Oh heyyyy, Christmas cookies. There you are. Thought I forgot about you, huh?
Nope. This is the opposite of forgetting about cookies. I sent these cookies to a friend back in April and I’ve been dreaming of double fudgy chewy moist decadent chocolatey chip cookies ever since. But those cookies didn’t have peppermint. Little chewy and crunchy half-melted red-swirled peppermints that elevate the cookies from oh-mah-gah-must-eat-one-now to oh-mah-gah-must-eat-EVERYSINGLEONE-now.
Seriously.
They almost didn’t make it to the photo shoot.
You guys always think I’m joking, but no. I really did eat maybe 10 of these. Here’s the deal: I sort of made the recipe up. And by “made the recipe up,” I mean, I’m an expert at making regular Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and Butterscotch Toffee Cookies and just about any tried-and-true cookie out there. So I used my cookie baking sciency knowledge (for example, wet to dry ratios) and I used some good quality ingredients and thought, What could go wrong?
What went wrong is that I had no idea how long to bake them. I put a batch straight in the oven and they were delicious (you always, always taste-test the first batch, this is just Baking 101), but they spread out more than I wanted.
So then I refrigerated the dough and baked the second batch from chilled cookie dough. And if the cookie dough is cold, you have to cook it longer, right? But how much longer? I want them to be soft and fudgy in the middle, and I personally like them underbaked a bit, but these cookies have to be photographable. They have to be perfect. They are A. A Christmas Cookies and B. A birthday present, so there is no room for imperfection.
And when you aren’t sure how long to bake cookies, this is what you do:
Bake 9 minutes. Let cool. Taste.
Bake 10 minutes. Let cool. Taste.
Bake 11 minutes. Let cool. Taste.
And I’m sorry, but who ever tasted a cookie and then left a quarter-eaten cookie lying around. No. One. Ever.
And that is the story of how I ate 10 of these. Sorry Kenny – I know you’re thinking right now that I could have sent you a much larger Tupperware… that you could’ve have 31 cookies for your 31st birthday. And now you know why you only have 21.
Fudgy Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup crushed peppermint candies
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
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In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, vanilla, and peppermint extract until fluffy. Add the eggs and mix until just incorporated.
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In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until just incorporated. Gently fold in chocolate chips and peppermint candy.
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Roll the dough into even balls (I made about 30) and place in the refrigerator (or freezer) until well-chilled. (About 30 minutes refrigerator, 15 minutes freezer.) Once chilled, transfer to your prepared baking sheet (about 6-8 per sheet) and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool about 2 minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
