Chocolate-Peppermint Cookies

236 Ratings
  • 5 49
  • 4 98
  • 3 57
  • 2 27
  • 1 4

No need to wait for the girls in green to sell you a box of cookies. Indulge in this version of the minty classic, with a holiday-inspired topping of crushed red-and-white candies.

Martha Stewart Living, December 2008

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Recipe Summary

Yield:
Makes 6 dozen
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Ingredients

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed for 1 minute. Reduce speed to medium-low, and add egg, then yolk, beating well after each addition. Beat in peppermint extract. Slowly add flour mixture, and beat until just incorporated. Shape dough into 2 disks, wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour (or up to 2 days).

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  • Roll out 1 disk of dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. Using a 2-inch round cutter, cut out circles, and place 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Roll and cut scraps once. Freeze cookies until firm, about 15 minutes. Repeat with remaining disk.

  • Bake until cookies are dry to the touch, about 12 minutes. Transfer parchment, with cookies, to wire racks, and let cool.

  • Sift crushed candy, and separate larger pieces from dust, reserving both. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of gently simmering water. Remove from heat. Dunk cookies into melted chocolate. Using a fork, turn to coat, let excess drip off, and gently scrape bottom against edge of bowl. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, and sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of either candy pieces or dust on top. Repeat, sprinkling half the cookies with pieces and the rest with dust. Refrigerate until set, up to 3 hours. Decorated cookies are best served the same day.

Cook's Notes

Undecorated cookies will keep, covered, for up to 3 days.

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Reviews (33)

