Chocolate Mint Truffle Snowball Cookies

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! I try to make something that looks very festive for the Christmas holiday. By the time I get to Christmas, I have done a lot of baking, and then cooking for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We also celebrate Boxing Day, so I will be making something for that as well, but I plan that to be easy. This year I also remade a couple of recipes that were in great demand. I’m tired!

These cookies look fancy, but they really were easy to make. The dough is simple and doesn’t have any leavening, which means the cookies end up being the same size as when you start. I did add an extra egg yolk, as the dough seemed a little dry, and that was perfect. Shaping the dough around the Kisses was easy, as there was plenty of dough.

My only issue is melting the white chocolate, as I have discovered some brands melt well, and others don’t seem to melt at all. I need to remember this for the future! My first batch of melted chocolate didn’t work at all, so I tried again with different chips, and while there weren’t a lot of those chips, they were fine. I bought some fancy sprinkles so these would be extra nice, and I think they are a fun cookie for a holiday selection. Enjoy!

Chocolate Mint Truffle Snowball Cookies
24 mint truffle Hershey kisses
½ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup cocoa powder
3-4 ounces white chocolate
1 teaspoon vegetable shortening
 Sprinkles

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Unwrap the Hershey Kisses and place in the freeze while you make the cookie dough. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and powdered sugar on medium until combined. Stir in the egg and vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, salt, and cocoa powder; mix just until a thick dough forms.

Roll the dough into 24 balls. Flatten each dough ball slightly and place a frozen Hershey Kiss in the center of each. Wrap the dough around the Kiss and seal it in completely. Reroll the cookies and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until set. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.     

Once the cookies are cool, melt the chocolate and vegetable shortening in a small microwave bowl. Dip the tops of the cookies in the melted chocolate and finish with sprinkles.

Recipe from Inside Bru Crew Life

Peppermint Nanaimo Bars

I have been waiting to make these bars for a very long time. I pinned the recipe and then the URL of the post changed so I had to look again and find a viable recipe. I found it and saved it again. I had planned to make these bars last year, I had even started the write-up, but then I ended up changing what I made. I kept the recipe, because I knew that I would eventually make these.

This was the year that I made these bars! I am so glad that I did as I love Nanaimo Bars, and a holiday variety is not to be missed. A few years ago, my husband and I traveled to Vancouver Island, and stayed a couple of days in Nanaimo. We went to the museum there and thought that we would find out the origin of the Nanaimo Bar. Unfortunately, no one really knows who created the Nanaimo Bar. That’s ok, I’m just glad that someone created these wonderful bar cookies and made a cookie that is so adaptable.

These no-bake cookies have a couple of layers, but they really don’t take long to make. I will admit that making a no-bake cookie in the winter, heating things up on the stove, is much better than making them in the summer. These are quite traditional, with the addition of peppermint extract and the topping. My only challenge was the topping, as the topping called for butter and that never works with chocolate! I substituted vegetable shortening and that was much better. These cookies have all the flavors of a Nanaimo Bar with the refreshing peppermint flavor!

Peppermint Nanaimo Bars
1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons cream
2 tablespoons custard powder
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon peppermint extract

4 ounces chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
2 ounces white chocolate
1 teaspoon vegetable shortening
Crushed peppermint candies

Line an 8” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, and cocoa. Heat over medium-high heat, whisking until the mixture is smooth. Add the egg, and quickly stir over the heat to set the egg. Remove from the heat and add the graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and pecans. Press into the base of the prepared pan.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, cream, custard powder, powdered sugar, and peppermint extract. If needed add additional powdered sugar if too thin or extra cream if too thick. Spread over the graham cracker base and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate, stirring frequently. Pour the melted chocolate over the bars, smooth the top, and refrigerate until almost firm. Melt the white chocolate and then drizzle over the partially cooled chocolate. Sprinkle with crushed peppermint candies. Refrigerate overnight.

Remove the bars from the pan by lifting the foil. Cut into squares.

Recipe from Parents Canada

Christmas Swirl Fudge

Merry Christmas! When I started making fudge, one of the recipes that I got a request for was Christmas swirl fudge. I had my dad’s binder of recipes and I found that recipe. I recall this fudge: it’s a white fudge with a red and green swirl. I looked online for the same recipe, and I was unable to find one that used the same ingredients. The recipe I was using called for 8 cups of white chocolate chips, which is a lot, and as I said previously, are difficult to work with.

