Chewy Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
With a delicious cream cheese filling and a chocolatey-minty flavor, these chewy chocolate peppermint cookies are a total delight.
If you love peppermint and are looking for a good recipe to indulge in for all your holiday baking experiments, this one’s just perfect.
Go beyond the classic Christmas cookies and try out this delicious recipe instead.
Contents
What I Love About the Recipe
Coated in crushed peppermint chips, these chewy cookies have a delicious cream cheese filling inside, and have the perfect balance of flavors and textures.
These chocolate peppermint cookies are perfect for holiday season, and is an amazing recipe to try with your kids too.
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies Cooking Times
- Yield: 8 servings
- Prep Time: 25 min
- Bake Time: 15 min
- Total Time: 40 min
Ingredients For the Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
You’ll need two sets of ingredients to make the chocolate peppermint cookies.
For the Cookies
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter – cold and sliced thin
- 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar – packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs – at room temperature
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 11/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1⁄2 cup cake flour
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup peppermint candy baking chips
For the Peppermint Cream Cheese Filling
- 8 oz cream cheese – softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp peppermint flavoring
- 1 tsp red food coloring
- 1⁄4 cup granulated sugar
- 1⁄4 cup candy cane baking chips
How to Make the Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Once you have all your ingredients ready, here’s what you’ll need to do to make the cookies.
Step 1: Make Cream Cheese Filling
In a medium bowl add the cream cheese, sugar, peppermint flavoring, and vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
Step 2: Add Food Coloring and Candy Canes
Add the red food coloring to the cream cheese filling, mix to combine. Add the candy cane bits to the cream cheese mixture, mix to combine. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Step 3: Prep Oven and Baking Sheets
Preheat the oven to 410°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat. Set aside.
Step 4: Prepare Wet Ingredients
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream butter and sugars on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Step 5: Combine Dry Ingredients
In a large bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt and make the flour mixture. Measure out everything carefully using a measuring cup. Whisk well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix to combine.
Step 6: Make Cookie Dough Balls
Use a large cookie scoop and scoop 3 oz dough balls. Make sure to have an even number of cookie dough balls. Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Step 7: Add Cream Cheese Mixture
Use the palm of your hand to press down on the cookie slightly, so that the cookie dough ball creates a thin disk. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out a peppermint cheesecake mixture and place one ball on half of the cookies.
Step 8: Make Final Cookie Dough Balls
Take the dough ball with the peppermint cheesecake filling and add a second dough ball on top. Roll the dough together to form a ball. Lightly press down on the cookie dough ball in the peppermint baking chips. Place the dough ball on the cookie sheet, ideally one lined with parchment paper.
Step 9: Bake and Cool Completely
Bake for 14-15 minutes or until the dough ball is just barely set and no longer shiny. Remove from the oven and set to the side to let the chocolate peppermint cookies cool on a wire rack or a cooling rack.
Tips to Make the Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
While making these peppermint cookies is super simple, you might want to take note of these little tips and tricks too.
- I’ve used baking powder for this recipe, but you can also choose to use baking soda if that’s what you have at hand. Just remember that the texture for the cookies will be slightly different if you use baking soda.
- Remember to use the best quality cocoa powder to make these cookies- the flavor will just really shine through. I would recommend using Dutch process cocoa powder to get the most flavorful chocolate peppermint cookies.
- If you don’t have the crushed peppermint chips to coat the cookies, you can use crushed candy canes or crushed peppermint candies or even some Andes mints to coat the cookies.
- Remember that the crushed candy cane pieces should be sized just enough-not too chunky and not too fine.
- A mixture of chocolate chips and crushed candy canes can also be a great addition to the chocolate cookie dough.
- I’ve used vanilla extract to add flavor to these cookies, but you can also choose to add some peppermint extract to get that nice peppermint flavor if you want to.
- If you don’t have unsalted butter, you can use salted butter too. Just skip adding the salt that you’ll find in the ingredients list.
- If you don’t have light brown sugar, you can just stick to using regular brown sugar or just plain granulated sugar if you want to.
Chewy Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Easy Chewy Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter - cold and sliced thin
- 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar - packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs - at room temperature
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 11/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1⁄2 cup cake flour
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup peppermint candy baking chips
- For the Peppermint Cream Cheese Filling
- 8 oz cream cheese - softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp peppermint flavoring
- 1 tsp red food coloring
- 1⁄4 cup granulated sugar
- 1⁄4 cup candy cane baking chips
Instructions
Step 1: Make Cream Cheese Filling
In a medium bowl add the cream cheese, sugar, peppermint flavoring, and vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
Step 2: Add Food Coloring and Candy Canes
Add the red food coloring to the cream cheese filling, mix to combine. Add the candy cane bits to the cream cheese mixture, mix to combine. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Step 3: Prep Oven and Baking Sheets
Preheat the oven to 410°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat. Set aside.
Step 4: Prepare Wet Ingredients
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream butter and sugars on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Step 5: Combine Dry Ingredients
In a large bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt and make the flour mixture. Measure out everything carefully using a measuring cup. Whisk well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix to combine.
Step 6: Make Cookie Dough Balls
Use a large cookie scoop and scoop 3 oz dough balls. Make sure to have an even number of cookie dough balls. Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Step 7: Add Cream Cheese Mixture
Use the palm of your hand to press down on the cookie slightly, so that the cookie dough ball creates a thin disk. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out a peppermint cheesecake mixture and place one ball on half of the cookies.
Step 8: Make Final Cookie Dough Balls
Take the dough ball with the peppermint cheesecake filling and add a second dough ball on top. Roll the dough together to form a ball. Lightly press down on the cookie dough ball in the peppermint baking chips. Place the dough ball on the cookie sheet, ideally one lined with parchment paper.
Step 9: Bake and Cool Completely
Bake for 14-15 minutes or until the dough ball is just barely set and no longer shiny. Remove from the oven and set to the side to let the chocolate peppermint cookies cool on a wire rack or a cooling rack.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1318Total Fat: 51gSaturated Fat: 29gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 18gCholesterol: 170mgSodium: 511mgCarbohydrates: 198gFiber: 5gSugar: 89gProtein: 17g
What Other Variations Can I Try?
To make double chocolate peppermint cookies, you can skip adding the peppermint chips into the cookie dough, and just use some dark chocolate chips instead.
You can also make some white chocolate chip cookies by adding some white chocolate chips into the cookie dough.
You can also choose to skip making the cream cheese filling, and simply roll out the cookie dough and cut out cookies using a circular cookie cutter.
Another great idea is to coat the baked cookies in some melted chocolate and allow them to chill. You can also choose to use melted white chocolate for this if you want to.
How Do I Store the Cookies?
Once you’ve let all the chocolate peppermint cookies cool down, remove them from the cookie sheet and transfer them to an airtight container.
These cookies can stay fresh at room temperature for up to 3 days, if not more.
You can also choose to make the cookie dough in advance and wrap it up in plastic wrap before you refrigerate or freeze it.
If you have any remaining dough, you can store it that way too.
More Cookie Recipes
Loved how delicious these chocolate peppermint cookies turned out? Inspired to try some more fun and interesting cookies? Here are a few handpicked recipes you might want to check out.
