Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies (no chill)
Buttery chocolate shortbread with a cool peppermint crunch. Crisp, delicate, and perfectly festive with deep cocoa flavor and refreshing mint in every bite.
Servings 18 Cookies
Ingredients
Chocolate Cookies
- 3/4 cup (170g) Unsalted butter, soften
- 1/4 Cup (50g) Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Peppermint extract
- 1 Tablespoon (15g) Finely crushed peppermint candy
- 1/4 Cup (40g) Semi-sweet melted chocolate (40 g / 1.5 oz)
- 1 1/2 Cup (180g) All-Purpose Flour
- 1/3 Cup (30g) Cocoa powder
Chocolate dip
- 1/2 Cup (85) Semi-sweet chocolate chip
- 1 tsp Vegetable shortening
- Peppermint candy, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Place the peppermint candies in a ziplock bag and crush it using a rolling pin.
- Cream butter (170g), sugar (50g), crushed candy (15g), and peppermint extract until you have a cohesive mixture.
- Pour in the melted chocolate (40g) and mix to fully incorporate.
- Add the flour (180g) and cocoa powder (30g), mixing until the dough comes together. It should feel soft and smooth, not sticky, and press easily into a cohesive mass.The mixture will go from being crumbly and dry to a soft, hydrated dough.
- Press the mixture into a large piece of dough, then divide it to two.
- Roll each piece between two pieces of parchment paper into a 1/4-inch thick.
- Use your choice of cookie cutter to cut the dough and gently lift it and place over the prepared cookie pan.
- Use a tooth pick to prick the surface of the cookies.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the cookies.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool before filling and decorating.
Chocolate glaze
- Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl and melt it in the microwave using 30 second increments. Mix in the vegetable oil.
- Dip the chilled cookies in the chocolate glaze, and sprinkle with crushed candy.
Notes
- Store for up to five days at room temperature, or freeze in a freeze bag for up to three weeks.
- For a slice and bake cookies (up to 30 1.5-inch cookies), roll each half into an 8-inch log, cover then freeze for 10 minutes. Use a sharp knife to slice the logs into 1/4-1/2 inch cookies. Place over a cookie pan lined with parchment paper and bake.
- These cookies have an intense chocolate flavor, for a milder flavor replace 2-3 tablespoons of the cocoa powder with cornstarch.
- The pepper mint extract give the cookies a deep minty flavor, you can reduce it to 1/2 teaspoon or remove it. The crushed candy gives a very mild flavor, more like a "hint of" pepper mint.
- The bigger, and thicker the cookies the longer they need to bake. Sliced and baked cookies were baked over the middle oven rack for 15 minutes. The cut out cookies were baked 22 minutes. (I tried for 18 minutes and they were soft and not so crumbly).