on the cookie dough ball in the peppermint baking chips. Place the dough ball on the cookie sheet, ideally one lined with parchment paper.
Step Nine: Bake for 14-15 minutes or until the dough ball is just barely set and no longer shiny. Remove from the oven and set to the side to let the chocolate peppermint cookies cool on a wire rack or a cooling rack.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
While making these peppermint cookies is super simple, you might want to take note of these little tips and tricks too.
- Quality: Remember to use the best quality cocoa powder to make these cookies- the flavor will just really shine through. I would recommend using Dutch process cocoa powder to get the most flavorful chocolate peppermint cookies.
- Candy Cane: If you don't have the crushed peppermint chips to coat the cookies, you can use crushed candy canes or crushed peppermint candies or even some Andes mints to coat the cookies.
- Remember that the crushed candy cane pieces should be sized just enough-not too chunky and not too fine.
- Chocolate Chips: A mixture of chocolate chips and crushed candy canes can also be a great addition to the chocolate cookie dough.
- Flavor: I've used vanilla extract to add flavor to these cookies, but you can also choose to add some peppermint extract to get that nice peppermint flavor if you want to.
- Butter: If you don't have unsalted butter, you can use salted butter too. Just skip adding the salt that you'll find in the ingredients list.
- Sugar: If you don't have light brown sugar, you can just stick to using regular brown sugar or just plain granulated sugar if you want to.
If you love this recipe be sure to check out these delicious Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies or these Oatmeal Cranberry Walnut Cookies. Both recipes taste amazing.
💭 FAQs
Yes, you can use salted butter; however, it's important to adjust the amount of added salt in the recipe to maintain the desired flavor balance. If using salted butter, consider reducing or omitting the additional salt called for in the recipe.
To achieve a chewy texture, ensure you cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture becomes light and airy. This step incorporates air into the dough, contributing to a chewy consistency. Additionally, baking the cookies until the edges are set but the centers are still soft will help maintain their chewiness.
Chilling the dough is not strictly necessary for this recipe. The dough can be baked immediately after preparation. However, if you prefer a thicker cookie or wish to enhance the flavors, you can refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes before baking.
Store the baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They will remain fresh for up to five days. For longer storage, you can freeze the cookies by placing them in a single layer on a baking sheet, ensuring they are not touching, and freezing until solid. Once frozen, transfer them to a sealed container or zip-top bag, separating layers with parchment paper. They can be stored in the freezer for up to three months.
Once you've let all the chocolate peppermint cookies cool down, remove them from the cookie sheet and transfer them to an airtight container. These cookies can stay fresh at room temperature for up to 3 days, if not more. You can also choose to make the cookie dough in advance and wrap it up in plastic wrap before you refrigerate or freeze it. If you have any remaining dough, you can store it that way too.
🧂Serving Suggestions
- Serve with Hot Cocoa: Pair these cookies with a warm cup of hot cocoa or peppermint tea to complement their rich, minty flavor.
- Add to a Holiday Cookie Platter: Include these cookies as part of a festive cookie platter with other treats like gingerbread or sugar cookies for a variety of holiday flavors.
- Top with Extra Peppermint: Enhance the minty flavor by sprinkling additional crushed candy cane bits over the cookies before serving.
- Serve as a Gift: Package these cookies in a decorative tin or box for a thoughtful homemade gift during the holiday season.
🍽 Related Recipes
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Chewy Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Unsalted Butter
- 1 ½ cups Light Brown Sugar
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 11/2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 ½ cup Cake Flour
- 1 cup Cocoa Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Peppermint Candy Baking Chips
- Peppermint Cream Cheese Filling
- 8 oz Cream Cheese Softened
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 teaspoon Peppermint Flavoring
- 1 teaspoon Red Food Coloring
- ¼ cup Sugar
Instructions
- Make Cream Cheese Filling: In a medium bowl add the cream cheese, sugar, peppermint flavoring, and vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
- Add Food Coloring And Candy Canes: Add the red food coloring to the cream cheese filling, mix to combine. Add the candy cane bits to the cream cheese mixture, mix to combine. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Prep Oven And Baking Sheets: Preheat the oven to 410°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat. Set aside.
- Prepare Wet Ingredients: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream butter and sugars on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Combine Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt and make the flour mixture. Measure out everything carefully using a measuring cup. Whisk well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix to combine.
- Make Cookie Dough Balls: Use a large cookie scoop and scoop 3 oz dough balls. Make sure to have an even number of cookie dough balls. Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Notes
Nutrition
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These Chewy Chocolate Peppermint Cookies are a festive favorite! The combination of rich chocolate and refreshing peppermint, along with the creamy filling, makes them a holiday delight. Sometimes I add a drizzle of melted chocolate on top for an extra indulgent touch.