It’s Christmas cookie season, and today I’m sharing the recipe for one of my favorites- chocolate peppermint crinkle cookies. These cookies have a beautiful crackled appearance thanks to rolling the dough in powdered sugar before baking. They are also soft, extra chocolatey, and pretty easy to make.
These cookies also have just the right amount of festive peppermint flavor, thanks to my favorite peppermint extract and a sprinkling of crushed peppermint on top of each cookie. The two peppermint toppings I use for these cookies are pictured below, but you can easily make your own by crushing candy canes to the size you prefer.
If you’re not a peppermint fan- no problem! Just skip the peppermint extract and crushed candy cane topping. I can say from experience that these chocolate crinkle cookies are still very delicious without the extra mint flavor.
Read on for the recipe for my favorite chocolate peppermint crinkle cookies, so you can make them for your holiday celebrations too.
My Favorite Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1⅔ cups flour
- ½ cup Ghiradelli Unsweetened Dutch Process Cocoa Powder (shop on Amazon)
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground instant coffee (NOT coffee grounds)
- ½ cup salted butter (1 stick) at room temperature
- 1¼ cups white granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ½ tsp vanilla extract (shop my favorite on Amazon)
- ½ tsp peppermint extract (shop my favorite on Amazon- see Note 1 below)
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- Crushed peppermint topping or crushed candy canes to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt to a medium mixing bowl. Then put the ½ teaspoon ground instant coffee into one palm. Pinch between your fingers as you add it to the bowl in order to break down the powder even further. Whisk all dry ingredients together until well combined.1⅔ cups flour, ½ cup Ghiradelli Unsweetened Dutch Process Cocoa Powder, 1½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp ground instant coffee, ¼ tsp salt
- Add the room-temperature stick of butter and white granulated sugar to a large mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until completely combined and creamy (approx. 3 minutes).½ cup salted butter (1 stick), 1¼ cups white granulated sugar
- Add one egg, then blend until combined. Then add the other egg, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract. Beat until all ingredients are well incorporated.2 large eggs, ½ tsp vanilla extract, ½ tsp peppermint extract
- Add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients and blend using the hand mixer until just combined. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl! The dough will transform from a shaggy appearance to a smoother, wetter-looking dough by the time it is all well combined.
- Place the ½ cup powdered sugar into a bowl. Scoop the cookie dough using a #40 cookie scoop (about 1.5 tbsp of dough) directly into the powdered sugar. Gently roll the dough ball in the powdered sugar until the entire outer surface is well coated. Place on your sheet pan with the Silpat (or parchment) on it. (See Note 2 below)There is no need to press these cookies down as they will spread on their own. The fully baked cookies will be about 2.5" in diameter. I bake 10-12 cookies at a time on a regular sheet pan.½ cup powdered sugar
- Bake the cookies at 350°F for 10-12 minutes (11 minutes is the magic number for me). Remove the cookies from the oven and leave them on the sheet pan for 5 minutes.
- Optional- Immediately after removing the cookies from the oven, sprinkle crushed candy canes or other crushed peppermint toppings on each cookie. I add a couple heavy pinches to each cookie, using half finely crushed peppermint and half larger pieces. Lightly press the peppermint pieces into the top of the cookies, which should still be hot and soft in the middle as they just came out of the oven. This will help the crushed peppermint or candy canes stick to the cookies.Crushed peppermint topping or crushed candy canes to taste
- After about 5 minutes, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling for about 10-15 more minutes. Then enjoy!
Notes from the Happy To Be Here Kitchen
Did you try these chocolate crinkle cookies?
Leave a comment and a rating down below to let me know how you like them. Then, check out some of my other favorite dessert recipes, like this cinnamon swirl coffee cake (it’s literally a cinnamon roll in cake form) or these super easy flourless peanut butter cookies.
Pin the image below to come back to this Christmas cookie recipe later.
2 Responses
These cookies are amazing! So glad I found this recipe – thank you!
I’m happy to hear that you liked them Julie! 😀