Double Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Cookies

Every Christmas I scour Pinterest looking for fun Christmas cookies to bake and then blog for you, my friends and readers. These cookies caught my eye right away because of the candy canes and I know you will all love them! The kids helped me make them and they had a blast crushing all the candy canes!!! The verdict - 100% DELICIOUS!!! The soft crunch from the cooked candy canes was really yummy - and the peppermint extract in the dough had a great, subtle taste. We gave these cookies two big thumbs up! I will be bringing them to our family party on Christmas Even (I froze the rest of the dough in pre-scooped balls for convenience). 

***Two notes : 1. Please chill the dough for at least two hours. Chilling cookie dough makes a huge difference in how they bake (Google if if you want the science behind it). and 2. I used way more candy canes then the ingredients state. I put a cup of crushed candy canes in the dough, then I rolled the top of them in about 1/2 cup of crushed canes. When the cookies bake, the candy canes melt - they are delicious, but they do not look as pretty. So, if you care about presentation, sprinkle the baked cookies with extra pieces of crushed candy canes just before serving. They will most likely roll off, but they will look pretty! ;)

This recipe comes from the blog A Pumpkin & A Princess. Here it is word for word with my changes and notes in italics:

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chunks
• 1/2 cup candy cane pieces (I used a total of 1 1/2 cups, plus more for sprinkling after they baked. See my note above***)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Beat butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and peppermint until light and fluffy.
3. In a large bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture until well combined.
5. Stir in chocolate chunks. <I mixed in 1 cup of crushed candy canes>
6. Use cookie scoop to drop cookies onto ungreased baking sheet.
7. Press candy cane pieces on top. <I rolled the top of my dough balls in 1/2 cup of crushed candy canes>
8. <I chilled my cookie dough, like I ALWAYS do, for two hours before baking>
9. Bake 8 to 10 minutes.
10. Cool slightly then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. 
11. <Sprinkle with extra candy cane pieces before serving just for looks>