Double chocolate peppermint cookies are a soft chocolate peppermint cookie filled with chocolate ganache with bits of candy cane on top. They taste like a delicious peppermint hot chocolate and are perfect for any holiday cookie tray.
Ingredients
For The Cookie Dough
6tablespoonsbutterunsalted, softened
3/4cupwhite sugardivided
½cupbrown sugar
2largeeggs
½teaspoonvanilla
½teaspoon peppermint extract
1½cupsflour
½cupscocoa powder
1/2teaspoonbaking powder
¼teaspoonsalt
For The Chocolate Ganache Center
½cupheavy whipping cream
⅓cupchocolate chipssemi-sweet
1/2teaspoonvanilla
1/4cuppeppermint piecesabout 3 candy canes crushed, can also use round peppermints crushed
Instructions
For The Cookie Dough
Place the butter, 1/2 cup white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer. Mix well until smooth. Add two eggs, vanilla, and peppermint extract to the butter mixture and mix well until combined.
In a second mixing bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt and mix until well blended.
Add the dry to the wet ingredients and mix until a thick sticky chocolate dough forms. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
For The Ganche Filling
Place the heavy whipping cream in a heatproof bowl. Place the chocolate chips and vanilla in a large bowl. Put the heavy whipping cream in the microwave and heat for 1 minute.
Pour the whipping cream over the chocolate chips. With a whisk, blend the chocolate chips with the whipping cream until smooth. Set the chocolate to the side.
For The Peppermint Topping
Unwrap the candy canes or peppermint candies and place them in a thick ziploc bag. With a rolling pin, crush the candy canes in the bag until they are the size of large sprinkles.
Baking And Filling The Cookies
Place the remaining ¼ cup sugar into a small bowl. With a medium cookie scoop, scoop and roll the cookie dough into balls. Roll each cookie dough ball in the sugar then place on a cookie sheet leaving two to three inches in between dough balls. With a teaspoon press the round part into each cookie dough ball.
Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. When the cookies have just come out of the oven, push the teaspoon again into the center of each cookie to make the space to hold the ganache a little larger. Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack.
Slide a large piece of parchment paper under the wire rack. With a small measuring cup carefully pour the chocolate ganache to fill the center of each cookie.
Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with crushed candy canes. Allow the ganache to fully set, (see notes) then enjoy!
Notes
If you don't have peppermint extract, you can use all vanilla extract for more of a cocoa flavor. The cookies will still have some peppermint flavor from the candy canes, but not as much.Expect this dough to be a little on the sticky side.Don't put the ganache on hot cookies or it will leak. Wait for the cookies to cool before adding the chocolate ganache center.The chocolate ganache centers of these cookies seem really liquidy at first, but they will firm up as they cool. Plan to have the cookies cool on the wire rack for about two hours so the chocolate centers can set. You can move the cookies to the refrigerator after about an hour to set the centers of the cookies a little faster, but you won't be able to move them any earlier than because the centers will be too liquidy and will spill if you try to move them too fast.