You know how some people have internal alarm clocks? I’m definitely one of those people. But you know what else I think I have? An internal Home Alone radar.
All day long yesterday, I had this odd feeling that I needed to watch Home Alone. This isn’t that weird considering it’s December and Home Alone is my favorite movie (12 months of the year favorite). But I had the songs from the movies stuck in my head, and was literally watching the movie in the back of my head (while working… I’m talented). Finally, around 4pm, I checked my phone to see if Home Alone might be on TV soon and what’dya know? It was going to be on TV that night! See? Home Alone radar. It’s really too bad that radar is good for nothing more than mentally preparing me to protect myself from the wet sticky bandits.
Obviously, I watched Home Alone last night. Actually, it was Home Alone 2 – not as good, but it still screams happy holidays to me! You know what else screams happy holidays? Yep, you got it… chocolate peppermint bark cookies!
Chocolate peppermint bark seems to be everywhere this time of year – all fancied up at Williams-Sonoma, in grocery stores, and all over blogs and recipe sites. I’m definitely a fan of any mint/chocolate combination, so I decided to make my own version of peppermint bark… cookie style. 
A holiday-time favorite candy, gone cookies! Crushed peppermint is added to sugar cookie dough for a soft, chewy peppermint cookie. Each cookie is dipped in melted chocolate to give it that peppermint bark look and taste everyone loves.
Makes 4 dozen
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 10-12 minutes per cookie sheet (~3 cookie sheets)
- 1 cup browned butter, softened (instructions here) or regular unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup crushed peppermint candy
- 1 (10-ounce) package dark or semisweet chocolate chips
Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until mixed. In the same bowl, add the baking powder and salt and beat until mixed. Add the flour, 1/2 cup at at time, and beat on medium speed until mixed well. Stir in the crushed peppermint candy.
Roll the dough into 1 1/4 inch balls, then place two inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Allow to cool 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets and setting onto wire racks to cool completely.
Once the cookies are cooled, melt the dark chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl on high power, stirring every 20-30 seconds until just melted. Dip the bottom and sides of each cookie into the melted chocolate, then set onto parchment paper to allow the chocolate to harden.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Yum! These look awesome!! Let me just say that I made the soft sugar cookie recipe and my husband and I LOVE it! It’s probably the best sugar cookie we’ve ever had. We’re excited to try some of the new varieties!
Aw, I’m glad you guys like the recipe, Kelly! I love them too
you are perfect.
No, no, no one is perfect… but, cookies everyday sure make life seem a bit closer to perfection.
My husband loves the Home Alone movies, I love the look of this cookie!
Home Alone is the best movie!
i made something very simiilar to this last year except sugar cookie on the bottom, then melted chocolate and crushed peppermint on top!
Ohhh, interesting! Did you blog it? I like the idea of crushed peppermint on top.
yep! http://www.theleangreenbean.com/chocolate-peppermint-bark-cookies/
These sound amazing! I’m putting together cookie boxes for my boyfriend’s co-workers. These will be a perfect addition!
I think they’ll be a great addition – they’re one of my favorites so far! the chocolate definitely puts them over the top.
Normally I skip the whole parchment paper on the cookie sheet thing… bad idea with these cookies! The first batch spread out flat and stuck soooo bad to the cookie sheet. They came off in pieces. So I made a second batch and used the parchment paper. MUCH better. Some of them turned out flatter then others. Maybe the amount of candy came in it? Maybe I didn’t crush it up small enough? Either way… DELICIOUS! I had some friends over friday night and we munched on the first batch of cookie pieces. Even without the chocolate they were amazing.
This may be a silly question, but how do you dip the cookies in the chocolate and just get the bottoms?
Not a silly question! My mom actually asked me the same thing. I actually just used my hand for these, but you could also set them on top of a fork, then lower the fork and cookie into the melted chocolate.
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