Peppermint Kiss Chocolate Cookies
If there’s any room left on your Christmas cookie platter, here’s a festive peppermint and chocolate cookie to add to it.
Hershey’s makes seasonal peppermint kisses, and they get plunked down into the center of a very fudgy and chewy chocolate cookie. Peppermint and chocolate just scream the holidays to me, and it’s hard for me to resist a recipe calling for them. I’ve already made some peppermint meltaway cookies and stashed them away in the freezer for Christmas, but they are strictly vanilla and peppermint. So, I’m giving equal time to chocolate and peppermint!
These cookies are a breeze to make and they freeze well—two important criteria for holiday baking. The chocolate cookie base also lends itself well to variations for any other time of the year. You can leave them just plain, add mini chocolate chips or peanut butter chips or mint chips, or add a big fat Hershey’s chocolate chip to the middle instead of peppermint. Let your creative instincts run wild. These cookies are too good to make just once a year!
Peppermint Kiss Chocolate Cookies
Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 cup of light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 36 Hershey’s White Chocolate Peppermint Kisses, unwrapped*
- 1/4 cup of white granulated sugar
*Place in the freezer to chill. You’ll want the kisses nice and cold so that they don’t immediately melt into the hot cookie when you insert them in the center.
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350° F. Line 2 to 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together completely. Set aside.
In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and then add the two sugars and beat again until light and fluffy.
Add in the eggs. Beat well, then add in the vanilla.
Add the flour mixture slowly and blend well.
Using a 1-tbl. cookie scoop, roll the cookie dough into 1-inch balls. If after rolling the first cookie dough ball you find that the dough is too soft, chill the dough for 30 minutes or so until the handling is easier.
Roll the cookie ball in the white sugar. Place on the prepared cookie sheets at least 1 1/2 inches apart.
Bake in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes until slightly under done. Mine were perfect at 9 minutes.
Remove from the oven and immediately press the peppermint kisses into the center top of the cookie. Let the cookies cool completely on the sheet, then store in a closed container for up to 3 days on the counter or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Fran’s Notes
Feel free to add 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract to the cookie dough if you want to amp up the peppermint flavor.
A recipe from The Kitchen Magpie