I made that fudge, but I never was able to get the chips to melt completely. This is an issue that I have with white chips, and if they get too hot then it seizes into a giant lump. I kept going, even though my red and green was more pink and light green, and it had also seized for the most part. I thought it looked waxy/oily and wasn’t too happy.

I decided to try a different recipe, with fewer ingredients (3 cups of white chips) and it made a smaller batch. This one worked out much better, although it was still difficult to get the green mixture completely melted. I’m much more pleased with this recipe, but this fudge is quite thin. That’s ok, since at least this version turned out!

Christmas Swirl Fudge
3 cups white chocolate chips
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon red gel food coloring
1/2 teaspoon green gel food coloring
1-1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract

Line a 9” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Place 1 cup of white chocolate chips in three separate bowls and add 6 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk to each bowl. In one bowl, add 1/2 teaspoon green food coloring. In another bowl add ½ teaspoon red food coloring.

Microwave each bowl (separately) for 30 seconds, then stir, and microwave for an additional 15-20 seconds if needed. Repeat with the additional bowls. Once the mixtures are smooth, stir ½ teaspoon peppermint extract into each bowl.

Drop the three mixtures randomly into the prepared pan. Once you’ve added all of the mixtures to the pan, swirl the mixture with a thin knife. Refrigerate the fudge until it sets, several hours.

Once the mixture is set, lift from the pan and cut into small squares.

Recipe from Like Mother, Like Daughter

Peppermint Bark Fudge

I came across this fudge recipe and I thought it sounded great. I had made another fudge flavored with mint, but that was Irish Cream fudge, and this peppermint bark fudge seemed a lot different. It is a two-toned fudge, but reading through the recipe it seemed quite straightforward, so I figured I would give it a try.

You divide a can of sweetened condensed milk in two and make a dark chocolate layer and a white/peppermint layer. Dividing the condensed milk into equal halves isn’t the easiest, even with my handy kitchen scale. I almost divided it evenly but used the (slightly) smaller quantity for the white/peppermint topping. The dark chocolate layer came together easily, although it was difficult to spread evenly in the 8” pan. It felt like I needed more of the chocolate layer.

Working with white chocolate chips is always an adventure, and that was true in this case! You don’t want the chocolate to get too hot and seize, but you also want the white chips to melt completely. I did a lot of microwaving, waiting, stirring, and more microwaving, until I was satisfied. I never microwaved the white chocolate mixture for more than 20 seconds, but it still seemed to take a while. I think I will double this recipe in the future and make it in a slightly larger pan. The fudge is great, but a little thinner than I would prefer.

Peppermint Bark Fudge
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
½ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
¼ cup crushed peppermints
Additional crushed peppermints

Line an 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray.

Divide the sweetened condensed milk equally between two microwaveable bowls. Add the dark chocolate chips to one and the white chips to the other.

Microwave the bowl with dark chocolate chips in 30 second increments, stirring frequently, the chips are melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the vanilla and spread evenly in the prepared pan.

Microwave the bowl with white chips in 15-20 second intervals, allowing the mixture to rest and stirring after resting. Stir in the peppermint extract and ¼ cup crushed peppermint. Spread evenly over the chocolate layer. Sprinkle with additional crushed peppermints.

Refrigerate until firm. Lift the fudge from the pan by the foil and then cut into squares.

Recipe from Sugar Spun Run

Irish Cream Fudge

This holiday season is a little bit different, and that is true in many different ways. I got my love of baking from my father, but in the last few years he turned to making fudge and molded chocolates. My father passed away earlier in the fall, and with him went all of the wonderful items he created. Like father like daughter, I suppose, and I have now been deemed the family fudge maker. I am just starting with fudge at this point.

I have chosen six different fudge recipes to make, a combination of recipes that he made and some that are new. I am sure that Dad made some sort of fudge that was minty, and likely something with Irish Cream Liqueur. This is a new recipe and not one that he had made, at least as far as I know. I am pretty much a fudge novice, so this was a perfect recipe to start with. This is one of the easiest recipes I have ever made, and the results were fantastic.

This recipe entails melting chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in the microwave, then adding the other ingredients and refrigerating the fudge until it sets. While not all recipes are so simple, fudge seems to be friendly to make. This fudge is so smooth that I almost couldn’t believe it. The mint flavor is there, but it isn’t super strong. The Andes chips do tend to fall off the fudge pieces, but that’s a small concern. I miss you Dad, but I am happy to carry on his tradition.

