Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

These are great Christmas cookies! They are super chewy and chocolatey and would make a great gift for the cookie lover on your list. You can control how much peppermint flavour you'd like in these by using either mint chocolate chips or regular chocolate chips in the cookie dough. 

Ingredients:

2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 3.4 oz. pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips or mint chocolate chips

For garnish: Crushed candy canes and/or Andes mint chocolates

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper or spray with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar with an electric mixer. Beat in the instant pudding mix until well blended. Then beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.

Blend the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until well combined. Finally, stir in chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate the dough for 20-30 minutes. This will keep the cookies from spreading too much and becoming flat while they bake in the oven.

While waiting for the cookie dough to chill, unwrap your candy canes and place them in a plastic baggie. Use a small hammer, the bottom of a mug, or any other blunt object to crush the candy canes. You want there to be a good mix of larger and smaller chunks. Try to avoid crushing them too finely otherwise they will just melt into the cookie dough during baking and you won't see the candy cane pieces in the final cookie. If you are using Andes mint chocolates then unwrap those as well and evenly cut them in halves (you can also use a whole chocolate for each cookie if you'd prefer).

Pinch off 1-2 Tbsp. of chilled cookie dough and roll it into a ball, then place on the prepared cookie sheets. Gently flatten the balls with the palm of your hand and sprinkle the crushed candy canes on top, gently pressing them into the dough so they stick. If using Andes chocolates then flatten the balls of dough but don't put them onto the cookies yet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Once out of the oven, leave the cookies on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, and then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling. Store in an airtight container.

*Recipe by Brooke McMillan