With the Christmas season upon us, I have focused on making a cookie that encapsulates the Christmas spirit. I have always loved chocolate and mint together! These cookies take a bit more effort, being dipped in white chocolate, but this can be omitted if you are in a hurry.
First step, you will want to cream together the butter and the sugars until you get a creamy consistency. Make sure that you let the mixer run for a little bit so it is blended well.
Next, you’ll add all the dry ingredients together and use a whisk (or fork) to blend them. When you add these to the mixer, I recommend 2 separate batches. When you go to mix it in, start at the lowest speed then increase. This will help in keeping the dry ingredients in the mixer instead of all over the counter.
For the chocolate chips, I use my stand mixer to mix these in. I used the lowest setting for this so it was more of a stir than a blend. When your cookie dough is all mixed, now is the fun part of scooping it out on the trays. I didn’t measure the exact size of the cookie, but just adjust the time that you cook them and keep an eye out.
Once they were done baking, I let the cookies cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheets then transferred them to wire racks. After they have cooled completely, I started to temper the white chocolate (see instructions below).
I then dip half the cookie into the white chocolate and place these on parchment paper. I used a pretty shallow bowl for the chocolate, so I needed to use a spoon to get the chocolate halfway up the cookie. I then sprinkle candy cane on the dipped piece of cookie.
Be careful that you don’t dip too many cookies before sprinkling candy cane on top as tempered chocolate sets rather quickly.
Tempering White Chocolate
There are quite a few sites out there that provide instructions on how to temper chocolate, but this is the method I use for white chocolate and it seems to work really well. You will need a thermometer as this is very precise. Otherwise, you can just melt the chocolate and dip, but beware that it won’t be hard/shiny.
- Place 70% of the white chocolate chips or callets of the total you intend to melt into a microwave safe bowl.
- Heat chocolate in the microwave at half power in 30 second intervals. Heat until the chocolate is almost completely melted.
- Stir chocolate until all have melted. Pop in the microwave for 10 second intervals at half power if they aren’t fully melting.
- The white chocolate should be between 100-110°F . If it isn’t this high yet, microwave in 10 second intervals on half power until it reaches this temperature.
- Then add the remaining unmelted chocolate in small amounts until it is all melted. This is called the seed chocolate.
- Continue to stir the chocolate until it reaches a temperature range of 84-86°F.
- Your chocolate should now be tempered!
A good way to test this is to smear a small amount on parchment paper and wait for it to set. When it sets, it should be hard and shiny.
Note:
If your chocolate is hardening and isn’t working well for dipping anymore, you can pop the chocolate into the microwave in 15 second intervals at half power until the chocolate is back into the 84-86°F range. Just make sure you don’t bring the chocolate up over 90°F or you will need to restart tempering.
Peppermint Brownie Cookies
Equipment
- Stand mixer* optional
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp peppermint extract
- 2 cups flour
- 3/4 cups cocoa
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 350 g white chocolate (I used Callebaut)
- 1/2 cup crushed candy cane
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Cream together butter and sugar using stand (or hand mixer).
- Add eggs, vanilla, and peppermint extract to creamed butter and sugar.
- Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a separate, medium-sized bowl.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in two batches, mixing thoroughly until just combined.
- Add chocolate chips. Stir until combined.
- Roll cookies into balls and place on greased/parchment paper lined cookie trays.
- Bake cookies in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. I prefer to keep them a little underdone so they stay soft and chewy.
- Once cookies have cooled, melt the white chocolate. I temper it so it dries quickly and with a hard shiny coating.
- Dip the cookie in the white chocolate so half is submerged. Lay on parchment paper and sprinkle desired amount of candy canes on top.
