This recipe is part of my annual Christmas cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza!
Tell Me About These Peppermint Frosted Chocolate Cookies
Flavor: If you love the combination of mint and chocolate, don’t miss out on this cookie recipe. We use peppermint extract in both the cookie dough and frosting, an ingredient I always prefer over regular mint extract (which can sometimes taste like toothpaste). A careful ratio of unsweetened cocoa powder, flour, and butter gives us fudgy cookies that border the line of homemade brownies. These are pretty much brownie cookies without the need for melted chocolate in the dough. Texture: Soft-baked, thick, and chewy. All good stuff! Ease & Time: This is a basic chocolate cookie dough without any specialty ingredients. Most of the ingredients are repeated in the frosting, too. Cocoa powder makes this cookie dough extra sticky, so chilling the cookie dough is imperative. Set aside 3 hours to chill or you can prepare the dough the night before to get a jumpstart on cookie baking the next day.
Your Go-To Chocolate Cookie Recipe
Note: The chocolate crinkle cookies and peppermint mocha cookies can over-spread as a result of the sugar coating and peppermint extract (respectively), so I leave out the milk in those versions.
Inside Out Chocolate Chip Cookies Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cookies Chocolate Crinkle Cookies Peppermint Mocha Cookies Double Chocolate Chip Swirl Cookies Andes Mint Chocolate Cookies
If you’re looking for cookie cutter style chocolate cookies, here are my chocolate sugar cookies (based off my reader-favorite sugar cookies!).
Success Tips for Peppermint Frosted Chocolate Cookies
Chilling the dough: Make the cookie dough using the printable recipe below. Cocoa powder is a very light, fine powder so it doesn’t bulk up cookie dough like all-purpose flour. (It’s also very drying.) As a result, this chocolate cookie dough is sticky. It’s sticky & soft before chilling it in the refrigerator and even though it’s still a bit sticky after chilling, it’s much easier to handle. Chilling dough also guarantees thicker cookies. See my 10 tips for how to prevent cookies from spreading. Portioning the dough: Each dough ball should be a heaping Tablespoon, so use a cookie scoop or Tablespoon measure to scoop the dough. Give the cookies a light roll in your hands and have a kitchen towel or paper towel nearby. I usually wipe my hands clean after every few cookie dough balls because clean hands make rolling easier. Baking tip: Bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes. If the cookies aren’t really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2-3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven for a couple more minutes.
As the cookies cool, make your frosting.
Peppermint Frosting
The creamy frosting on top is essentially vanilla buttercream with the addition of peppermint extract. It’s very similar to the frosting on these peppermint mocha cupcakes, too. I’ve never paired this chocolate cookie dough with buttercream before and even though it sounds like an obvious match, I wasn’t expecting it to be this good. The cookies are pretty rich, so they don’t need a heavy pile of frosting. The buttercream recipe makes just enough for a simple swipe of frosting on each cookie. Feel free to pipe it on top, but I just use a knife or small icing spatula. To garnish the cookies, you can use:
Crushed Candy Canes Chopped Andes Mints Sprinkles Mini Chocolate Chips
Or you could even sandwich the frosting between two cookies like we do for these chocolate fudge cookies with candy cane buttercream. Then roll the outside edges in your garnish of choice, similar to rolling cookie ice cream sandwiches in chocolate chips or sprinkles. This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page including:
Peppermint Mocha Cookies Butter Cookies Soft Molasses Cookies Cherry Almond Shortbread Cookies Homemade Brownies
and here are my top 10 cookie baking tools if you’re looking for recommendations!