Irish Cream Fudge
3 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup Baileys/Irish Cream Liqueur
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup Andes baking chips

Line an 8” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine the milk chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk. Microwave for one minute. Stir the mixture and then microwave for an additional 30 seconds. Add the Irish Cream Liqueur and vanilla and stir until smooth.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and top with Andes baking chips, pressing down slightly. Cover the pan with foil and refrigerate for at least four hours.

Recipe from Simple Joy

Thin Mint Blondies

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not Irish (I guess) but it is fun to make some sort of St. Patrick’s inspired recipe at this time of year. I had narrowed down my choices to two different cookies, and it was really hard to decide what to make. Do I make something with Irish Cream liqueur or a mint cookie with Girl Scout cookies as a main component? In the end, since I had the Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies ready to go, I decided on the Thin Mint Blondies.

These cookies aren’t tricky to make at all, just a little bit of chopping and working with very thick dough. This recipe called for Andes Mint Baking Chips, which is something that I sometimes have on hand. They seem to be easiest to find around the holidays, which is tricky this time of year. I purchased some Andes Mints and chopped them up, which worked great. I imagine that Andes Mint Chips are simply chopped Andes Mints, but I’ll go along with their illusion.

The original recipe bad you bake these blondies for about 20 minutes, and mine weren’t even close to done after that amount of time. I ended up baking mine for about 30 minutes, and the cookies are baked but still soft. The Thin Mint cookies don’t chop very cleanly, but that’s ok. I chilled these bars before cutting, and they were so good when they were chilled. Don’t get me wrong, they are good at room temperature as well. These cookies are very good-the chocolate mint flavor can’t be beat. Yeah, they don’t cut as cleanly as I’d like, but that just means the Thin Mint cookies fall off and you can eat those separately.

Thin Mint Blondies
1 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1-1/3 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 sleeve Thin Mint Cookies, cut in quarters
½ cup Andes Mint Baking Chips/chopped Andes Mints

1/3 cup Andes Mint Baking Chips/chopped Andes Mints
1 sleeve Thin Mint Cookies, cut in half

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat on medium until the light. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then stir in the vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour and salt. Stir in the Andes mints and chopped Thin Mint cookies. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. The dough will be thick, and you may need to use wetted hands to help spread the dough.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until set and the bars begin to brown along the edges.

As soon as the bars come out of the oven, sprinkle with the chopped Andes Mints and allow them to set for one minute. Top the bars with the remaining Thin Mint cookies, pressing down slightly. Allow the bars to cool before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Sweet Recipeas

Gingerbread House Bark

Merry Christmas! Christmas Cookie #12. I hope that you and those you love are able to spend some peaceful time together. Our Christmas will be fairly quiet, but that’s ok. Our weather has been so terrible that we’ve been house-bound for too many days. We have some smaller celebrations planned, but honestly it will be nice to simply get out of the house.

This is a recipe that you can change in any way that works for you. The base is made with gingerbread chocolate, and that is an important element. I use Theo Chocolate, as that is local to me, but I think that there are many varieties out there. You could use non-flavored chocolate, and I’m sure that would also be tasty.

The toppings are what you like; I tried to stick to the original as much as possible. The gingerbread people are critical! The other bits were surprisingly difficult to find. I used holiday corn, red hots, and some small peppermint pillows. I didn’t add any icing, but it looked just fine to me! I really enjoyed making this bark; it was easy to put together and is great for the holidays.

Gingerbread House Bark
16 ounces gingerbread spiced chocolate
7-10 gingerbread men
20 red hots
10 hard candies
20 holiday/reindeer candy corn
Royal/white icing

Line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a medium microwaveable bowl. Melt the chocolate, stirring every 30 seconds, until smooth. Pour the chocolate onto the prepared baking pan and smooth with a spatula.

While the chocolate is hot, top with random gingerbread men, then the red hots, hard candies, and holiday candy corn. Pipe icing around the additions to the gingerbread bark.

Refrigerate at least 30 minutes to set. Break into pieces to serve.

Recipe from Sweet Recipeas

Peppermint Chocolate Bites

Christmas Cookie #11! I had originally planned a different peppermint cookie for today, a very beautiful thumbprint cookie, with swirled dough and peppermint sprinkles. But let’s be honest, this close to the actual holiday you are likely super busy and if you want to bake something, it needs to be quick. When we were at the store doing our general Christmas grocery shopping, I came across this bag of Morsels & More, which contained pieces of peppermint bark, chocolate chips, and marshmallows.

I figured that mixture would be a good combination, and looked a little for recipes. When the products are so new, it can be difficult to find many recipe options. I noticed that the recipe on the back of the package was for brownie bites, made in mini muffin pans, and I love making those!