236 Ratings
  • 5 49
  • 4 98
  • 3 57
  • 2 27
  • 1 4
Martha Stewart Member
12/29/2018
This was a big hit this Christmas! What I did different is that after I made the dough I put it in baseball size balls in between parchment paper and then pressed into an 8th of an inch and then put it into the freezer for and hour, and it was so easy to cut with the cookie cutter and then I pressed the rest down again and put in the fridge then repeat. It seemed to work great no problems with sticky dough. I also baked them one min longer so I could get the crunch and I dipped them in dark chocolate. Yummy!!
Martha Stewart Member
12/17/2016
The dough is super sticky. I made two batches last year and added a lot more flour and cocoa to firm it up. The cookies in that batch really weren't that great. These should be think circles. 12 minutes is perfect for bake time. I use a glass espresso glass as my cutter and I've gotten pretty close to the 4dozen it says it makes. This year I divided my dough into 5 small balls and froze for several hours. Rolling a small amount is a lot easier and overall less frustrating. Total =3.5 doz
Martha Stewart Member
12/21/2015
Not my most successful baking adventure. The dough is extremely sticky, as noted, so I followed the advice to roll and slice them. This worked, but yielded more like 2 dozen cookies, not six. I've never used white chocolate before and found it a little too thick for dipping. I ended up spreading it on some as you would with icing. They taste good, but I definitely didn't love them enough to make them again. Also, I made them on a wet, humid day which caused my "dust" to fuse into one big pile.
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Martha Stewart Member
12/29/2014
This recipe is Really very good and delicious. But when I took the dough out of the refrigerator and started rolling it kinda fell apart maybe I let it get to warm? Oh well it turned out nice anyway also I have no clue how on earth this recipe is supposed to make 6 dozen.
Martha Stewart Member
11/25/2013
I've made these every year since the recipe was printed, but with a few modifications. 1. I use milk chocolate instead of white - we just like it better. 2. The cookie dough is super fragile and a real pain to roll and cut - so sticky that I ended up working a ton of extra "dusting" flour into it. They aren't as uniform (although still good looking), but it's so much faster & less of a sticky hassle when I roll the dough into a log, freeze it, and then slice thinly into rounds!
Martha Stewart Member
12/06/2012
love to bake
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Martha Stewart Member
07/23/2012
coool
Martha Stewart Member
12/11/2011
Tasted great, but took a lot of time/effort to make. We made 1/8" thick cookies that were cut with 1" circular cutters, and they baked for 12 minutes. These made the cookies very crisp and crunchy. Doubled the recipe, so it yielded about 270 tiny cookies. White chocolate: used combo of good quality chips, good quality baking rounds, and lower quality baking rounds - melted great and not too thick for dipping. Used slotted spoon for dipping multiple cookies - worked wonderfully!
Martha Stewart Member
12/07/2011
had these at a cookie exchange. Fabulous! A grown up girl scout thin mint cookie.
Martha Stewart Member
12/07/2011
I'm disappointed. I'm making these for a cookie swap and I'm only getting 2 dozen cookies out of the dough. How did anyone make more?
Martha Stewart Member
04/03/2011
This is the most FABULOUS recipe. LOVE these cookies. Laborious, yes. Absolutely worth it, definitely. My efforts here: http://www.createborrow.com/create/2011/1/7/peppermint-candy-cane-cookies.html
Martha Stewart Member
12/18/2010
Great recipe! I (generously) drizzled the chocolate over the cookies instead of dipping them in it. It saved time, money and hassle. They still turned out great and they look beautiful if i do say so myself! :)
Martha Stewart Member
12/01/2010
@MrsMessyandMrClean Using a double boiler melt the white chocolate melts at 115F, once it reaches that, bring down the temperature to 89F by adding a few white chocolate pieces, temperature should be at a consistent 89F while dipping with white chocolate. Place your dipped item on a silcone mat and let it dry. You'll have a nice and smooth dipped cookie without any chocolate blooming :)
Martha Stewart Member
11/29/2010
These cookies turned out delicious but I wouldn't say they were worth the time. They basically tasted like Thin Mint cookies (I used semi-sweet chocolate instead of white) and they were not crisp/crunchy on the second day. Again, tasted great, got loads of compliments, but you'll need a heap of time and make sure you eat them all the first day!
Martha Stewart Member
12/15/2009
try adding a spoonful of crisco before you melt the chips. It gives it a smoother texture and is easier to mix!
Martha Stewart Member
01/06/2009
We made a heart-shaped version of these cookies! everyone loved them...but we had trouble melting the white chocolate and switched to dark. any tips?
Martha Stewart Member
12/29/2008
As everyone seems to agree, this is a really time consuming cookie and will probably go into my special occasions recipe collection, but they were divine. I thought I wouldn't use as much white chocolate as was called for, but running out too soon was the best mistake I could have made -- I melted down dark chocolate for the rest of the cookies and they were exactly like the ones I used to sell when I was a girl scout. Yum! My recipe made 66 cookies by using a baby bottle top as the cutter.
Martha Stewart Member
12/23/2008
I followed the recepie as noted except I just refridgerated before baking. I used the Martha Stewart A to Z cookie cutters to spell "XMAS" and made these for a group cookie exchange. They were a big hit. I had no problem with the larger size and baking time, but obviously I used a larger quantity of chocolate to coat. My family also liked these cookies, so I will be making them again. Enjoy.
