Bring festive flair to your weekly menu with a Bon Appétit classic! Simplify the season with an easy way to shop for ingredients and have everything delivered right to your door with DoorDash. Spend less time running errands and more time savoring the joy of holiday cooking!
Everything we love about chocolate peppermint bark - sweet and creamy white chocolate contrasting a delicate candy crunch - is nestled into the center of these fudgy, soft-baked holiday cookies. The trick to a cookie that's plush and chewy all the way through is to think of cooling as part of the baking process. Straight out of the oven, these cookies should be just set at the edges but otherwise still quite soft. When cooled on a warm baking sheet, they'll continue to cook and firm up to the ideal brownie-like texture. (Other recipes may instruct you to transfer cookies to a wire rack after a certain amount of time. Trust them!)
Use that temporary softness as a window to press the crushed peppermint candy into the cookies' centers. We prefer crushed candy canes, not the round old-fashioned hard candies, for the most striking presentation and crispest shatter-in-the-mouth texture.
Be sure to use Dutch-process, not natural, cocoa powder in this chocolate-peppermint cookie recipe. Our go-to is Guittard Cocoa Rouge for its intense, dark chocolate flavor and high-fat content, but Hershey's Cocoa Special Dark also works. It's also important to gently spoon flour into your measuring cup and lightly level the surface with a knife or spatula. Scooping directly into a flour container and packing the measuring cup will result in too much flour per cup and drier cookie dough. Better yet, just weigh your dry ingredients.
Ingredients
3 full-size or 6 mini candy canes
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
½ cup (100 g) packed dark brown sugar
½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. peppermint extract
1 large egg
1½ cups (188 g) all-purpose flour
½ cup (45 g) dutch process cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¾ tsp. Morton Kosher salt
1 (4-oz.) white chocolate bar
Preparation
Step 1
Place racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 350°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or non-stick mats. Place candy canes in a zip-top bag and crush with a rolling pin or the bottom of a skillet and set aside.
Step 2
Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it foams and turns golden brown - about 4 minutes. Immediately transfer to a large heatproof bowl and add brown sugar, granulated sugar, and water and vigorously whisk until smooth - about 1 minute. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and stir with a spatula until no pockets of dry flour remain and a soft dough forms. Let sit uncovered for 15 minutes at room temperature.
Step 3
Portion dough into 2TB sized portions and roll into smooth balls. Place about 7 dough balls on each sheet pan, spacing at least 2 inches apart. Bake until puffed slightly and cracks have formed - 8-10 minutes. Let cookies cool on the sheet pan for 2 minutes so they are still warm but not piping hot. As they are cooling, cut white chocolate bars into irregular, angular shards that fit in the center of the cookies. Press the chocolate shards into the centers of the cookies, then place sheet pans in the oven for 30 seconds so the top of the chocolate is just barely melted. Immediately sprinkle the crushed peppermints on top. Let sit until chocolate hardens.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Bon Appétit