This recipe starts with melting together ingredients which eventually become brownie batter. My chocolate was a little slow to melt, but with patience it came together. You add in part of the Morsels & More and then save the rest to top the brownie bites. I probably could have baked mine another minute or so, which made them a bit tricky to remove from the pan, but they sure look good! If you are looking for a quick recipe that is super tasty, this is the one for you!

Peppermint Chocolate Bites
1-1/3 cups chocolate chips
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 tablespoons water
2 eggs
¾ cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
8 ounce package Peppermint Hot Chocolate Morsels & More, divided

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray 24 mini muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium saucepan, combine the chocolate chips, sugar, butter, and water. Heat over low heat, stirring frequently until the mixture is melted and smooth. Cool slightly and then transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Add the eggs, one at a time, then add the flour and salt and mix on low to combine. Stir in one cup of the peppermint hot chocolate morsels. Divide the dough between the 24 mini muffin cups. Top each cup with the remaining peppermint chocolate morsels.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until done around the edges but still slightly sticky in the middle. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Recipe from Nestle

Peppermint White Chocolate Cookies

Christmas Cookie #10! There are many different ways to add peppermint flavor to cookies. Peppermint extract is traditional and crushed peppermints/candy canes are common. These cookies use peppermint extract and also white chocolate peppermint chips. That lends a good peppermint flavor to these cookies, which is balanced by white chocolate.

The cream cheese in these cookies provides a soft texture, which is nice. If you are unable to find Andes baking chips, you could substitute any sort of peppermint chips, and there are quite a few varieties on the market. I like the Andes chips as the base is white chocolate, but you can adjust as needed. While I admit that white chocolate can be terribly sweet, it pairs beautifully with the sharpness of peppermint.

These cookies baked up nicely. You roll them in sugar before baking, and for half of the cookies I used large crystal sanding sugar and then regular sugar for the remaining cookies. I like the look of sanding sugar, but not everyone likes the added crunch. My biggest challenge for these cookies was melting white chocolate for the glaze. White chocolate is notoriously touchy, and mine did not melt down and wanted to seize into a ball. I was able to decorate a few cookies, but next time I would use a different glaze!

Peppermint White Chocolate Cookies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup Andes peppermint crunch baking chips
Sugar
White chocolate, melted

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla and peppermint extract.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Stir in the white chocolate chips and peppermint crunch chips with a spatula.

Shape the dough into tablespoon balls and roll in the sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Once the cookies are completely cool, finish the cookies with a drizzle of melted white chocolate.

Recipe from Completely Delicious

Mint Patty Thumbprint Cookies

Christmas Cookie #6! I hadn’t originally planned to make these cookies, even though they fit in my typical Christmas cookie flavors: mint, cranberry, spice, etc. I went from not liking thumbprint cookies to making quite a few different varieties this year. These are so different and you would be excused for not thinking that these are thumbprints at all. They are a chocolate mint cookie topped with a York peppermint patty.

When I started making these, I knew that I had a couple of types of sprinkles that would work. I had Christmas-colored round sprinkles, which was what the original blogger had used. I used that for a dozen cookies but then I ran out and switched to Christmas jimmies, which were brighter anyway!

This recipe says it would yield 24 cookies, and I ended up making 22 cookies You need treats for the baker, but there were only 22 patties in the bag! I was so sad. I ended up topping a couple of cookies with other chocolates, just so that there would be a couple extras. The cookie dough is easy to shape, and the peppermint patties adhered when the cookies were hot out of the oven. The mint flavor of the cookies is subtle, but the peppermint patty makes up the difference. These are so festive and perfect for the holidays.

Mint Patty Thumbprint Cookies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Christmas sprinkles
24 York Peppermint Patties

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light. Add the egg yolk, milk, and peppermint extract and stir to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats. Place the Christmas sprinkles in a small bowl.

Shape the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and roll the balls in the sprinkles. Place on the prepared baking sheets. Using your thumb or similar implement, make an indentation in the top of each cookie.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until set. Top each baked cookie with an unwrapped peppermint patty, pressing down so that the patty adheres to the cookie. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Recipe from Lord Byron’s Kitchen

Fudgy Peppermint Cookies

Sometimes during the holidays, you need something that doesn’t take a lot of time. The Internet abounds with recipes that use a cake mix as their base. While I don’t often use cake mix recipes, there are times when they are the perfect choice. I’ve used them when I have limited time or ingredients. In this cake, these cookies are the picture-perfect holiday cookie that you may be looking for, and they are so quick to make.

