These chocolate peppermint cookies are a fun, festive bake! Chewy chocolate cookies filled with a rich mint chocolate ganache and sprinkled with crushed candy canes.
I absolutely love baking any time of year, but never more so than at Christmas time. I am crazy for all the festive baking. I make Chocolate Fudge Crinkle Cookies, Christmas Linzer cookies, gingerbread cookies and would it even be Christmas without a boozy fruit cake?
Mint chocolate is such a great combination – I recently spoke of my love for it in this easy mint chocolate cake post – and it works incredibly well in a cookie.
And if you like After Eight mint chocolates, then you would love these After Eight chocolate muffins!
the perfect cookie for the festive season
These minty chocolate cookies are perfect for Christmas bake sales, homemade Christmas gifts or for enjoying when you’re snuggled up on the couch watching a festive movie.
While you’re waiting for the cookies to bake, you could always make a batch of my candy cane hot chocolate mix!
tips and commonly asked questions
does the cookie dough need to be chilled?
These chocolate cookies are extremely easy to make – and you’ll be pleased to know that the dough doesn’t need to be chilled before baking!
how do you shape the cookies?
To shape the cookies, I just roll walnut sized pieces of dough between my hands. You need to make a little indent in each piece of dough for the chocolate ganache – just like making a thumbprint cookie.
can you freeze these cookies?
Yes, if you want to get ahead of time the cookies can be frozen – ideally without the ganache filling. While ganache can be successfully frozen, you’ll get much better results if you fill the cookies after defrosting them.
You can find more information about freezing cookies right here.
This post was originally published 10th December, 2014. Updated and republished 21st November 2020.
looking for more cookie recipes ideal for christmas baking?
White chocolate and cranberry cookies
white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies
easy Nutella cookies (just 4 ingredients!)
double chocolate Malteser cookies
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
These chocolate peppermint cookies are a fun, festive bake! Chewy chocolate cookies filled with a rich mint chocolate ganache and sprinkled with crushed candy canes.
Ingredients
- 125g plain (all purpose) flour
- 25g cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 115g (1 stick) butter, softened
- 85g (1/3 cup) caster (super fine) sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
- FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE
- 120ml (1/2 cup) double (heavy) cream
- 120g (2/3 cup) dark chocolate (minimum 50% cocoa solids), chopped into very small pieces
- 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
- FOR DECORATION:
- 2-3 peppermint candy canes, crushed into tiny pieces
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160Fan/350F/Gas mark 4. Grease and line a couple of large baking sheets with baking paper.
- Combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt together in a medium bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy. Beat in the egg yolk and peppermint extract until the mixture looks smooth.
- Fold in the dry ingredients until you have a shiny, fairly thick cookie dough. Using your hands, roll walnut sized balls of dough and place on the lined baking sheets, making sure there is a little space between each one. Using your hand, lightly flatten each piece.
- Using your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon, poke a hole in each piece of dough. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes or until the cookies have started to crisp around the edges.
- The baked cookies will still be quite soft in the middle, so leave them on the sheets for at least 5 minutes before carefully transferring to a cooling rack. Cool the cookies completely before filling with the chocolate ganache.
- To make the ganache, heat the cream until almost boiling, then pour over the chocolate. Leave for a couple of minutes to allow the chocolate to melt into the hot cream, then add the peppermint extract, stirring until the ganache is smooth. You can allow the ganache to cool and thicken at room temperature or chill in the fridge for around 30 minutes. You don't want it too thick - you're looking for the ganache to be the consistency of lightly whipped cream.
- Spoon the ganache into the middle of the cookies and sprinkle with crushed candy canes.
Notes
If you want to make a large batch of cookies, the recipe can easily be doubled.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 14 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 226Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 27mgSodium: 45mgCarbohydrates: 3gFiber: 0gSugar: 1gProtein: 1g
calories and nutritional information are provided by a third party application and should be viewed as indicative figures only.
Yummyyyy, I love cookies!! 😀
Looks delish!!