Baking and sharing cookies during the holidays should be easy and enjoyable - for the giver and the receiver! These White Chocolate Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies are a super easy take on the classic chocolate chip cookie but with all the flavor of the holiday season.
Perfect for your cookie exchange or to leave for Santa on the big night!
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Perfect holiday flavors in a cookie
Peppermint is such a classic holiday flavor. Throw a bunch of crushed candy canes into a chocolate chip cookie and all of a sudden you've got yourself a holiday treat truly worthy of this wonderful time of year!
White chocolate pairs really well with the flavors of the chocolate chips and the peppermint in this cookie. I used my go-to Chocolate Chip Cookie on which to base this recipe. And it's been a huge hit!
What to do with Leftover Candy Canes
This cookie recipe is perfect for using up leftover candy canes towards the tail end of the holiday season or once the holidays are over. Whenever I've tried to keep candy canes until the following Christmas, they end up getting a bit soft and quite sticky, losing their characteristic shape and texture.
So, resign yourself to the fact that you'll need to buy fresh candy canes next holiday season. And crush those peppermint sticks up to use in this perfect-for-the-holidays cookie recipe.
Ingredients to Make White Chocolate Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Here are the ingredients needed to make these holiday cookies.
- Unsalted butter: if you only have salted, go ahead and use it, but be sure to cut by half the amount of salt called for in the recipe
- Brown Sugar: the majority of the time, I use dark brown sugar in my baking recipes. I like the caramel flavor the additional molasses provides in my recipes. If you only have light brown sugar, you will likely not notice much a difference, so go ahead and use what you have
- Granulated Sugar
- 1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk: the additional yolk provides a bit of extra richness to these cookies
- Vanilla extract: this is my favorite vanilla, but use whatever you have handy. The higher quality the better. Skip the imitation vanilla and go for the pure vanilla extract instead
- Peppermint extract: be sure it says "peppermint" and not "mint" as this is likely spearmint flavor, which you do not want here
- Cake flour: cake flour helps make these cookies a bit lighter in texture. If you don't have cake flour, substitute for all-purpose in equal quantities. Be sure you're measuring the flour by scooping it into your measuring cup then leveling off rather than packing it in
- All-purpose flour
- Kosher salt: I prefer to use kosher salt, however, you can use whatever kind you have. Salts have varying levels of saltiness, so start out by adding just a little bit then adding more if you need to. You may want to add more or less than is called for in the recipe based on your preferences
- Baking Soda
- Baking Powder
- White Chocolate Chips
- Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
- Crushed Candy Canes: time to use up those leftover candy canes! Unwrap them, place in a ziplock bag, seal, and use the flat side of a (clean) meat hammer or rolling pin to crush the candy canes into small pieces
Like this recipe? Follow me on Pinterest for lots more recipes just like this one! And don’t forget to pin this recipe for later by clicking on one of the images below the recipe. Or, click on any of the images in this post to save to Pinterest.
Looking for more holiday recipes? Give these a try:
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter cold and cubed
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large whole egg room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk room temperature
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons peppermint extract
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ cups white chocolate chips
- 1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup crushed candy canes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC) (if you have a convection oven, turn it on).
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside
- With a handheld or stand mixer with the paddle attached, add cubed butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar.
- Turn mixer on low for a few seconds, then gradually increase speed to medium-high, mixing for about 3-4 minutes until well incorporated and fluffy.
- Turn mixer to low and add egg and egg yolk then vanilla and peppermint extracts.
- Mix on medium for about 30 seconds until well incorporated, stopping to scrape down the sides and bottom with a rubber spatula, as needed.
- With the mixer off, add in both flours, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
- Turn mixer on low and stir until just combined. Do not over mix.
- Add in white and semisweet chocolate chips and crushed candy canes, stirring to combine.
- Turn mixer off and knead dough a bit with clean hands to ensure mix-ins are evenly incorporated.
- Portion dough into 2 ounce size balls, rolling between your palms to ensure a smooth ball.
- Place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 4-5 minutes if using convection (7-8 minutes in conventional oven) then rotate baking trays and bake for another 4-5 minutes for convection (7-8 minutes for conventional).
- Cookies will be barely set in the middle and brown around the edges.
- Allow to cool for a 15 minutes on trays (cookies will continue to bake a bit on the trays) then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Nutrition
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