Like many cake mix cookies, the cookies themselves are simple: cake mix, oil, eggs. When I made my dough, it was so soft that there was no way that I was going to be able to shape the cookies at all. I thought about it and added a little flour, between ¼ and ½ cup, and that helped. The dough was still very soft, but I could roll it into balls. They flattened a little upon sitting, but that was to be expected as the dough was still very soft. They baked up fine and make sure they don’t get over baked. I took mine out of the oven when they looked ever so slightly wet, and they were perfect.

If you had to name anything remotely complex about this recipe, I suppose it would be the ganache. Many folks have heavy cream left from other holiday feasts, and I simply used chocolate chips. I had no problems at all. You’ll probably have leftover ganache, but that’s never bad. I topped mine with store-bought crushed candy canes, as they are always more consistent that what I can make at home. These cookies are picture perfect and so easy for your festive baking!

Fudgy Peppermint Cookies
1 box devil’s food cake mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
Flour, as needed
8 ounces chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
About 1 cup crushed candy canes

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl combine the cake mix, oil, vanilla, and eggs. Mix on low until the dough comes together; it will be soft. If the dough is too soft to handle at all, add about ¼ cup flour to help firm up the dough. Shape the dough into balls and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until set. The cookies may look slightly under baked but will continue baking as they cool. Cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, make the ganache. Place the chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Place the heavy cream in a microwave-safe cup and heat until just before the boiling point. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and allow to sit for five minutes. Once the time has elapsed, whisk the mixture until the chocolate is smooth and shiny.

Spoon the ganache on top of the cookies and sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Allow the ganache to set before serving.

Recipe from Betty Crocker

Peppermint Bark Brownies

I don’t make good old-fashioned brownies all that frequently, so this recipe for peppermint bark brownies looked great! I do think that peppermint is a critical flavor of the season, and who doesn’t like brownies? This was a small batch recipe, baking in an 8” square pan, so that was perfect. We’re getting so close to the holiday and I’ll be honest, my kitchen is full of many different treats.

While this is a small batch of brownies, they call for quite a few ingredients. First the brownie layer, which is a one-bowl brownie, then the frosting and finally the peppermint bark. I have some friends who are absolute connoisseurs of peppermint bark, but I am not. I love peppermint bark and will eat it no matter the variety. I’m not sure that melted chocolate topped with crushed peppermints is exactly peppermint bark, but it works for this recipe.

It is important to let the brownies cool before frosting and topping with peppermint bark, and as such I made these brownies over two days. That also gave me time to wash my mixer bowls, as the two that I have is too few this time of year! I had planned to add some coffee, as that makes the chocolate taste more chocolaty, but I was out. I figured the peppermint would carry the day. The steps for these brownies are not difficult, but I did let the chocolate set and thicken slightly before adding it to the top of the bars. I didn’t want the chocolate to simply run off the sides! These brownies are a perfect mix of chocolate and peppermint, not too strong, but with clear flavors of the season.

Peppermint Bark Brownies
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon brewed coffee (optional)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons shortening
Crushed peppermints

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square baking pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, mix the melted butter, oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, peppermint extract, salt, and coffee. Mix on medium until combined. Add the cocoa powder and flour and stir on low to incorporate. Spread the mixture in the prepared pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until set. Remove from the oven and allow the brownies to cool completely.

Make the frosting: in a large mixer bowl, beat the butter on medium until light. Add the powdered sugar, peppermint extract, vanilla, and milk and start beating on low and gradually increase the mixer speed until the frosting is light and fluffy. Spread evenly on the cooled brownies. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes before topping with the peppermint bark.

In a medium microwave bowl, melt the chocolate and shortening, stirring frequently, until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture over the brownies/frosting and spread to an even layer. Top with crushed peppermints. Refrigerate for at least an hour before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Broma Bakery

Peppermint Meltaways

Every year when I am choosing Christmas cookie recipes for the year, I look at what is new in the world of peppermint cookies. It’s a flavor that you can’t avoid during the holidays, and I am glad to find the flavor in everything from ice cream to hot chocolate. This year is no exception, and I have this cookie and some peppermint bark brownies to make for you.

One thing that I don’t enjoy about baking with peppermint is that I find I need crushed peppermints. Yes, I could crush candy canes myself, but that never provides the consistency that I need for baking. You can buy packages at the store, and typically I tell myself that I will pick it up later if I need it. What am I thinking, I always need it! Then when I go to but crushed peppermints, I can’t find them. This year, I bought them super early, when I first saw them in the store. Yay!