Martha Stewart Member
12/23/2008
Yes the the extra yolk if definately necessary. That a lot of binder and fluid to just take out of the recipe.
Martha Stewart Member
12/22/2008
is the extra egg yolk really necessary?
Martha Stewart Member
12/22/2008
These were delicious! They were a bit time consuming, but I thought it was well worth it.
Martha Stewart Member
12/17/2008
I tried these cookies yesterday, and they turned out just like the look in the magazine. I followed the instructions exactly. Here's a few things I noticed while I was making the recipe. First, you have to use a liberal amount of flour when rolling these out. The dough gets pretty sticky if you don't flour your surface, and the rolling pin well. Also, when dipping them in chocolate, lift them out, balancing them on a fork, and gently tap them on the side of your bowl to remove the excess.
Martha Stewart Member
12/16/2008
I love these cookies! I didn't freeze the dough after rolling it because it was a pain and my kitchen is cold enough during the winter so I just cut them and baked them right away. I suffered first with the whit choc because I tried the doubler boiler and I guess it overheated and became an impossible thing to use. I ended up melting it (morsels) in the microwave and it was liquid enough to dip the cookies in (used tongs). I've had them in the fridge for 3 days, still perfect!
Martha Stewart Member
12/16/2008
I love these cookies! I didn't freeze the dough after rolling it (my kitchen is cold during the winter) and they came out perfect. I suffered with the white choc because I hadn't worked with it and melted it wrong so it wasn't liquid AT ALL. Then I melted it (morsels) in the microwave and it was great (not too liquid but still good). I've had them for 3 days in the fridge and they're still perfect!
Martha Stewart Member
12/15/2008
Has anyone frozen these cookies with the icing on and decorated? I want to finish my cookie baking this week because I'll be receiving the following week and will have too much to do.
Martha Stewart Member
12/13/2008
I hate these cookies! I spent so much time and energy making the dough and freezing and rolling out and freezing, cutting them and freezing... AHHHH!! They were perfect until I went to cover them. The chocolate was waay to thick. I ended up frosting the top with chocolate and sprinkling with candy. There is NO way they got that smooth perfect coat without adding something to the chocolate!!!
Martha Stewart Member
12/12/2008
I used a 1 1/2' cutter and got 145 cookies from this recipe. I rolled them out to 1/8" which is really, really thin, but I think they turned out perfect. I could go to the next width, but they plump a little bit when cooked. Since mine were smaller, they cooked in 6 minutes. I used the fork method with my white chocolate and they are perfect. I didn't use peppermint candies since I don't like to crunch into that. I instead used green and red sanding sugar and they are adorable.
Martha Stewart Member
12/12/2008
I used a 2" cutter-go smaller. Smaller is cuter.Yielded 24 2" cookies. Tasted great soft or crunchy. Baked 10 minutes. Used "white chips" (real white choc too pricey). Too thick. Add 1tsp shortening per bag of chips to thin. Easier way to coat: Apply a dab of white choc on parchment then press on a cookie til the choc just oozes around the edges. Chill 10 min. Apply larger dab onto cookie, spread to edges with knife, then shake cookiesheet like crazy to smooth. Chill. Trim with knife.
Martha Stewart Member
12/08/2008
Also, you really have to make sure to bake them for atleast 12 minutes. If they dont lose most of their moisture in the oven they wont get crunchy and they taste awful as soft cookies.I also used an obsence amount of flour on top of an apron to roll out the dough this is the best way to do this, I promise.
Martha Stewart Member
12/08/2008
Im a professional baker/decorator and i just made 2000 of these cookies. I made the dough one day and chilled them overnight then baked them the next. The only problems I encountered were ones that i made too thin. They came out terrible. I did them 1/4'' thick and I used a 2'' and a 2.5'' cutters they both came out great i wouldnt go any larger.
Martha Stewart Member
12/04/2008
My dough was super sticky until it was well chilled. then i rolled it out between sheets of parchment which made it easy to transfer in and out of freezer. As to volume, yes actually i got fairly close to 5 doz. with a just shy of 2 inch glass which when they baked were roughly 2 inches. I at first tried a glass i thought was 2 inches and it was actually 2.5 and they were huge, the lil 2 inch ones were cute. OK my problem was actually that the chocolate never got thin enough to "glaze" it for that dipped co
Martha Stewart Member
11/30/2008
I appreciate all your comments about the dough. I wondered if this might be tricky. I thought perhaps I'd omit the disk stage and make a log(s). I'd refrigerate the log(s) then when well chilled, slice with a knife. Any suggestions on this? I was also wondering if the dipping process *with a fork* was messy. Was there anything else that you did that worked better?
Martha Stewart Member
11/29/2008
It took me 3 days to make them but they were great. I almost gave up but kept trying. The batter was very stiff...I left it in the frig over night and my husband helped roll it out. It ended up as something between the devil's food cookie at the store and an Oreo. Delicious! I did not have a 2 inch cutter and used a class that was 2 and 3/4 inch and just had 9 cookies! I am wondering if the two inch is the correct dimension since a half batch should have been 33 cookies.
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