I made a full batch of these cookies, and it made about 2 dozen, so it isn’t a large batch by any means. The dough is quite fragile, so the refrigeration is critical. When a recipe says to chill the dough that isn’t being baked, I typically ignore it. In this case, the cookies spread if they are too warm, so after I shaped the second batch of cookies, I refrigerated them for about 10 minutes, which was a good idea. I piped the frosting on and that made quick work of topping these cookies. I piped about 6 cookies and then topped with peppermints, so that the frosting wouldn’t set too much. These have a nice peppermint flavor, but they are very fragile so you must be careful!

Peppermint Meltaways
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Crushed peppermints

In a medium bowl, combine the flour and cornstarch; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Stir in the peppermint extract. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until barely golden. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, make the frosting: in a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, milk, peppermint extract and powdered sugar. Beat on medium until light. If the frosting is too thick, add additional milk, if too thin, add more powdered sugar.

Spread or pipe the frosting on each cookie and then top with crushed peppermints.

Recipe from Cooking Classy

Peppermint Truffle Cookies: 12 Days of Cookies Day 11

While I generally don’t like mint in its native form, I do love baking with mint. Give me a mojito with muddled mint and I am not interested. Give me chocolate peppermint cookies and I love that. I wonder if that takes back to when I was a kid, and my grandmother would make surprise cookies. The cookies had a mint chocolate wafer enclosed in a sugar cookie. I made a similar recipe , but they are never quite the same because as far as I can tell, they no longer make those mint chocolates.

My husband and I found these peppermint truffles at the grocery store and they looked great. I decided to make the recipe on the back, which proved to have some challenges. The recipe baked at 375 degrees, but nearly all cookies bake at 350 degrees. The dough was not chilled, and it seemed like it would need time in the refrigerator. The first batch was mainly a disaster, so I made some changes.

I lowered the temperature to 350 degrees and refrigerated the dough before proceeding, and that made all the difference. The recipe as written here incorporate those changes. At first, I wasn’t going to post these cookies, but they are so good. While they are different stylistically, these taste a lot like the surprise cookies that my grandma used to make. Eating these cookies bring back a lot of good memories, and that’s what Christmas is all about.

Peppermint Truffle Cookies

2-1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

9 ounces Nestle Peppermint Truffles

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light. Add the vanilla and stir on medium. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. When the dough has almost come together, add the Nestle Peppermint Truffles and stir on low to distribute.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Drop the cookies by tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden around the edges. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Nestle

Peppermint Oreo Truffles: 12 Days of Cookies Day 7

This is a bit of an unusual recipe for me, these are no bake cookies/candies, and that’s a different approach for me. I don’t talk about this much, but my father retired multiple years ago, and he now makes candy. He is a chemist and he is very precise, so making candy is the perfect activity for him. If you look at his candy, it is perfect. Over time, his candies just get better. After making these candies, I think I need to work with my dad some more and pick up some tips.

I like the ease of these balls. I have never made something like this before, and I will be honest that I had some struggles in making these balls. The mixture that you make in the food processor took some work, and I had to stir the mixture several times. Eventually the mixture came together. I refrigerated the shaped balls, and perhaps putting them in the freezer would have been better.

White chocolate is finicky, and thankfully it melted with no issue. I typically add shortening to white chocolate, and I didn’t this time. As a result, the white chocolate was very thick. It was also warm, and when I added the Oreo balls the got very soft. Rolling in the peppermint was also a challenge, primarily because of the white chocolate. I ended up using 12 ounces of crushed peppermint and still ran out, so the last few have no crushed peppermints. Despite all of these challenges, the ones that turned out are very good, and they are a wonderful treat to make in advance.

Peppermint Oreo Truffles

36 Oreo cookies

8 ounces cream cheese

16 ounces white chocolate

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Crushed peppermints

Place the cream cheese and Oreos in a food processor and process until combined. You may need to stop and stir the mixture from time to time before the mixture is fully combined.

Shape the dough into 1” balls and place on a baking sheet covered with waxed paper or parchment. Freeze for 20 minutes or refrigerate for an hour.

Melt the white chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until the white chocolate is smooth. Stir in the peppermint extract.

Dip the cold Oreo balls in the white chocolate and then roll in the crushed peppermints. Place the balls on a waxed paper or parchment-lined baking sheet. Allow the balls to set before serving. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe from Dinner then Dessert